Lisa and Matt saw a shark, and I was fixing my mask!

Once we finally arrived at the JAL Fujairah Resort & Spa, we had a great day! Matt and I were excited to use our dive gear for the first time in a year, and this was going to be Lisa’s first time snorkeling! We were lucky enough to have our own equipment, while Lisa had to rent from the shop. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal expect for Lisa’s little feet were unable to fit into any adult sized fins, this lead to the creative solution of making her wear booties with the rented fins to make her feet bigger. Also, although a 3 mm wetsuit is included in the rental we persuaded her not to opt for suit as the water temperature was clocking in at about 94 degrees!

After a brief ‘orientation’ from our captain, and I mean brief, it went something like this: “Does everyone know how to snorkel? Good. Stay away from the rocks and watch out for the sharks. They shouldn’t bite, just don’t bother them.” Sharks! What! Now Matt can’t get in the water fast enough, and Lisa’s heart can be seen throbbing out of her chest. Our French friend Basile tried to further scare her, but ended up making our sides split with laughter. He said “better watch out for the sharks, tan tan tan tan tan tan tan tan tan.” What? Turns out he was trying to sing famous Jaws theme of “duhh dun, duuuuhhhh dun, dun dun dun….” Look, I don’t know exactly how it is spelled either, but I know it isn’t ‘tan’. I guess that is what a French shark sounds like!

Once in the water we gained more confidence as we swam with the fish, so much so that when a friendly black tip reef shark decided to make an appearance Lisa got herself separated from the group because she was chasing it! I had to settle for Matt and Lisa’s version of events because I was defogging my mask at the time (see the foggy mask picture below). No fair!