Chapter 1: Planning a Diving Adventure Vacation

     At the main desk of the Joe Jackson Library reading room, Tony McCalla signed his name and wrote down other student information.  A student on duty pulled a laptop from a shelf and handed it to him.  Tony placed the laptop under his arm and headed for a study area.

     Tony was near the end of his sophomore year at Congaree University and was looking forward to summer vacation.  His parents had told him that, if he made all A’s this year, they would pay half his expenses for a summer vacation.  From the looks of things, he would reach his goal of making all A’s.  He had already succeeded in reaching another goal: He had saved enough money from part-time jobs to pay for a two- or three-week vacation.  With the money from his parents, he could probably take a four- to six-week vacation somewhere. 

     Tony knew he wanted to take scuba diving lessons somewhere, but he had not yet decided just where he would go.  Sitting alone with a laptop, he figured that this was as good a time as any to decide on the best place to take his vacation.

     There are, of course, thousands of diving sites all over the world.  Since Tony had never dived before, he needed to find a place that offered the kind of services that an inexperienced diver would need.  It also had to be a place that wasn’t too crowded or too dangerous.  It also had to be a place that offered plenty of enjoyable ways to relax when he wasn’t busy diving.  He also figured that a place with warmer water might be more comfortable for a first-time diver. All these requirements probably narrowed down Tony’s selections to fewer than a hundred places.

      After much searching of the Internet, Tony learned of a place called Kanifay Island, in a small island nation called the Caroline Islands.  Among Caroline’s many islands, there was also an island called Abba Tuda.  

     The dive sites around Kanifay offered chances to swim close to sea turtles, sea snails (both with and without shells), manta rays, and sharks.  A manta ray was a gentle giant that was wider than a bus and longer than two cars.  Sharks rarely hurt divers, and it can be exciting to swim with them—as long as you’re underwater.  If you were on the water and tried to swim with sharks, that experience might be more exciting than you’d like.

     During a famous World War II battle, more than sixty ships sank in the waters near Abba Tuda Island.  For that reason, Abba Tuda Island offers some of the best wreck diving in the world.

     Tony had already researched what kinds of diving skills were needed for different kinds of diving.  He figured that his first dive should probably be a simple dive with smaller sea creatures.  As he gained experience, he would ask to dive in the manta ray feeding grounds.   If the dive master would let him, he would try cave diving.  Finally, (he hoped) he would fly to Abba Tuda Island and join some wreck divers in exploring sunken ships.

     It’s a fact of Internet life that, when you search for certain things, you usually find certain other things.  Sometimes, you unexpectedly find things that hold your interest.

     While researching Kanifay and Abba Tuda Islands, Tony learned that the Hollywood actor Dash Tobey would be making a movie on Kanifay and other islands in the area.  Dash Tobey was the handsome, twenty-something star of such underwater action movies as Killer Octopus and Chuck Bridges and the Sea Monsters.  As you might imagine, Dash Tobey’s movies caused very many teenagers to dream of becoming scuba divers.

     Now Dash Tobey was making a movie that would be called Chuck Bridges and the Treasure of Tiburon.  Dash’s female co-star would be Connie Fox. 

     Wow! Tony thought.  That should be a great movie.  And Connie Fox really is a fox!  Tony smiled at the expression he had just thought.  A fox and a dog are very similar, but the words are opposites when we use them to describe people.  When we call a woman a fox, we mean that she’s very desirable; but it would be an insult to call her a dog.  In Spanish, it would be even worse to call a woman a fox than it would be to call her a dog.  Tony laughed to himself, then looked around to make sure that no one had heard him laughing.

      Tony wasn’t sure if he would ever meet Dash Tobey or Connie Fox, but he could always hope.  At that moment, Tony decided that he would take his vacation on Kanifay Island and possibly Abba Tuda Island as well.  Having decided on his vacation destination, he began researching other things he might enjoy during his vacation.  

     For scuba divers, the best hotel on the Kanifay Island was the Chamorro Bay Resort, but it was also the most expensive on the island.  Tony decided that, at first, he would stay at O’Malley’s Inn, which was next door to the Chamorro Bay Resort.  He hope that, a few days after he arrived on the island, he would be able to arrange for a home stay not far from the Chamorro Bay Resort.

     The Harbor Restaurant was a reasonable place to eat, and it was just across the street from O’Malley’s Inn.  Tony could eat most of his meals there.  Once in a while, just for the thrill of it, he may eat a meal at the Pirate Ship Restaurant.  The Pirate Ship Restaurant was a nineteenth-century sailing ship that had been turned into a restaurant for the Chamorro Bay Resort.  It belonged to the Chamorro Bay Resort and it sat in the bay nearby.  Of course, if Tony succeeded in finding a private home for a home stay, he could find out how the local foods tasted.

     From the end of World War II until 1986, the Carolines were under American control.  Although the Carolinians had their own language, most of them spoke English very well.  What’s more, Carolinians continued to use American money.  Most visitors to the Carolines were allowed to stay no more than thirty days.  Americans, however, could stay as long as they wished. 

     There were, however, some dos and don’ts Tony would have to remember during his stay on Kanifay and Abba Tuda Islands.

     For one thing, most places on the islands are privately owned, so Tony could not go anywhere he felt like going.  It would be wise to learn about a place before going there on his own.  To be sure that he wasn’t walking on private property, it was usually wise to go with a tour group.

     Tony also learned about how he should dress—or rather how he should not dress.  Rule number one was to keep the upper part of his legs covered.  If he wore short pants, they should not be “too short.”  Tony wasn’t sure just how short “too short” was.  To be on the safe side, he figured that his pants should reach to his knees.  That’s how long a woman’s shorts had to be.  It was okay to wear a bathing suit at a swimming pool or on a dive boat but not on a beach or anywhere else.

     The web site said that the people of Kanifay and Abba Tuda were “friendly but shy.”  It’s one thing to take pictures of people at a tourist area.  Before taking pictures of other people, though, he should ask permission.  The web site also noted that the islands’ old stone paths were made uneven so that people walking them would have to carefully watch the stones at their feet.  By carefully watching their step as they walked, people would not look around at people’s homes.

     The web site offered two other warnings.  Although Kanifay and Abba Tuda Islands were very safe, it may be unwise to walk around on your own at night, unless you’re holding a light.  People might think you’re planning to do something you shouldn’t do.  Even during the daytime, if you’re entering a village, it’s a good idea to be holding something such as a leaf, to show that you mean no harm.

     The other warning was about foxes.  If you see a fox, especially at night, you must not try to go near it.  Instead, you should tell someone where you saw the fox, and give other information about it.   

     To Tony, this information seemed odd, so he looked up web sites about foxes.  Red foxes may be found in most of Europe and Asia; and red foxes had been brought into Australia.  According to web sites, though, there were no foxes of any kind in the Pacific islands. 

     From the information on the Internet, Kanifay Island seemed a tropical paradise.  Tony looked forward to six weeks of diving and other recreation in the Caroline Islands.