The scuba diving boat had just reached a reef about 10 miles off shore in Key West, Florida. We were ready for our second dive of the day. I was fully geared up and ready to jump off the back of the boat into the crystal clear blue water. For some reason, I looked out toward the horizon and saw an object flying towards me. The flying object was closing rapidly and at first I couldn't tell if it was a large bug or a small bird. As it approached I realized it was a very small bird and it was flying straight at my face. I ducked, and the bird tried to land on one of the overhead hand holds that the divers use to help themselves around. It was not successful, and ended up landing on the dive masters table right next to me.

The bird was very small, it was not much bigger than a chicken egg as it sat on the table with one wing fully outstretched. The dive master came over to see what was going on and said, "He is probably tired". The dive master then pointed at me and said "Get in the water, we are wasting daylight." So I did.

Forty five minutes later, my tank was spent so I came back on board and asked what happened to the bird. Someone had taken the little bird and safely put him in a hat at the front of the boat. I checked on the bird and he still looked tired but his wings were in the right position. He didn't seem to be panting any more, (I'm not sure if birds actually pant, but I was having visuals of a cartoon bird, panting and wiping his brow with the back of his wing), he still looked tired, but seemed ok.

Many people on the boat had heard that the bird had landed on board and were checking on him. After everyone was aboard, we packed all our gear and headed back to Key West. It took us about a 1/2 hour to get back to the dock and we tied up. I grabbed my gear and took one more look at the bird, and he had climbed out of the hat and was sitting on the counter at the front of the boat.

As I was climbing off the boat I saw a flash go by and it was the bird. He flew off the boat and up into the nearest palm tree. The dive master said, "I guess he just needed a lift".

The parallels of the bird landing on the boat and myself being on vacation were not lost on me. At B2BGateway we all work quite hard and I know the feeling that the bird must have had as he was approaching the lone boat in the open sea. Sometimes we "just need a lift".