The day my life truned 海がめ

On the 厳しい 壇・綱領・公約 of the dive boat I felt 極端に ungainly and somewhat warm. I was in a one-piece wetsuit, buoyancy jacket and 直面する mask, with a 激しい compressed 空気／公表する cylinder on my 支援する.

There was 20lb of lead 負わせる around my middle, 抱擁する fins on my feet and a breathing tube stuck in my mouth. John, my 飛び込み guru, was already in the water, bobbing up and 負かす／撃墜する in gentle Caribbean swell a few yards away.

I tried to remember all John had taught me in the swimming pool in London, 安定したd myself and took a 広大な／多数の／重要な long stride off the boat to join him in the deliciously warm water. We floated 味方する by 味方する, checked our masks, breathing tubes and 空気／公表する 供給（する）s.

'All 承認する,' John both 調印するd and said. I gave my 承認する 調印する, 解放（する）d 空気／公表する from my jacket and ducked my 長，率いる below the surface. There, 25ft 負かす／撃墜する, was our 目的地, the 難破させる of a small 強く引っ張る, the Berwyn. 解放（する）ing more 空気／公表する, I パラシュート（で降下する）d rather than dived through warm, sunlit water and clouds of fish, levelling out just above the 激しく揺する and 珊瑚 sea 床に打ち倒す.

Look but don't touch is the best 飛び込み 支配する and good divers, unlike even the best walkers, leave no 調印する of where they have been on 極度の慎重さを要する 場所／位置s. 飛び込み is not swimming. It is more like 飛行機で行くing, more like 存在 a small airship able to adjust buoyancy to stabilise at any chosen depth.

Then with a 深い intake of breath you rise three or four feet. Exhale and you 沈む 支援する. With 手渡すs tucked 支援する, an 平易な 脚 一打／打撃 with those 抱擁する fins 運動s you 今後, up or 負かす／撃墜する.

Even a swimming duffer like me can move at a reasonable pace. To duck through the surface, out of the terrestrial world into an 外国人 領土 of water and 無重量状態 is as 劇の as stepping through the door at the 支援する of the Wardrobe and into the 魔法 kingdom of Narnia.

There were enough tiny 有望な blue fish to fill a hundred dentists' waiting room aquaria. The 難破させる sat upright, still l argely 損なわれていない, home to untold thousands of living creatures. Snappers and jacks 避難所d under the 厳しい. Angel fish and anthias jostled each other on the 橋（渡しをする）. 珊瑚s and sponges grew everywhere - 広大な／多数の／重要な fan 珊瑚s and 抱擁する バーレル／樽 sponges, the size of wheelie 貯蔵所s but 十分な of all manner of fish.

マリファナ snake eels and big moray eels lurked の中で the 激しく揺するs and not far from the 難破させる a 石／投石する fish gave us a fright. Beautifully 偽装するd, he looked just like another football-sized 石／投石する until we 乱すd him. Then, shaking off the sand, he puffed out a 集まり of the most vicious spines, 井戸／弁護士席 有能な, I was told, of giving a serious or even 致命的な sting to anything so unwise as to tread on or attack him.

Fortunately, 石／投石する fish are not 積極的な and he only 手配中の，お尋ね者 to be left alone, which was 罰金 by me. 存在 weightless has some strange 影響s. Turning upside 負かす／撃墜する to look through a hatch into the rusting engine room seemed perfectly natural.

Up and 負かす／撃墜する are defined by the light from above or, much deeper 負かす／撃墜する as the light fades, by the diver's streams of 泡s rising to the surface.

I was 全く relaxed in this enchanted world. I had forgotten how unnatural it had seemed at first to breathe through a 麻薬を吸う stuck in my mouth, or to move in three dimensions like a fish or a bird, but my 空気／公表する 供給（する）, watch, depth 計器 and computer, not to について言及する John, all gave the same message.

We had been under water for half an hour. Long enough for my third ever real dive, it was time to return to the surface. Even at only 30ft 負かす／撃墜する, 圧力 is 30lb a square インチ (二塁打 that at the surface) and 窒素 解散させるs into the 血 and 団体／死体 tissue.

As divers come up and the 圧力 落ちるs, that 窒素 逆戻りするs to its gas form and comes out of 解答. So long as it happens slowly there is no problem, but a quick ascent from a long, 深い dive has 窒素 泡ing out like the 泡s from シャンペン酒 as the cork is 除去するd. What looks good in a シャンペン酒 glass can be painful, even 致命的な, in a human 団体／死体 when 'the bends' or decompression sickness strikes.

These days the diver's computer tells him how long the ascent should take and 警告するs 'slow 負かす／撃墜する' or 'stop' if he is going too 急速な／放蕩な. Obedient to my computer, I drifted up gently. Just a tweak of the 空気／公表する 弁 had inflated my jacket to start the ascent. The trick is not to overdo it or (as those who remember school physics will know) the ascent will 加速する out of 支配（する）／統制する.

Under John's 指導／手引 I surfaced, watching out in the last few feet for the biggest hazard in 飛び込み - fools in boats who ignore the 旗s 警告 of divers below.

There is nothing I know やめる like breaking surface from a dive. It is a mixture of exhilaration and 悔いる at leaving that world.

Suddenly I was やめる tired, but the boat was not far away. 'Finning' is easier than swimming and, with a ladder and willing 手渡すs to take my 激しい gear, I was 支援する on board. We had made my earlier dives from the beach, which is possible almost anywhere along the west coast of Barbados.

現在のs can be a hazard, and so can clumping across the beach in 激しい 飛び込み 道具 and wading out to deeper water. However, once under water it was all 価値（がある） it. Even the sea urchins, whose spines を待つ unwary wading divers' feet, did not put me off. Living 珊瑚s, fish of all 肉親，親類d and hilariously funny sand eels - tails 安全な・保証する in 穴を開けるs, 長，率いるs and 団体／死体s waving gently in the 現在の, then disappearing 'plop' as we approached - made my first dive unforgettable.

The second was even more so. We 始める，決める out with 捕らえる、獲得するs of fish （土地などの）細長い一片s to 料金d some 地元の 海がめs which have given up the work of 追跡（する）ing and now live on 福利事業 供給するd by tourists like me. Within minutes they had 設立する us and （機の）カム looking for food. Imagine something the size of a small sheep 飛行機で行くing around your 長，率いる, 押し進めるing and 押すing as it importuned for food, and you have got the idea.

Nobody told me that 海がめs are greedy, have poor eyesight and sharp beaks. 存在 a little slow to let go of the fish, I finished up streaming 血 from a bitten finger, my only 飛び込み 傷害 so far - and a 支配する of 広大な／多数の／重要な hilarity to my companions.

As we returned to shore, I thought how lucky I am. Last year, having tried whitewater rafting in Colorado, I wrote in my column that I should try a new adventure every year.Days later, Bernard Eaton, the proprietor of DIVER, the 主要な scuba 熱中している人s' magazine, wrote to ask if I was serious.

I explained that I could not swim a 一打／打撃 until I was over 50, had not gone out of my depth till I was 60 and at 68 remained a very poor swimmer. That, he said, did not 事柄.

John Bantin, DIVER's 長，指導者 特派員, was 割り当てるd to teach me the basics in four lessons at a pool in London and to take me as a guest of DIVER to 証明する that it is almost never too late to start 飛び込み.

My wife was 決定するd not to 行方不明になる the fun or the Barbados 日光, so she and her carer …を伴ってd me on British 航空路s. As ever, BA service was 優れた. Getting on and off a Boeing 747 in a 車椅子 is not 平易な without Heathrow-style gates, but the staff at Bridgetown Airport managed it in 広大な／多数の／重要な style. Not only did everyone want to help, but they knew how to help.

John flew Virgin and seemed very happy about that, too. We stayed at Cobblers Cove Hotel, where Sandy Watson (an 国外追放／海外移住 Scot) 確実にするs that food, service and accommodation match the best.

So often, returning to a 訴える手段／行楽地 after some years is a 失望. But Barbados is still the happy island it was, with a 井戸／弁護士席-managed tourist 産業 and, above all, the same friendly, 井戸／弁護士席-educated people who seem genuinely happy to welcome tourists - 特に the British.

There is plenty to do apart from 飛び込み - and even 潜水艦 trips if you would like to dive without getting wet. All told, I made seven dives on 難破させるs and the 珊瑚 暗礁. The deepest was about 80ft, 調査するing 負かす／撃墜する the 味方する of a 広大な／多数の／重要な 珊瑚 cliff, which entailed a slow ascent and a three-minute pause at 15ft to 避ける bends.

飛び込み is not cheap, but neither, for example, are ゴルフ, skiing or 狙撃. They all have their attractions but only scuba 飛び込み takes you into a new world.

TRAVEL FACTS: British 航空路s (0345 222111) Virgin 大西洋 (01293 747230) British 航空路s Holidays (0870 24 24 245)

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