A number of years ago, I took several trips in connection with research for my novels that took me to places where it was cold and rainy. I remember making a vow that the next trip I took would involve a bathing suit and a Zodiac.
All this time I had assumed that when the time came, the Zodiac and the bathing suit would go together. I envisioned coming ashore on the sand of a South Seas island, or the rocky Galapagos coast , or something exotic like that.
Instead I took a number of trips where Zodiacs were as unlikely to be seen as a Metro would be here in coastal Alaska. As for the bathing suit part, I have had many opportunities to go to places where bathing suits were the preferred attire, from the pool deck of a ship to Mediterranean and Caribbean beaches. The thing is, I have decided I honestly don’t like swimming—or even getting wet— all that much, and one of the nice things about getting older is that I don’t care whether I should feel differently. I don’t, and I don’t have to. I have gone, since I made my vow, to plenty of places warm enough for other people to be out tanning or splashing around in their swimwear, and that’s good enough for me.
However, in all my travels, I have never set foot on a Zodiac. Until today, that is, in Misty Fjords, Rudyerd Bay, Alaska. Misty Fjords is appropriately named, as the photo below shows. The water is glassy and the glacier-carved cliffs tower over insignificant beings like us. We motored along, stopping to admire waterfalls and bald eagles, before heading back to mulled wine and dry clothing.
So now, at least a decade later, I can say I did it I have taken a trip involving a bathing suit and a Zodiac, just not the same trip. Since I didn’t even pack a swimsuit this time, I can’t jump in the Jacuzzi in a feeble attempt to make that claim. Oh well—two trips (or in my case many) are better than one. But I still am holding out for the arrival on that sandy beach some day. I might even put on a swimsuit and get wet for that!
