This has been mentioned a few times..
Deep water.

Now... the depth is not an issue at all when it is clear... Swimming pools, exotic beaches, clear Mediteranian waters... No problem. (If i ever see an exptic beach of med-water I'll let you know)

The problem comes when I can't SEE the bottom. I used to race small sailing boats... and some races were held in ports. anchor chains from large vessels disappearing into the depths scared the hell out of me.. just knowing that there's a chain tethering a buoy to the sea-floor sends shivers up my spine...

I really don't know why: I can swim... I know there are no scary beasties down there... I'm not scared of sharks (and we don't have them here anyway).. It's just the eerie way in which these things descend into the dark deeps and disappear....

*shudders*
( Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Wed 16 Apr 2008, 9:00, 5 replies)

Things descending into the dark deeps...
...and disappearing isn't as bad as big scary things ascending from the murk with the sole purpose of dragging you down to your watery doom.

However, I do like a bit of seafishing now and then, and if I get a bite and am reeling in, I'm looking intently over the side waiting for the first silvery glimmers of the hooked fishie.

One of these days, and this is 100% definite*, it'll either be an unexploded WW2 mine and we'll all be vapourised, a huge Conger Eel in a really foul mood, or something else will reach up from it's hiding place underneath the hull and pull me in.

The mackerel will swim in formation around my expiring body, sniggering in piscine victory as my eardrums rupture and the cold salty water....

Ahem.

I can swim. I've got lifesaving qualifications (OK, a bit out of date). I've got awards for doing it for real FFS. I've got enough blubber to keep me going for plenty of time, even in the laughably named 'temperate' North Sea. Before years of Marlboros took their toll I could hold my breath for unfeasibly long times without going purple.

And yet I still have the occasional wibble.

(I think the fresh mackerel on the barbie is still worth the sea-monster attack risk, though)







*might not be definite after all.
(osok Rebel without a clue, Wed 16 Apr 2008, 11:06, closed)

^ as a scuba diver
I entirely get this train of logic.

I still get the heebies sitting on the edge of a boat waiting to roll off backwards. But once I start the descent I'm fine, cos I can see what's coming. Mostly - sometimes North Sea visibility is a bit of a bastard on occasion.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Wed 16 Apr 2008, 11:40, closed)

^
In addition to mines, eels, and monsters I should add 'confused scuba divers who have ended up underneath a fishing boat as they hadn't worked out the current correctly, and now have a hook up their bottom, and are being dragged arse-first towards the surface'.
(osok Rebel without a clue, Wed 16 Apr 2008, 12:31, closed)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
My arse just clenched so hard that I tore a hole in my jeans when I read that...
( Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Wed 16 Apr 2008, 13:13, closed)

Could be worse....
It could be "confused scuba diver, inadvertently underneath fishing boat, who has been stunned by a lead weight clipping him behind the ear-hole, leading to a momentary grey-out that allows a panicking hooked conger to tightly wind the line around his neck.

As vision returns, the diver is eye to eye with the biggest set of teeth this side of Janet Street-Porter, which immediately fasten themself onto his unprotected throat.

The cruel nylon tightens remorselessly as the fat bloke in the boat hauls mightily, garrotting the hapless rubber-clad victim, as line and hooks cut deeper into neoprene and flesh, and the enraged eel's thrashing tail knocks off his mask.

Alone in a cloud of bubbles, blood and eel-slime, he attempts to scream but cannot as, for the final indignity, a razor sharp hook impales his twitching ricker and begins to drag his helplessly squealing, thrashing body towards the surface...."

But I didn't.

And it'd be a tough job smuggling a filleted diver back onto dry land, so DG is probably safe. Unless I run out of bait.....
(osok Rebel without a clue, Wed 16 Apr 2008, 13:42, closed)