Cap’n Eddie’s Christmas Catamaran
Sapphire crystal ocean liquid
white-capped waves gently caressing snow-white powdery sand at beach’s edge
hardly evoked thoughts of Christmas…at least, not at first blush.
Cap’n Eddie adroitly sailed his tiny
twenty sailor-member catamaran expertly between swaying palm tree sentinels as
the calm breakwater quickly dissolved under two foot hostile Caribbean seas
with angry waves lashing the stone dikes of the receding harbor as seeming
hurricane-force howling winds tore foam from tortured waves. White teeth
flashed in a perpetual smile of genuine warmth as the miniscule craft bobbed
like a kid’s fishing cork, climbing impossible crests only to out-of-control
careen down slippery mortal troughs. At least, such was the perverted view from
the would-be teak floor of the devil-craft to a tried and true land-lubber!
Two miles out, seemingly, a full month,
I fully expected to see Normandy, Cap’n Eddie dropped anchor. Half, for sure,
of his would-be snorkelers already suffered seasick nausea, hanging over the
side of the clone of the infamous “Titanic”, for absolute sure, each “sailor”
ex-pertly freely and copiously feeding the local tropical fish population---as
long as the food held out! Oh! Boy! Did I hear somebody even think the word:
FOOD! Gang way! Gang way!
The sadistic “Captain Bligh” laughed as
he gleefully handed out goggles, breathing tubes and fins as he deftly issued
diving instructions to a wretched mass of humanity too sick to any longer
reason up from down. What did he say? Mate! That guy talked fast and, with a
voodoo accent.
Finally, somehow, at long last, slipping
through the silvery surface on the lee side of the vessel into neck-deep
coolness offered a hoped for, though short-lived, slight relief from the
queasiness brought on by life aboard ship, as it were. Face plate clean, after
three tries, success! Flippers treading water, breathing tube in place, and,
clear, for now, both eyes keenly searching the choppy water for any unfriendly,
hungry, lurking sharks, praying fervently not to spy a dorsal fin, all seemed
finally ready for that first view of the obfuscated underwater waiting world.
Brilliant! Spectacular! Awesome!
Beautiful! Amazing!
Perfect silence enveloped reality and
swept away any remnant of the outer world as the diver was abundantly rewarded
for his courage with a delightful greeting from Neptune in a plethora of
infinitely-colored rainbow hues visually exploded in the undersea panorama.
Unending arrays of incongruous coral designs decorated the sea’s sand-bottom
landscape in an eerily quiet world as countless tropical fish species
effortlessly meandered the gentle ebb and flow of the undulating sea. Rhythmic
reflections and shadows of surface waves traversed the soft sand bottom,
offering a touch of comforting solace to the surreal experience.
Viewed from above, tethered to the
earth, preferably to terra-firma, denied ascension into the cerulean heavens
and normally barred from the ocean depths, only a reflective veil could be
discerned while just beneath the masked surface, a bit of heaven, itself,
existed on it very own--- just awaiting adventurous souls with spirit enough
and boundless courage\ to take the plunge.
Jesus’ sacred word admonishes:
Fear not! Follow me!
Miss not any adventure which is
life---go forth and see!
Amen!
Merry Christmas!
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