Going with the Flow

Back in 1976 I was headquartered at Subic Bay in the Philippines while deployed to the far east for a six month tour of duty. At the mouth of the bay there was an island (Grande Island) where the navy maintained a recreation facility. The facility was on the landward side of the island. The ocean side was thick vegetation and largely deserted. There was a smaller island accessible by wading which was also quite deserted that had a nice sandy shelf off its north shore at about 15 foot depth.
On days off I would wade out to the smaller island and snorkel for shells. After several such excursions without seeing anyone else I began removing my trunks and hanging them on my collecting bag which was supported by a spare inflatable life jacket and towed along behind me as I swam. I could enter the water clothed, do my swimming in the nude, then emerge wearing my trunks at the conclusion of my swim. Great plan!
One day I was surfacing to take a breath when I was shocked to discover that I was not alone. Two other swimmers were kicking slowly along the surface while watching the bottom and, apparently, me. Not only that, both of them were wearing swim suit tops and were very obviously female. It was also obvious that they had seen me as they both looked in my direction then turned away and kicked off. I donned my trunks just in case they would return but didn't see them again on that trip.
It wasn't until three weeks later that I returned to the island. I went in as usual but really scanned the area thoroughly before taking off my trunks. I had spent about half an hour lazily checking the bottom and enjoying the sun and clear water when I surfaced and saw a female on the beach preparing to enter the water. She also saw me and gave me a wave before diving in. I wasn't sure how to handle the situation so decided to let it play out and just go with the flow.
As the other swimmer approached I noticed first that she was not wearing a top for her swim suit. She was however wearing the bottom half. When she reached my position she smiled and asked if I would mind some company. I didn't, of course, and we spent most of another hour and a half diving down, cruising the bottom, and then lazily floating on the surface before doing it again.
It wasn't until we were almost at the shore that we actually talked much. We stopped in neck deep water to replace our missing clothing then waded out together. While drying off we exchanged first names and assignments, etc. It turned out that she was a nurse at the naval hospital there. She was interested to know how long I had been doing this, did I ever see others, what made me first take off my trunks, and didn't seem at all bashful about asking these things directly. She did say that she was glad that she and her friend had seen me and that she had found me again that day as she would not otherwise have felt confident enough to try it herself.
We enjoyed many more similar swims together. I never bothered about trunks when swimming with her and she never wore a top when swimming with me. We eventually even started leaving them off when we came out and then lying out in the sun to dry off. I let her know early on that I was married and not looking for sex. That was fine with her and we both were able to enjoy a friendship and camaraderie based on shared interest. In case you're wondering, she never did remove her suit bottoms and I never asked her to nor hinted that she should. Also, her friend joined us on a few occasions but never removed any part of her suit at all. She did make it clear that she didn't care if we did. We must have made an odd picture, one woman in full suit, one topless, and me nude.
Never took any pictures while out swimming, but here is one taken of me with some shells and coral that I had collected.

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