FAIRYLAND Clown anemone fish For once, a fish that is NOT swimming away Turtle #7 Same turtle, different view . . . Small Tridachna clam LAST DIVE OF THE DAY & Trip, the IWO MARU in a lagoon. It was worse vis than on a night dive! Finished the dive, got some decent fish shots. Got back to the boat, preparing to hand my ENTIRE UW CAMERA SYSTEM to the boat captain when it jumped off the lanyard, and I looked down to watch my system sinking into the deep. Now I'm on the surface with air in my BC; I couldn't have descended an inch, and my arms weren't long enough to grab it (since it's negatively buoyant, it was taking the express to Davy Jones's locker). I was bereft! Oh, no, I thought, there goes most of the Palau photos, AND NO PHOTOS of Chuuk. Several divers and Manny were on the surface right next to the boat and heard what happened. Someone said, "I'll go get it." "Don't hurt yourself over it," I said (we were all ending a 40-minute dive, the bottom was 110' down, and you could only see about 18" in the murky water. Again with the lucky hat. The dive boat had drifted over the top of the shipwreck AND THE CAMERA LANDED ON THE DECK! Didn't fall into one of the open holds . . . or out on the sand. Manny dove down, looked over and saw it RIGHT NEXT TO THE SMOKESTACK. IF it had gone a foot or so the other way it would be inside the boiler and never found. A-MAZE-ING! I am going to write a letter to Sam's Tours about him; maybe the company will do something extra for him.

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SIX RETIRED TEACHERS BICYCLING THROUGH GERMANY,
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