Dive Into Your Imagination

During the past two weeks the world watched the worst catastrophe in Haiti unfold, and like our economy, the worst has not been seen.  During times of crisis I am  amazed at the highways of thoughts and feelings that emerge, yet I believe in hope.  On one page we are shown the devastation, and on another the jubilation, with people praising God and rejoicing.  I am reminded of the words from Viktor Frankl in which he suggested people survived the concentration camps because of three reasons:  they had something bigger that they believed in, they had loved ones, and they also believed tomorrow would be a better place.  I found myself donating to organizations committed to making clean drinking water available for Haitians.  I met Ken Surritte, the founder of www.WaterIsLife.com who worked with USAid to get individual water filters into the hands of people in Haiti.  I wish I could have dropped everything to go and document, help, and be a part of the recovery, but I also had commitments I could not break.  It is painful to watch the news sometimes and in life, we all need a daily dose of inspiration.  Inspiration drives imagination, which causes innovation.  I found my inspiration for life through the Ocean and was able to use my imagination to create and drive innovation and help change the way we view the Ocean and ourselves.  Every person needs inspiration during these times.  What inspires you?  What do you imagine for your life and your world?  Living in the Galapagos for three months gave me a profound insight to inspiration that I have carried for the past decade.  Here is the story of how I was able to go.

I had just received my 100 ton Captain’s License and planned on continuing my underwater photography and filmmaking career on the Conception, one of the boats in the Truth Aquatics fleet here in Southern California.  I was going to be second captain and train under the infamous Jerry Boylan who is a salty sea Captain who spent his toddler years living on Anacapa Island because his father was the lighthouse keeper.  It was all agreed upon but then the phone rang.  Peter Hughes Diving called me and wanted to know if I wanted to go and train the crew aboard the Sky Dancer, a luxurious diving vessel that would be touring the northern and southern islands of the Galapagos.  When I told Jerry of the opportunity, he said, "Annie, the Channel Islands will always be here, there are not many opportunities to visit the Galapagos." And so with his blessings, I had only a few days to get ready for departure. 






Words cannot describe how I felt.  I was traveling alone, but needed to pack my still cameras and video cameras, my underwater housings and my scuba equipment.  This was four months before September 11. 2001 so the airlines were not as strict.  I had three cases that each weighed probably 100 pounds plus two carry on pieces.  I was being flown from California to Florida and then to Ecuador.  It was one of the most interesting meetings of my life. And there I sat with a high noon Miami sun shining outside, and inside I waited for nearly an hour and finally someone entered, sat down next to me and didn’t waste any time because I was leaving for the airport.  I will never forget the conversation:

"Annie,  you are blonde, female and do not speak Spanish so you might get opposition.  There is a 17 Spanish all male crew. You may face animosity.  You know how a boat should be run, how we treat our guests and we could not think of another person who possesses all of your skills.  So even though you may get opposition, don’t worry about anything, you will have a great time."

And that was it.  I had to leave or I would miss my plane.  That was my grand send off.  I was heading to a country for what I thought was going to be the best experience of my life, but now I was not so sure.  I had nobody to call and discuss this with as I did not own a cell phone or even see a use for one! And besides not having a cell phone, who would I have called?  So off I went!  I flew on TACA airlines.  TACA airlines has a bad reputation and many call it, Take A Chance Airlines.  I was one of the only foreigners on the plane, and I did not know what to expect as upon departure everyone was giving the sign of the cross and saying prayers.  It was one of the only times I had ever been frightened on a flight because of crowd reaction pre-flight.  You can imagine how surprised I was when we landed everyone clapped and cheered and would have given the pilot a standing ovation if they did not have to keep their seat belts on. 

48 hours after leaving California, I was on another plane flying to meet the Sky Dancer.  What unfolded during the course of the next three months was by far one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  Brenna’s trip to the Maldives and her life changing experience with whale sharks sent me back to my images and memories.  We put together a small album you can see on flickr and the entire Dive Into Your Imagination book and award winning DVD series has footage from the time I spent in the Galapagos. 

We dived with hammerheads and whale sharks every week.  The year I was there, the hammerheads were deep- they did not often come into recreational diving depths. It was like we could always see them in the deep and we knew they were there.  Sea lions greeted us and we had to move out of their way.  We witnessed albatross performing their mating dance, blue footed booby birds hatching and marine iguanas spitting.  During our 24 hour crossings we witnessed a sea of phosphorescence.  You could not tell where the midnight sky full of stars met the sea.  It was like being in the middle of the solar system, but we were cruising on a vessel.  We dived 3-4 times a day and did at least one land tour, yet the real magic for me was when we reached Darwin and Wolf.  I dived with pods of dolphins, Galapagos sharks, schools of Jacks, King Butterflyfish, moray eels and turtles.  There were pillow lava walls and forests of black coral.  There was an adrenalin rush at merely the first sight of the Darwin Arch.  Every couple of weeks we would get a new set of whale sharks.  They were always female and every couple of weeks the animals would get larger.  The most I saw on any dive, was the last dive of my time in Galapagos.  I left my camera aboard for many reasons, one was so I could experience the animals without my head behind the lens.  We saw nine animals and I dived with my buddy Carole the entire time, so we had one another’s proof. 

I could probably write an entire book on this three month block of my life.  The crew was weary of me for about 24 hours, and then it took me about two weeks to win them over completely.  Up to that point in my career, I had never worked with such a professional crew, nor one that was so special.  Little did I know the Indonesia crew I trained aboard the Komodo Dancer a few years later would have the same affect upon me.  When I used to look back at these moments, it would cause me such pain because I yearned to be back and yet now, I am flooded with joy.  I have grown and changed and now it brings me inspiration as I believe I will return again.  It will just be in a different way as my imagination continues to grow and I will look for the innovative ways I will be traveling with my cameras.  For me, the pleasure comes in being able to tell stories to others and share my experiences to inspire you to believe you can create whatever life you dream possible.

I want everyone to be able to experience the passion of creating a life of their dreams and become so clear on what makes them happy because we need a world that comes alive.  If you watch the news, you will see that the world is crashing around us, yet I believe we still need inspiration because inspiration breeds imagination which causes innovation.  What inspires you?  Make time for this because it will affect your dreams.  Dare the impossible dreams and then make those dreams a reality.  It’s possible and it’s necessary!