On the third day of our Jamaican vacation, my wife and I woke early so that we could have a bit of time together in the bay before beginning our scuba diving course. One of the great things about the resort we were at was that almost all of the activities were free, including the scuba diving lessons. Neither my wife nor I had done anything like that, so we decided to give it a try. Our first lesson began at 9 AM and went for only a bit over an hour before there was a long break till after lunch. With a bit of time to kill, we decided to take one of the sea canoes out in the bay.
Although the bay had several resorts on its shores, the bay wasn't very crowded at this time of the morning. In fact, there were only a handful of people out on the water in various sailboats, canoes, and one scraggly looking fishing boat. The sole occupant of the latter looked like a well fed version of Bob Marley and he did, in fact, sing. He trolled along the rope line that marked off the swimming area striking up conversations with everyone he could get close to. He was quite friendly, but most salesmen are...especially if their product happens to be one that you apparently had just smoked yourself. We had met him while swimming in the nude bathing area the prior day (yes, we were warming up to the laid back attitude though at this point we only took our bathing suits off after we got in the water). Today he simply gave us a big grin and a wave as his boat sputtered past us not much faster than our canoe.
Once we got out in the middle of the bay I persuaded my wife to "free the ladies" while we explored. Although she was hesitant and I had to make my case a couple of times, a bit of a shy, naughty, school girl grin exposed that she was liking it more than she let on. After nearly half an hour on the water we decided to head for a point of land on the unoccupied edge of the bay.
Although it looked deserted from the water, once we got on land we found it covered in trails and the occasional fire pit. Somewhat to my disappointment, this prompted my shy wife to cover the ladies back up. While we were careful not to go too far back in the woods for fear of getting lost (or mugged), we found no one nearby and decided to rest in an open area just a few feet back from the shore. Although we could see the water and just make out our canoe, we were pretty sure that no one could see us from the bay. As I sat astraddle a psalm tree log, my wife joined me, also straddling it and facing me.