Location: Palau
Today, I was tasked with waking up everyone at 6:30 am in anticipation of a full day of diving in Palau. While getting thirty fewer minutes of sleep this morning would undoubtedly throw everyone off, it wasn’t going to be the only shock people were going to experience this morning. As everyone waited in the cockpit for our routine morning count-off to begin, I strutted up to the cockpit in my skipper outfit for the day: a pink Lacoste polo, tight khaki pants, swanky Helly Hanson boat shoes, a glistening watch, and New York Yankees baseball cap. You know what they say: if you look good, you feel good.
Once the diving company arrived, we separated into two groups for diving. The first group was myself, Gabe, Casey, Mathilda, Lainey, and Iain. The second group consisted of Maverick, Spencer, Beck, Joshua, Elanore, Sidney, Olivia, Emily, Austin, Lexi, Tomer, and Anna. For our first dive, we set out to go down 60 feet. Having not dived in weeks, I soon realized I had made a fatal mistake: my mask was too tight. After spending forty minutes down below without being able to adjust my mask, I came to the surface with my eyeballs bulging out of their sockets. It took a good thirty minutes for my inflammation to wane, and once it did, it wasn’t until the next dive that our group was forced to surface due to my tendency to hyperventilate underwater. It seemed today that I just couldn’t win.
For our next dive, I got my first victory of the day. This dive was special in that we swam against the current by hooking into the coral. This was honestly my highlight of the day. While I not only felt good about myself for being able to identify fishes from Marine Biology (Midnight Snapper, Pyramid Butterflyfish, Moorish Idol, etc.), there is something just so zen about watching and feeling your own body get dominated by the current, like a lawn sign in a thunderstorm by the strong current. Soon after, my win streak continued with our tranquil lunch on one of the islands that were featured on the TV show Survivor. After another dive, we returned to Argo and got our laundered clothes back from our three-week passage that was sent in this morning. While most people had fairly smelly clothes, the scent coming from my bag was absolutely rancid. This somehow triumphed over my earlier victory of coral hooking now that my signature cheese smell was gone. Going into dinner, my spirits were riding high.
For my squeeze question at dinner, in honor of the 40A students leaving as well as visiting one of the islands actually featured on Survivor earlier in the day, I decided to ask everyone who they thought would last the longest on the show and why. Out of the four students leaving, the general consensus (traits associated with winning) seemed to be:
– Joshua (intellectual, innovative, iconoclast)
– Casey (cunning, card connoisseur, cutthroat)
– Maverick (gregarious, generous, gorgeous)
– Mathilda (Swiss, sneaky, sly)
Lastly, succumbing to a special request from Kelsey, I regret to inform anyone reading this that Joshua Meighan has served the final dishy pit of his entire life. While this brings me great sadness, I am confident that from Joshua’s time spent here, he will spread the word about just how special Sea|Mester is. You will go great places, Joshua.
Until next time,
William