There is a Shark Following Us!

I just could not believe that I never shared this story with you at on the Daily Scoop. But as it seems I was having a difficult time with wifi. Little did I realize that was not the only difficult time that I was about to have.

Traveling on a cruise during hurricane season definitely has it risks and scares.
Hurricane Cruisin' & Key West Kraziness 
I should've taken my own experience and perhaps thought twice before booking yet another cruise during hurricane season. 
But I'll be the first to tell you that I can be rather thick headed. 

So off we went on yet another Hurricane Cruise.  At least we were going to be ahead of the hurricane this time and not in the middle of it! The Capitan had even decided to adjust our itinerary around so that we'd be even further away as Matthew approached.

I didn't have to cancel our excursions. No rockin' and rollin' on the seas. Every thing was going great.  ​

Before the snorkeling (c)travelincousins.com

Now as you may recall, I'm not the biggest fan of snorkeling - but I do it if friends/family want to go. And the kids wanted to go, so I booked us on what was suppose to be a fun swim out between these 2 little coral islands and then around one of them and back to the shore.

Well I'll tell ya what happened. I stepped foot into the water and immediately felt like something was wrong. First off, the water was kinda murky. Nothing like the beautiful, clear inviting aqua as it typically is (this was due to the impending hurricane).

So I kinda freaked out. Yup I did. I did an about face and headed straight back to the safe sand. I told that gang that I can't do this. That's it. Let's do something else. I could care less that this was already paid for. I just didn't feel right. 

Well the gang was kind of in shock and then tried to convince me that I was being silly. They were successful and got me to go back into the water and start swimming. 

I made sure to stay right up close to the guide who was on a kayak paddling along.

After swimming out and between the 2 coral islands (that we could not swim up to) the guide started acting "off" and as though he saw something. I immediately inquired and asked what it was. He reply was casual as he told me that there was a SHARK FOLLOWING US!

I just about died right then and there. I'm being followed by a shark?! My kids are being followed by a shark?! What have I done?

After seeing his fin, which btw is the LAST thing you want to see when in the ocean. He went under. Oh God this is even worse!

I told the guide that I needed to get in the kayak with him. That I couldn't be in the water any longer. I called out to the kids and to our friends and alerted them of the issue. We had to keep moving and get back to the shore.

The guide laughed at me and obviously found my reaction to be funny. He wasn't letting me on the kayak and he was explaining that the shark was young and wouldn't kill us. The most would be a bite. Well guess what... I don't want to be bit by a shark!!

We never saw the shark again. I tried to remain calm for the rest of the swim. We obviously all made it safely back to the land.

Happy to be on land! (c)travelincousins.com

But point is that I should've listened to my intuition. Things could've gone bad. This story could've had a very different ending.

And I'm not sure I'll ever go snorkeling again.
-Travelin' Tanya

You might be asking where are the rest of the pictures? We had to place our cameras and belongings into lockers while we were out in the water. So I'm sorry there are not other pictures.