Mermaid Mishap in the Bermuda Triangle [Podcast Ep. 8]

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The podcast Tick It Before You Kick It is comprised of two things: chatting about adventure bucket list ideas and travel stories.

We’ve heard about some bucket list ideas so far…now it is time for a travel story. A travel story that is, in fact, quite recent! So recent that I’m still recovering🪼

The events of this travel story occurred while on a cruise to Bermuda with one of my closest friends. I reluctantly shoved her, snorkel and all, into the waters of the Bermuda Triangle with shipwrecks below…all while wearing my mermaid tail (I am called The Bucket List Mermaid for a reason).

In this episode, hear about this story first hand from the both of us…about two hours after it happened directly from Bermuda.

In THIs Episode…

Two friends recalling about the time when they swam with thousands of sea lions in Peru
Going to Bermuda to celebrate 15 years of friendship
A travel story of when I was mermaiding in the Bermuda triangle
An update on my hand and arm

See the Footage of Swimming in the Bermuda Triangle in a Mermaid Tail

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bermuda triangle, Mermaid Mishap in the Bermuda Triangle [Podcast Ep. 8]

Important Parts on the Show

2:10 – Let the Travel Story Begin
2:47 – Sea Lion Story
5:07 – Start of the Mermaid Story
7:10 – Jumping into the Bermuda Triangle
10:32 – Erica, what are you afraid of?!
13:09 – Getting Stung in a Mermaid Tail
15:19 – I’m Just Glad it Wasn’t You
16:31 – Ending Remarks

Full Podcast Transcript (Episode 7: Mermaiding mishap in the Bermuda Triangle)

Intro Into My Story

Hey there, adventurers, and welcome to Tick It Before You Kick It, a podcast about helping you conquer your adventure bucket list.

I’m Alexandra, your favorite traveling mermaid and adventure blogger, and in this episode, we are going to be talking about a travel story that I have recently acquired from Bermuda. Now, for those of you who didn’t know, I run a travel blog as a mermaid and I talk about adventure and bucket lists and blah, blah, blah.

Heading out into Bermuda

And naturally, I thought it would be a great idea to go on a cruise to Bermuda, because I’ve been cruising all my life but I have never been to that area. I just figured…wow, like a mermaid’s paradise! And it’s been on my bucket list to go into a shipwreck in the Bermuda Triangle with my mermaid tail. Just a standard bucket list idea, right?

So, I ended up dragging my best friend, Erica, with me. She is probably going to be on this show several times because I end up taking her on the craziest adventures.

It just works out that way. I don’t know why, but something about us two together. Wild things happen when we travel together. So, I’m actually going to switch over, because after this travel story happened, we went back to our room on the cruise and we actually took out my phone as a voice memo and we did this podcast on my phone in the cruise ship room because we just had to talk about this crazy thing that happened when I was mermaiding in the Bermuda Triangle in a shipwreck.

So, I apologize if the audio is not as good. As I said, we were in our cruise ship room and we just had to talk about it.

Please enjoy this story. I hope it brings a smile to your face, because how often do you get to hear about a mermaid and what happened to me while I was mermaiding the Bermuda Triangle? So, without further ado…enjoy.

INtro INto the Story

Alexandra: Okay, so we’re here to tell you the story of what just happened. This happened about two hours ago. Um, I am here with my best friend and dearest, closest friend, Erica, who just sacrificed life and limb to help me .

Erica: I turned out okay.

Alexandra: She said, “I turned out okay,”

Erica: That’s a bit of a spoiler. Okay, first thing you have to know – hey, this is Erica. I am deeply afraid of the ocean, deeply. No pun intended.

Alexandra: And she’s best friends with a mermaid, so this this works out really well for her.

Erica: I took swim lessons as a kid, I can swim, I can tread water. Whatever – all that. I don’t like swimming when there are things in the water. I don’t want anything touching me. The sea lions last time? That was horrible. That was, like, a new fear because you couldn’t see them. I hate not seeing what’s under me yeah, so.

The Sea Lions in Peru

Alexandra: So for context, I was like, “Oh, Erica, jump into an island of 3,000 sea lions in Peru“, it’ll be fine. I also made her first swim with a shark.

Erica: That was 10 years ago now, which I was still a little bit young and like, “yeah, I’ll do it and” it was very supervised. It was a very supervised like the guide was right. There there’s people taking photos in the water. It was all very organized. Yes, for sure, you know, very pristine.

Then, the sea lions in Peru about three years ago now was my deepest, darkest fear, because I couldn’t see under me.

Alexandra: Yeah, that that was really scary. It was really murky and there were so many sea lions around us. It was so cold. When we booked this excursion, we thought that it was going to be, like, one or two.

Wait…so that entire island is nothing but sea lions?!

Erica: Oh yeah, I thought it was like in a little enclosure.

Alexandra: And then we were on the boat and he goes there’s the island, and I was like the island of what? And it sounded like boo. It was like they were booing us. They were like please don’t come near! Scary.

Erica: And he just literally pushed us off the boat on an island of sea lions. We had wetsuits on and it was the coldest thing I’ve ever felt I don’t know how long we were in there. Anyway, I was very conscious of the fact that sharks eat sea lions the whole entire time, and it smelled like fish and other things. It was like dead sea lions it smelled like death.

Alexandra: It smelled death. It was just – it was just something.

Erica: It was an experience, so that was the last time we went traveling together.

Alexandra: Why is she still friends with me at this point? I don’t know.

Bermuda Cruise to Celebrate 15 years of Friendship

Erica: It’s been 15 years. This is our 15 year friendiversary and we’re here on a beautiful cruise. I got a little bit seasick yesterday. We took some Dramamine – I’m fine now. We took dramamine before today, which?

Alexandra: I’m glad that we did. Yeah, the boat was a rocky. The the Bermuda triangle holds up to its reputation. It’s is a little rocky and there’s just a lot of reefs everywhere. Like I can definitely see how it got its name, because if I was going to the New World and I didn’t have the navigational techniques, you know, and you just run a reef and you’re like well, *beep*

Okay, it was really cool, but when polarized sunglasses like looking out as we were heading out to the triangle, it was actually amazing like aqua blue, fairy rivers, like they were glowing! It looked magical.

Heading to the Bermuda Triangle SHipwreck Snorkel Excursion

Alexandra: It was really cool with just your sunglasses. My $20 sunglasses did not hold a candle. However, her nice sunglasses did. It was great, it was really fun.

Erica: So we get there. I’ve snorkeled before 10 years ago we were in the Bahamas or something and it was very tame.

Alexandra: It was good there was a shark.

Erica: Easy! It was a nurse shark.

Alexandra: It was easy!

Erica: A zillion people there and there were so many guides and there was no waves…calm. Today we’re in the Bermuda Triangle and I’m very aware of that fact.

Alexandra: She doesn’t like the ocean and I, as you may not have known, am a mermaid travel blogger, so naturally I get in a full mermaid tail.

Erica: What if I broke up with you right now…as friends?

Alexandra: I would not like that. I would not enjoy that.

Erica: What if I said I’ve had enough. However, me and my jellyfish sting…spoiler alert – um, oh no, – would understand.

Heading out To the Bermuda Triangle

Erica: So, as we’re heading out on the boat we’re sitting like on the top and it’s rocking and stuff, but we’re fine. And then I see this like I don’t know how to describe this…it looks like a plastic bag kind of floating on the water, like a little sandwich bag.

Alexandra: I have anxiety about asking if I can use my mermaid tail. And I’m sitting there, I’m like with my giant mermaid tail, I’m like, “Oh, are they going to let me use it?”

And then this lady’s like, “What is that?!” And everybody rushes to the side of the boat. It’s a man of war jellyfish, basically a pretty nasty, long, stinging jellyfish. He actually said that their tentacles get up to 150 feet, right?

Erica: He did and he said, “Oh, by the shore they’re only 10 feet!” Oh, okay, but yeah, yeah, but we’re not in the shore.

We’re in the Bermuda Triangle, where a bunch of shipwrecks just floating by. As we pull up to these buoys and we attach to these buoys…

Alexandra: I immediately was like, oh crap, [it’s] right on the side of the boat. Erica’s going to lose her crap. I’m like she’s already nervous for this. And he started playing the Jaws theme, and I just thought that this was going to be Sea Lions 2.0.

Jumping into the Bermuda Triangle as a Mermaid

Erica: So, uh, took me a little while to jump in there. Yeah, I had Alex go in first.

Alexandra: Me in my mermaid tail, everybody’s watching me. I’m in my mermaid tail, they approved, it was great. I jump in. Yes, yes, they approved, it was all approved. I was like, “I’m certified, I’m safe, I’m a diver, it’s fine.”

So I jump in first and I’m just waiting for her, and then eventually she goes in. I just come up to her and she’s just heaving so hard!

Erica: Listen, listen. I’m kind of claustrophobic, so my goggles were all fogged. I couldn’t see anything, but I knew I had to have them on so I could breathe. So, yeah, and then, oh, and then my fins were loose and I just felt like all discombobulated.

Alexandra: And she has my GoPro and I’m like take mermaid videos of me.

Absolute Chaos in Bermuda

Erica: And she just said, “hold onto it at first, please!” I have to adjust, it’s gonna take me a little while, and so the and the waves started coming in.

Alexandra: Yeah, it’s called the Bermuda Triangle for a reason. There [were] some waves!

Erica: I couldn’t not have my mask on which is what was unfortunate.

Alexandra: and I was like, “well, just look into the water, because once you look into the water it clears up a little bit.”

Erica: And then I did, and said, “oh no, oh no, I don’t like that!”

Because right by the ship they were feeding the fish, so the fish were just swarming.

Alexandra: Were they feeding them?

Erica: Yes, they were throwing out food into the water.

Alexandra: Oh, I didn’t know that.

Erica: That’s what the particles are in the videos. Oh, anyway, they were feeding the fish. They were swarming around me and like swimming up to my face when I looked in the water and I could never even reach my hand in a fish tank when I was a kid to, like, clean it.

Alexandra: This is true friendship right here.

Erica: I couldn’t do it, so I was really panicky.

Alexandra: So, she was panicking, and, again, I am in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle with a full on mermaid tail. And if you can’t visualize this. This is not like a children’s mermaid tail, this is like a professional –

Erica: I don’t know how you did it.

Panic Attack in the Bermuda Triangle

Alexandra: – mermaid tail and it’s big and I all of a sudden bobbing and just she’s just bobbing and just breathing really heavy!

Erica: [I’m] trying to regulate, cause I know, I know that when I’m anxious or whatever, panicking like, I have to just regulate and I have to get through it. I don’t have to get out, I just have to get through it and adjust, cause it was also very cold, it was it was pretty cold and the waves were coming.

I just I needed to just sit in there a little while right and swim a little bit away from the boat, but then I looked in the water and saw a jellyfish and I was like, “okay, yeah” So, again more jellyfish are coming up.

Alexandra: He did say that there were some brown jellyfish? They were cute. It was not the man o’ war.

Erica: I jumped in the water kind of swam to you, and then we heard shouting by the boat.

Alexandra: I feel like ever since that one was like, “Oh, there’s a man o’ war!”

Because every time someone says man of war they’re like, “Oh my god! Death and destruction! Everybody was so paranoid.

I just see people all around me are just like, “Jellyfish!!!”. So that’s like freaking her out!

Erica: There was around 30 of us at one point? Yeah, there was a lot. There was a lot of people out there, yeah, and they were all kind of panicky.

Alexandra: They were really panicky! They were like screaming [and] at one point and I was like, “This is not good for everybody!”

So eventually I said – cause I’m also a yoga instructor – breathe through your nose, exhale through your mouth, it’s gonna be okay.

Erica, What are you So afraid of?

…and she was just, of course, like, “I know what to do, I just have to do it!” And eventually I was just like, “Erica…WHAT ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF?”

Erica: And she caught this on video and I’m so glad and I felt really bad in the moment because I literally said, “I don’t know!”

I don’t think you can hear my response, but I was kind of snippy.

And we were like what are you afraid of? And I said, “I don’t want to talk about it!”

Alexandra: And I was like, what are you afraid of? And we caught it on video, me saying “Erica, what are you afraid of??”

Erica: That what not to say to someone having a panic attack. Yes, that is, btw, not not the right way to go for it, especially when you are actively in rolling waters in the open.

Alexandra: …with jellyfish all around you in the open sea in the Bermuda Triangle. Looking back, that was not the best way to go.

Erica: I didn’t care though, because I was conscious and aware enough of. I’ve had panic attacks before. I’m not that anxious guys, but this was really scary.

It was scary, I’m sorry it was!

Erica: I knew I would be fine. I knew I had to just wait it out and just kind of bob around and tighten my little flippers and clean out my goggles. And once I did that…

Alexandra: Erica, what are you afraid of?!

Looking at Shipwrecks in the Bermuda Triangle

Erica: I could see in the water and I looked down and it was a shipwreck and I was like, “Oh, that’s so cool!” It was really cool!

It really was really cool to see! There [were] also three shipwrecks within our entire scuba site. They’re all really close.

Alexandra: Yeah, they were all really close. I get why this is called the Bermuda Triangle. It was just a lot of shipwrecks. They were just everywhere. I don’t think she liked the fish, but I think you really liked the shipwrecks.

Erica: The shipwrecks were amazing, I think, because they were kind of shallow too!

Alexandra: They were very tall, I’d say, probably 40 or 50 feet, but I think the the shipwreck that was most towards the surface, you could touch it holding your breath a little bit and just going down. It was amazing.

Erica: It was really, really cool. Moral of the story? Just keep going!

Alexandra: – but like instantly, like you were, just like I’m fine now!

Erica: I knew that I had to get the video for you because I love you so much and I was like, “I have a job.”

Alexandra: She was like, “I need to get this video, this mermaid video!

Erica: Yes, I was like, “I can absolutely do this and stick my head under the water and get the gopro”

Alexandra: And spoiler alert. This video is amazing.

There’s several. I decided to wear my black tail which just popped. It was siren vibes, like it was beautiful. So anyway, moral of the story I said the wrong thing and I said you know, “Erica, what are you so afraid of?”

Instant Consequences

And then I ended up swimming out a little bit and I got stung by the man o’ war!

Erica: Oh boy, and I didn’t know. She kept it from me.

Alexandra: I knew it immediately because it was just like little tiny fishing lines. I knew it immediately as soon as I did it and it was like my entire arm was on fire, like it was just little tiny pins and needles and just like all up my arm and around my body.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’ve heard horror stories from this specific jellyfish and I thought that it would be a lot worse than it was. However, it was pretty terrible and she’s like, “Can you get some videos of me?” And I was crying.

Getting Back onto the Boat

I also didn’t want to tell you. I’m so glad you didn’t. I’m not gonna tell her until we’re on the boat and we’re safe and it’s fine.

And we literally got in there [in the boat]. Someone else had been stung by one of the little brown jellyfish and he was like, “Oh, I’ll get you some apple cider vinegar.”

And I was like, “How about for this?!”

He was like, “Oh, God!”

It was like bubbling up on my entire hand.

Erica: It’s better now.

Alexandra: Yeah, yeah, yeah it’s way better now. Honestly, it’s really good now. A little red. You can see the streak.

Erica: It definitely still stings not on your arm a little bit, I think?

Alexandra: Oh, yeah, yeah, it was not as bad as it was before. But it was just like instant karma. I was like, “What are you afraid of?!” And I get stung by a metaphor, so it serves me right. That’s what you’re afraid of!

Rum Swizzles and Apple Cider Vinegar

Erica: It was a great day, A+ day. We got on the ship and they were handing out rum and we’re having a good time.

Alexandra: We actually got one of those. What is it? Rum swizzle. I’ve heard rum sizzler, I’ve heard rum swizzle, I’ve heard rum swizzler.

Erica: I think it’s swizzle swizzle, I don’t know.

Alexandra: Anyway, that sounds right. It was really good. They were like actively pouring vinegar on my hand while I was drinking rum, Like it was just something else. It really was.

And I’m holding my mermaid tail. This is something else.

Erica: Oh, gosh, A+ day though.

Alexandra: A+ day.

I’m Glad It Stung You

Erica: Honestly, I’m selfishly glad I did not get stung, because I don’t think I would have gone in the ocean again.

Alexandra: I remember when I did it and I turned around to you and was like, “I swear to God…if she gets stung.”

I was in so much pain, but I didn’t think about me. Thank God it happened to me. And thank God it did not happen to you.

Erica: I’m really glad too. Really it was great. Shipwrecks were insane if you get the chance to go.

Alexandra: Absolutely, they were amazing. One sunk in the 1860s and the other one was 1940s.

Erica: I used to think I’d want to be on a pirate ship when I was younger and now I’m like maybe not, maybe not, maybe not. There’s a lot of jellyfish, it’s just the jellyfish.

Alexandra: Erica, what are you afraid of…the JELLYFISH? Oh my gosh, I’m so glad that you didn’t get stung. I’m really, really, really glad that you didn’t get stung.

Erica: Me too, man. That’s what I mean. That’s our story. Thanks for listening, and I’m literally looking at my man of War scars right now. So there you go, I’ll help her heal. Great, perfect Best friend. There you go.

Episode Outro

So that wraps it up for this episode of Tick It Before You Kick It and my jellyfish man o’ war story in Bermuda.

Just an update – the rash did end up going away after, you know, we recorded this.

It did hurt pretty badly for about a day or so and then I just had this itchy rash on my hand. It kind of looked like I had gotten whipped on my hand.

As of right now, it’s still there. So, man o’ war, they don’t mess around, good to know.

Nobody’s safe, not even mermaids.

But in all reality, I have been in the ocean so many times and this is the only time where I’ve ever had something happen to me like this. So, please don’t let this deter you from any of your adventures. I just thought it was a hilarious story of my instant karma, really.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this travel story!

If you did like this travel story, please do not forget to subscribe, like, send to all your travel buddies and check out more of my content on thebucketlistmermaid.com.

Until next time, keep adventuring and stay away from those jellyfish. They might look cool, but they hurt.

Also, if you do want to see any of this footage, any of my Bermuda photos, please stay tuned on my social media @thebucketlistmermaid. I will be slowly, slowly and surely be trickling all of this content out and eventually I’m going to create an epic Bermuda bucket list…as I do.

So, stay tuned and, as always, keep adventuring and keep bucketlisting!