I guess I really should invest in an underwater camera, but I suppose my reasons for going under are different than most. I do love the scenery and marine life, but I think I like them better on my dinner table. However, this past trip I took on 9 Aug 2009 was different. Fate had forced me lose my spear tip and head back to beach and not swim around with board shorts, dive gear, drift bag with dive flag and 10 pounds of weight on my belt. On my way back to the beach to drop my gear off, I got my first ever live/wild encounter with a big Hawksbill on my way back to shore before I went back out to search for my spear tip. It was awesome! He was hanging out near the bottom in about 25 feet of water in between some pylons at the Navarre Beach pier (old one). I was amazed to see how graceful they were. He actually let me get pretty close to him. I took a good deep breath and dove to the gulf floor. Once there, it actually turned broadside to me and hung out and let me get a view of it for a while. I would estimate a distance of about 5 feet away is as close as it let me get to it. But that was great for me. It turned to swim off and I followed for a short distance and then I decided to let it go on it’s way as my air was fading. I boogied on back to the beach and slapped my spear tip back on and stowed my stuff. I grabbed the wife and told her, and we headed back out to see it. On our way out we ran into a smaller one, but equally as magnificent. Not more than 3 feet away from this one I noticed in the haze about 10 feet away...a nice 3.5 feet barracuda. It had a nice mouth...that was open...with big teeth. I decided not to place my new-to-the-underwater-world-wife in such close proximity to a fish that wouldpossibly become aggressive and end her progression right then and there. We’ll save that for another time. After all was said and done, I must say that this is something I will remember for the rest of my life. First time for everythign I guess. Lotsa firsts lately. I don’t know if I put anything in my first blog about it, but I ran face to face with a dolphin the other day while spear-fishing. It scared me to death, because the visibilty was roughly 10 feet and I was about 25 feet down and facing the deep water. As soon as I turned around to head towards the shore, POW! There was a dolphin, which I was unsure it was that at the time. I actually thought it was a shark. That was until it turned sideways and I could see it’s bottle-nose. I was so relieved but still spooked. I was happy it was a dolphin, because when they are around, the sharks usually are not. SOooooo, that’s my story for now. Good luck and safe diving guys/gals!