Replies

I have a better one. I grew up in the ocean in South Florida. My dad would take me fishing, snorkeling or diving just about every weekend from spring through fall.

About 10 years ago, I took my wife snorkeling in the Keys. I hadn’t lived there in 5-10 years.

She was terrified of sharks. I told her we would only see nurse sharks.

So we are on a reef with deep channels (30ft) between large coral formations (5ft deep). I see a shark on the bottom and in my no contacts stupor it looked like a nurse shark. I dive down to point it out and get about 10 feet away and realize... nope. 6 foot bull shark.

I come to the top. The shark came right at my stomach when I leveled out and turned away about 1 foot from me. Then it and 2 others escorted us back to the boat until I had the balls to slap the water a bunch of times.

I take my boat to the keys from Atlanta 2-3 times per year and that experience has forever changed me. I used to be fearless. I no longer lobster or spearfish alone.

My only close encounter with a very large moving object at sea was when I was about 15. Dad, my brother and I were about 4 miles out of Boston fishing on a 24 ft. boat. We were hauling in a ton of mackerel when off the aft port side there was a huge object rising out of the water. It was no more the 200 yards away. It's nose rose out of the water and it leveled off quickly. It was a United States Navy nuclear submarine. I have no idea of the name but it was much larger than the WWII style fleet sub...which I had been on before.

We all just froze and forgot all about the mackerel.