Grab, your comment about snorkling at sea reminded me of an incident when I was in the Navy.

We were steaming toward Subic Bay in the Phillipines and were going to be early for our arrival so the Captain called swim call.The ship was stopped,boats were put in the water with armed personnel to watch for sharks, and alot of us climbed down a rope ladder to go swimming.The water was absolutely crystal clear and you could see the entre hull of the ship (440 feet long) under water.As I climbed back up the ladder and reached the deck I asked one of the quartermasters what the depth was.When he said 12,000 feet,one of the guys waiting to go down the ladder asked him to repeat the depth.He then said about 2쳌 1/2 miles, the guyturned white and said no way he was getting in the deep of water.

The biggest problem I had was treating the stings from the giant Portugese Man-O-Wars that collected on the windward hull of the ship while we swam on the leeward side.Their tentacles stretched 75 to 100 feet on the other side of the ship.

rr