Anchors A-Weigh

The other day, my wife and I went on a cruise. We went to Progresso and Cozumel, and our third stop was Belize. We actually never went to the mainland of Belize. Instead we choose for one of our "excursions" to go snorkeling at Goff's Caye (pronounced KEY, I've been told).


Goff's Caye turned out to be a small island. When I say small...I mean SMALL. Tiny. It was right off the coral reef, and was surrounded by crystal clear water. The picture attached to this post is Goff's Caye. There was a place to dock a couple of boats and a little cabana with some people selling drinks and snacks out of ice chests. It was a beautiful place.

Goff's Caye is not what this post is about. It's about Larry.

Larry was the "deckhand" on the boat that we took from the cruise ship to the island. He had a brilliant smile, a quiet manner, and a quick laugh. He was less than 18 years old, and weighed a buck 'O five soaking wet. One of Larry's jobs was to help people back into the boat.

You see, we snorkeled from the boat about 300 yards off Goff's Caye. When you finished snorkeling, you swam back to the boat, and got back in. At least that was the general idea.

There was a ladder on the back of the boat. However, one side of it had broken loose from the fiberglass of the boat. So Larry would stand with one foot holding the broken piece of the ladder in place, hanging a rope over the back for each person to pull themselves up. The ladder was so short that only the bottom step was actually in the water. I had to practically float on my back to get my foot up on to it.

Now picture Larry, all 105 lbs of him, trying to hold a rope that I'M pulling on, while keeping the ladder from pulling loose with one of his feet.

After about 10 minutes of me attempting to get in, Larry and I both realized that if I were to pull hard enough to pull myself up onto the ladder, what would actually happen would be the quick extrication of Larry from the boat.

Fortunately, another snorkeler was willing to give me a shove on the derrier to give me the extra boost I needed to get in without pulling Larry out.

Embaressing? Yes.

Funny? Absolutely.