Pl(a)ying the Mediterranean

Me and my dive spot off Kleopatra Beach

I was able to go fishing and scuba diving separately in the Med two weeks ago. It was the end of the season (due to lack of tourists) so I was lucky to make it happen. My scuba 'partners' were two German teens traveling with their parents, none of which spoke English. They were barely certified so they had their own instructor. I was a last-minute addition so I was asked (through a lot of gesturing) to follow an off-duty instructor if I could prepare my own gear. It had been at least two years since I had gone diving, but I guess it's like riding a bike. It all came back to me fairly quickly. Once my guide realized I could handle myself, he basically swam at his own pace and I just followed along. He trailed a bag of bread on our first dive so I was engulfed by a school of feeding fish pretty much the entire dive. We also dove next to the castle's cliffs so we were able to venture into several small grottos. It's difficult to beat a quiet adventure underwater in clear conditions, viewing the pooling fish under the sun while laying on the shallow bottom of the sea on the mandatory safety stop, and then floating around the boat on my back for an extended period after surfacing.

My catch of the passing mackerel school

What does beat that experience (for me) is a morning fishing on the Mediterranean. Once again, I traveled with a young German couple and a sun-ripened Turkish fisherman, none of which spoke more than a few words of English. So I was able to fish quietly on my side of the small boat, practically by myself. We caught mackerel with handlines behind the slow-moving boat and then fished in deep water off Kleopatra Beach for whatever would bite morsels of frozen chicken and fresh cut-up mackerel. And that was six pufferfish for me, definitely a first! As always, it's hard for me to beat a day floating on the water, taking in the beautiful nature around me and waiting anxiously to see what comes up on that tightened line. It was certainly a day I will remember for a long time. - Alan

Our noble fishing vessel

Fresh fish lunch cooked onboard

My first pufferfish! One strange beast