One of the days we were diving in Honduras, the wind came up and it was really hard to get back in the boat. The wind had pushed the waves into 3 or 4 foot swells and the boat was lurching up and down with the ladder attached. It was hard to swim against the current to the boat. Once you got there you had to hold on to the ladder while reaching down to take off your fins. The constant up and down of the water threw you up and then down again with a such strong force it was hard to keep your grip on the ladder. I noticed one of the women trying to take off her fins and climb the ladder. She was very slight and was pitching up and down. Being the former instructor, I thought I could help and went rushing in, thinking I could somehow help her get her fins off, with no real plan in mind for how I was going to stay stationary. Unfortunately I just got in the way, and she drifted off towards the safety line with only one fin on. I reached for her, but I didn't make contact. Luckily a boat hand jumped in the water and with only bare hands and feet - no mask - no fins - managed to help us all off with our fins and push us towards the first step on the ladder!
So the real hero was our boat hand who outdid all of us with our sophisticated safety gear!
As I read in the paper about the cruise ship which went down in the Mediterranean and hear about all the non heros, I realize my actions looked selfish even though my motives were good. I never explained to the other woman what I was thinking and she was really cool to me afterword.
Mea culpa!
