Page 65 of Tiger's Voyage

“Sea hunting?” I asked.

“Yeah. Spearing fish. Dart harpoons. That sort of thing.”

“We would both be interested in spear fishing,” Ren said quickly, making eye contact with Kishan.

“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind learning that myself,” I added.

“Really? Well, ain’t you as full of surprises as a lady’s tea party!”

I laughed, and the boys finally began communicating with Wes. They spent a couple of hours talking about spear fishing, asking what types of weapons were used and how they worked underwater.

We spent the next day by the pool again preparing for our open water training, which Wes hoped to start the following day. We practiced entering the water four ways: giant stride, controlled seated, backward roll, and belly flop. He taught us that how we entered the water depended on the diving conditions. We worked on changing back and forth from snorkel to regulator, removing our scuba units underwater and replacing them, and hovering. We practiced doing a tired-diver tow back and forth across the pool. Kishan had it easier than I did. A few quick strokes took him across, dragging me along behind him, but I had to work three times as hard to pull him along.

Then Wes had us practice massaging out cramps. Kishan spent an extra-long time massaging an imaginary cramp from my leg. When I protested, he pushed my head underwater and laughed. I threatened to trade partners and he apologized profusely and promised he’d never push me underwater again. Then he picked up my other calf and started massaging my leg with a great big grin on his face. I rolled my eyes and asked if we could move on to the next subject.

As we were drying off and stowing our gear, Wes announced that we were ready to skin dive the next morning from the beach. If all went well, we’d dive deeper the next day. I immediately panicked. Learning how to dive in the safety of a swimming pool is one thing; entering the ocean is something entirely different.

“Wait a minute, Wes. Are we ready for that? I mean, have we learned enough? I think I need a few more lessons.”

“You’ll be getting more lessons, just out on the water.”

“Right. But I think I might need a few more in the pool.”

“Sorry, darlin’, there’s only so much I can teach you in a pool. It’s time to face the briny deep.”

I was going to be sick.

While Ren looked on, Kishan said, “We’ll be with you, Kells. Nothing will get through us.”

Wes added, “If anyone can overcome a fear of the ocean, you can, little lady. Courage is being scared to death and saddlin’ up anyway.”

I nodded and thought of nothing else for the rest of the day. Nerves were wearing a hole in my stomach, so I skipped dinner. The next morning, I put on my swimsuit and followed Mr. Kadam glumly down to the wet garage to load our gear in the twenty-two-foot boat. He pushed several buttons and the side hatch opened while hydraulic cables lowered the ship into the water. Kishan leapt into the boat first, followed by Mr. Kadam and Wes. Then Ren took my arms, pressed a kiss on the top of my head, and lowered me down to Kishan, who caught me around the waist.

Ren jumped into the boat after me, sighed, and sat as far away as possible. Mr. Kadam drove the boat close to a point on the beach where Wes wanted us to practice. He asked us to team up, and I went with Kishan again. We slipped into the water, equalized our ears and masks, and put on our fins.

We practiced vertical dives, swimming underwater, and clearing our snorkels. After a while, I started to relax and enjoy myself. The water was crystal clear and placid. I could see about five to ten meters all around me. Wes ran us through navigation drills, in which we had to swim following a straight line, using our compass. After that, we just enjoyed ourselves.

We discovered beautiful shells and pretty coral fields. I saw hundreds of fish. I couldn’t even begin to identify most of them, but I did recognize angelfish and groupers. Thankfully, I didn’t see one shark, but a sea turtle and some kind of a ray swam lazily past us. I looked down to find Ren looking up at me. His eyes crinkled just as a school of colorful fish swam past him, and I suddenly realized this was one of my dreams from Shangri-la.

I’d dreamed of swimming with Ren in the ocean—and there he was. He gave the thumbs-up sign to mean we should head to the surface. I emerged near him and began treading water.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“I really like it. As long as I don’t see any sharks, I’m fine.”

“Good.”

“Did you want to ask me something?”

“No. I just wanted to tell you you’re beautiful.” He winked at me, grinned, and ducked underwater again.

After we’d returned to the boat and had finished lunch, we all agreed that we were ready for our next lesson that afternoon. We put on our wet suits and our tanks. This time we dove right from the yacht. I followed Kishan’s example and took a giant step right off the boat ramp. We swam a little away from the ship and ran through CESA drills—controlled emergency swimming ascent drills—which Wes said are used when a diver runs out of air and has to ascend on one breath while exhaling slowly.

Then we went through five-point ascents and descents. For ascents, we signaled the dive was over, ascended to fifteen feet, did a safety stop and checked the surface for ski boats or Jet Skis, signaled our buddy, then extended the deflator and released air slowly from the BCD. I carefully watched my gauge and my air bubbles. Wes had told us never to ascend faster than our slowest air bubbles. Once we were up and had established buoyancy, we circled looking for hazards and signaled the boat.

Wes felt we’d done well enough to go on a short dive together. He asked Ren and Kishan to partner and said he would work with Mr. Kadam and me. We were to all stay together and practice being buddies. This time I saw a barracuda and a lion fish. I touched some brain coral, a starfish, and a huge conch. A large crab scuttled into view, so I followed its path across the rocky seabed for a while.

The sea was full of color, movement, and even sound. Seaweed swayed. Fish darted, swam, and drifted, and I could hear the hiss of bubbles and feel the vibrations of the currents pulling me as I moved. Getting lost in my environment for too long, I noticed that Wes was ahead of me, so I hurried to catch up.