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Lady Luck is a Mermaid.

June 29, 2013 by Rika 20 Comments

I’ve talked before a few times about how lucky I’ve been here, and how expat life here is like a roller coaster with some pretty big ups sometimes. Well, lady luck has been visiting me again…and this time underwater!


In the past month, several times I was not supposed to have been on certain dives… I pestered my co-worker to switch, or got on a different boat because my student asked to switch, etc. And holy crap, have I ever been rewarded!


First… a pod of 30 wild dolphins showed up while I was on a safety stop at the end of my dive. This is a really rare thing to have happen here. They were playing and jumping and there were two babies. BABY DOLPHINS GUYS!! I have never been so excited!! I took off at lightning speed and swam with them for the best 25 seconds of my whole life. 

So, that was amazing and blew my mind, and I thanked my lucky stars that I got to experience that. Awesome. And then…….


The very next week I had a bunch of divemaster interns and a new student on a dive and as we dropped onto the wall a frickin 8ft scalloped hammerhead shark just casually cruised by us. WHAT. THE. HELL. Again, this does not happen here. Most people never see a hammerhead here, some with years and years diving on Roatan. There are special dives you can go on at 5am to try and see them but they’re usually down around 200ft (way past recreational diving limits) and there’s no guarantee of a sighting. But this dude just swam right beside us on his merry way. We were all screaming (with excitement) and high fiving each other. It was such a cool once-in-a-lifetime experience (cough, cough…foreshadowing).

again, not my photo (source)



Did you notice the captions? Not my photos? Yeah, cause I don’t have an underwater camera. They’re really expensive and not affordable at all on my dive instructor salary. But then I saw all this cool shit, and my friends/dive instructors from other shops were all razzing me, and giving me the “pics or it didn’t happen” crap.


So you know what happened next?


I found a fucking GoPro Hero 3 on my dive the very next day. Yup.

not my photo 🙂 (source)



It was just sitting in some coral at about 20ft. It was on one of those stupid head mount things (do you guys even understand how often those fall off of divers??) and I didn’t know what it was until I picked it up and turned it over. Score!!! (Side note: I did take it home and turn it on to see if I could identify anyone in the videos/photos and I probably would have tried to return it since that’s the right thing to do….but there was only a few photos of the reef on it….so … finders keepers!)


So WOOHOO right? Dolphins, hammerhead, GoPro!! But now everyone at the dive shop is telling the guests how lucky I am and that I see all this super rare stuff, so the pressure is on! Every dive people are asking me to find this stuff for them, and they don’t seem to understand that seeing a scalloped hammerhead shark up close on the reef is really rare, and you’re lucky if it even happens to you once.


Then I took out some students who were playfully bugging me about the hammerhead and wanting to see one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was lucky and we’re not gonna see one guys. So we’re on our safety stop at 15ft over a sand patch, and guess what happens?


Yep.


AGAIN.

HAMMERHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


still not my photo…because i was teaching i didn’t take my ‘new’ gopro on the dive!  (source)



I think my students just about shit themselves. I literally could not believe my eyes. I don’t think it was the same hammerhead either…this one was about 6-7ft. She swam about 15 feet away from us through the sand patch and over the reef. So amazing to see up close!! 


I have been informed by my co-worker and all the other dive instructors in town that if I see anything else crazy I am to keep my mouth shut about it because they are all jealous 🙂


I have been a VERY happy diver lately!

this one actually is my photo… thank you sarah!!





Hopefully my lucky streak continues underwater… experiences like that make me so grateful that I play in the sea for a living and get to see these incredible creatures. I hope to have more to show you guys soon (using my GoPro!!) Lady Luck is being good to me above the waves too, but that is for an upcoming post. I’ll leave you with a video I found today that embodies my feelings on all things in the ocean perfectly. It’s really worth the 5 minutes to watch. Happy diving!











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Related

Filed Under: Bay Islands, Creatures, Happiness, Life, Roatan Tagged With: Diving, Fun Times, Lady Luck

Previous Post: « All Things Edible – My Guest Interview at 20 Years Hence
Next Post: I am not a tree. (On changing my house, and other things.) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michelle | Lights Camera Travel says

    July 11, 2013 at 1:00 am

    Woops bit late on reading this post but HOW AMAZING! Best feeling in the world being so good at life. I'm channeling your vibes for some good diving to come my way too!!

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 18, 2013 at 1:37 am

      Ahahaha, YES!! I love your phrasing of 'being good at life'. It's a pretty good feeling! And I'm sending awesome diving vibes your way lady!

      Reply
  2. jill says

    July 2, 2013 at 8:38 pm

    OMG, I'd die out of fear and happiness at the same time if I ever see a hammerhead underwater. Lucky you!

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 4, 2013 at 2:07 am

      Hehe, it was more shocking than anything to see one that close. I died of happiness, my students of fear 🙂

      Reply
  3. memographer says

    July 2, 2013 at 8:17 pm

    Wow! This is so great! This would be the experience of lifetime for me. 30 wild dolphins!! Love the photos!

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 4, 2013 at 2:06 am

      I only wish they were my photos! Next time (fingers crossed there's a next time!)

      Reply
  4. Mom says

    July 2, 2013 at 3:21 pm

    what amazing experiences for you!

    Joyful enthusiasm is a wonderful draw for beauty in life…I'm sure the scalloped hammerheads understand how much you appreciate their beauty 🙂

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 4, 2013 at 2:06 am

      Yeah, it was pretty cool! The hammerheads definitely knew I was loving every second they swished by me…my students on the other hand were not convinced 🙂

      Reply
  5. ifs ands Butts says

    July 2, 2013 at 10:25 am

    I accidentally left my bike unlocked outside the pub I work at for 7 hours last night and it somehow didn't get stolen and I thought tHAT was lucky. You need to go buy a lotto ticket or something 🙂

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 4, 2013 at 2:05 am

      I still think that's pretty lucky too!! They don't have a lottery here…so I guess these experiences are my jackpot 🙂

      Reply
  6. Amanda says

    July 1, 2013 at 6:07 pm

    Ummm, I hate you! But I am really excited for photos from your Go Pro… not believing any more hammrhead stories till you can prove it 😉

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 4, 2013 at 2:01 am

      I'm afraid that now since I have a camera, I won't see anything cool 🙁

      Reply
  7. Jessica says

    July 1, 2013 at 2:32 am

    Wow! You really are so lucky! I'm obsessed with dolphins – I've seen the in the wild once on a boat trip, but seeing them underwater must have been incredible. Super jealous!

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 4, 2013 at 2:00 am

      It really was unbelievable! I hope it's not the last time, but if it is, I'm okay with that.

      Reply
  8. Colleen Brynn says

    June 30, 2013 at 12:31 pm

    Oh my god, kill me now! I would have died if I saw baby dolphins! GAH!!!

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 4, 2013 at 2:00 am

      I was hyperventilating like a mothereffer… I just remember thinking "HOW IS THIS HAPPENING OH MY GOD" haha 🙂

      Reply
  9. Dusty Soles says

    June 30, 2013 at 9:53 am

    Dolphins? Hammerheads? Go Pro underwater camera? Luck really is smiling on you!!!!! Love it!

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      July 4, 2013 at 1:59 am

      So rad, right!? Awesome!

      Reply
  10. Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) says

    June 30, 2013 at 2:31 am

    Oh god, this is so amazing! I don't know which experience is cooler, the dolphins or the shark, but I guess a whole pod of dolphins might just eek out scalloped hammerhead. I've heard that dolphins tend to avoid divers (when we dove in Borneo, we hear dolphins but did not see them), so a whole bunch of them is pretty incredible!

    We're diving in Indonesia at the end of July… want to come out and bring your luck with you? We're hoping to see mantas and mola molas… 😀

    Reply
    • CubicleThrowdown says

      June 30, 2013 at 2:34 am

      I know, I can't decide what's better either. The dolphins were pretty badass. I could hear them for about 3 minutes before I saw them. I was just hanging at my safety stop listening to it get closer and closer and refusing to go up on the boat haha….and then saw them and was like NO WAYYYYYY! Awesome.

      And yes, I would love to come try my luck in Indo! The diving is so colorful there, you guys are gonna love it. We don't have mola molas or mantas here so you're going to have to tell them hi for me 🙂

      Reply

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i’m rika!

hiya! i'm a canadian paralegal-turned-scuba diving instructor-turned EFL teacher-turned digital nomad. i left my cubicle in 2012 and haven't looked back since. i'm a serial expat, but right now i'm back in canada on hiatus for a while. welcome to the place where i say things.

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