Once my mother was visiting her sister in hot, sunny Florida. She was really looking forward to her holiday and seeing her sister. They were going to go on a road trip to Key West on the southern tip of Florida which is popular with tourists. During their stay, they saw an advertisement to do a snorkelling trip off the coast of Key West. They thought this sounded like a great, fun idea and jumped at the opportunity.
The day of the trip was a lovely, hot day with not a cloud in the sky. The water was glistening. They arrived at the dock 20mins before departure as had been requested. There were quite a few tourist boats docked awaiting their customers to get on board. My Mum and Aunt boarded their boat. When everyone was on the boat, the safety talk was given. Then the boat pulled slowly out of the harbour and then sped out into the big, blue open sea. They saw some dolphins bounding in and out of the water excitedly alongside the boat.
After about forty minutes, the boat slowed down and stopped. This was their destination to get out into the sea and snorkel. They couldn’t wait and loved the freedom of getting out to swim in the middle of the sea. Pure bliss!
They saw lots of beautiful fish weaving in and out of the network of coral reefs. It was like an underwater kingdom. They eventually got the hang of breathing with the snorkelling equipment. However, they were only in the sea for a few minutes when they spotted some unwelcome creatures – the sea was filled with pink-looking jellyfish!!! My mother and her sister were very scared that the jelly fish were going to sting them. They kept their face under the water but were so worried about the jelly fish that they did not notice that the current was bring them further and further away from their boat. There was a boat beside them that they presumed was their boat. Suddenly, a boat in the distance started beeping the horn to indicate it was leaving. They looked up from the water and saw that it was their boat and not the boat that was beside them. They had drifted with the current and not realised. They began to panic and started shouting to the tourists
onboard the boat beside them “Help – our boat is going!” The tourists looked over and spotted my Mum and Aunt. They then started shouting at the boat that was going to leave. The captain heard them and realised that some of his passengers were still in the sea. One of the crew members dived off the deck into the sea with what looked like an inflatable ball. He headed in the direction of my Mum and Aunt and arrived shortly.
As my Aunt was a poorer swimmer than my Mum, the crew member towed her along using the inflatable while my Mum swam alongside. It was an extremely tiring swim fighting against the current. Jellyfish were the last thing on their mind at that stage. They eventually reached their boat and received a round of applause from the passengers on looking from the deck with amusement.
They were so tired for the rest of the day especially my mother because she had swum herself all the way to the boat, fighting a strong current. They were both so relieved to be on the boat home and
not stuck at sea!