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We went to Grand Cayman on Thanksgiving one year with a great group of divers. Leaving Albuquerque early in the morning, landing in Houston, we had a 10 hour layover. This was the start of a very tiring day. We arrived in Grand Cayman at midnight, and had to shuffle around for another hour waiting for our plane to Cayman Brac. We were to board the Little Cayman Diver for a week of diving. Arriving late in Brac, without any of our dive gear or luggage (this was to come on another plane latter), we were finally taken to a motel (we were suppose to get right on board the boat) for some sleep. The next day, we found that we could not get on board until 10:00PM. Well, that didn't make us too happy. We did travel the Island with a guide, who was not friendly which created more stress to the situation.

As the day went on we ended up in a tiki bar on the beach and spent about 5 hours, telling jokes and doing puns. This of course added to our fatigue of the day.

Finally we get on board, a nice boat, and settled in for our dives. We left the next morning to head to Little Cayman. As we left the protected area of the beach, the waves started. We were pulling a small boat, that somehow got it's tow line tangled around the big boat's prop. We went dead in the water.

One can imagine what happened next. The boat was rocking and rolling. People started getting sick . . . not making it to the side, but up-chucking on the deck. The view of that was great along with the smell. Of course when the first person threw up it started a chain reaction. So one can imagine a bunch of people throwing up in unison. A real picture.

One of our divers considered himself to be real hardy. I'll call him Tom. So I pretended to feel ill and went below deck to our cabin. Darlene had brought some whip cream in a aerosol can. I put a bunch in my mouth and went back top-side. Tom was still boasting about not getting sick, plus giving all the sick ones a rough time.

I went and stood in front of him. He was asking how I felt, I kind of shook my head, and spit out all of the whip cream all over Tom. Guess what? He went to the side and threw up. You may be wondering if I got sick. No! Too much time on the sea in the Navy.

Along with the sickness, our diving gear was attached to the dive platform on the stern. This was not a good place, but we were assured that many others had stored their gear there before with no problems. Well, due to the rocking and rolling of the boat while we were dead in the water, one of our divers gear disappeared. We could not see the equipment on the surface and the depth below the boat was over 3,000 feet. Another problem. We were able to scrounge up enough gear for the diver.

When we finally got to dive, the first breath I took out of my tank was foul. Had a bad taste. I went right back on the boat and told them to change the filters. So we were delayed while the crew compressed some fresh air.

As one can see, being tired, cranky, sick, loss of equipment, etc., no one was really in a good mood.

One couple decided to take a rescue class. They did fine, as the others continued their diving. On Thanksgiving day, we all entered the water except the couple who took the rescue dive. I kept asking if they were all right. I wondered if they had a diving problem or had gotten too tired doing rescue. They always were first in the water, gung-ho. Not this time, so one can imagine my concern. Darlene and I finally went into the water and went about our dive. I was still wondering about them throughout the dive.

Well, your probably wondering yourself, what does all this has to do with the title of this story?

Our trip was brought back to fun and excitement, forgetting all the things that happened to us. At the end of the dive, as we were approaching the boat underwater, a pleasant and warm feeling came over all of us.

The couple who hesitated getting into the water gave us a big surprise.

They had placed on a coral head, a TURKEY DECOY. This was their way of saying - Happy Thanksgiving - to all of us.