Hot Hot Heat

Talk about a sultry New Years Eve. While most of you were bundled up with your lovers and loved ones battling freezing rain and blizzards, the Matthews rang in the new decade in some hot, hot heat. We set off fireworks, danced on the beach, swam in the ocean and finally crashed in our beds gasping for breath through the sweltering heat of tropical Pangani on the Indian Ocean.

Weather-wise, it’s been an odd year. You in the northern hemisphere are hunkering down for the most severe winter in decades, while parts of Tanzania are experiencing drought and famine. Pangani, the fishing village and former slave trade port, has seen one rain shower since May. I spent May and June on a soggy, foggy schooner in Maine. We saw three days of sunshine in the month of June. It was, to date, my coldest summer, while celebrating my birthday (23!) and the beginning of 2010 six degrees south of the equator is by far the hottest “winter” of my life.

The people on Tanzania's coast do what they can to survive the droughts. Their drinking water comes from wells, but the water is almost as saline as in the ocean.

It was our first time to the Indian Ocean! In tune with the tropical air of the place, the water was almost unpleasantly warm. I wondered if we would need a wetsuit to scuba dive, but our suntanned, hunk-of-a-German instructor, Alex, told us not to underestimate the depth of the water.

My family rarely performs menial tasks without a small drama overshadowing the main event - I broke my foot Christmas day three years ago playing tag on a jungle gym - and this snorkel/scuba exhibition was no exception to our family rule: it’s no fun unless someone gets hurt.

Dad and I were partners and managed to follow Alex the instructor to the bottom where we realized we were three, not five. Ann hadn’t been able to equalize her ears to the pressure underwater, so Mom and Ann had somehow been left in our bubbles. Hunky Alex was quickly losing props in my book.

Dad’s nose bleed saved the day. Sometimes Hugh-go has trouble with his sinuses, and while underwater his sinus becomes blocked, causing severe pain and lots of blood to flow in to his snorkel mask, not only obstructing his view but hindering his scuba ability. After we resurfaced Dad, Alex and I hovered a bit until we saw two blobs on the water with scuba tanks on their backs. Mom and Ann had been dragged far away from the boat by the strong underwater current. On the surface it was next to impossible to fight the flow, so Alex sent the boat to retrieve the wayward divers. Mom and Ann hopped in the boat then came to meet us.

Alex decided our only hope for a successful dive would be to find the reef from the boat. This he accomplished with some lackadaisical, sun-baked Afro-German logic. Dad, Alex and I grabbed on to a tow line while Mom hollered at the drivers that they should tie the line to the boat. Instead, the man wrapped our tow line around an old post and away we went, gulping salt water and slipping further away with every crashing wave.

In the end it was a great two dives for Mom and myself; Dad, Ann and Will stayed at the surface to snorkel and sunburn. Alex, Nellie and I drifted with the current next to a stunning 40 foot reef, the rose garden so-called because of the white coral heads shaped like spirals. Of course, there was also the plethora of purple fan coral, iridescent blue, yellow and red parrot fish, angel fish and starfish. We saw a few poisonous lion fish as big as small dogs with their wild red and white fins fanning out in every direction to ward off big fish or overambitious divers.

Some say the Indian Ocean off the coast of Tanzania and Zanzibar is the best diving out there. After battling with our slightly inept team of instructors, a wicked underwater current and Dad’s token nose bleed, we did manage to enjoy the beautiful life hidden unda’ da sea. It is a world we rarely visit. Scientists know more about our universe and those beyond than they do about the deep oceans of Earth.

Hopefully, this breach of knowledge will change soon, and we can focus on what we’ve got right under our noses.