Location: Andritxol, Mallorca
After a lovely cleanup last night where Matt was absolutely obliterated by the hose straight to the eyes (don’t worry, it was payback), the crew of Vela slept soundly on our first night in Mallorca. I got an extra early start along with Rachel and Carolyn to hop in the water for a moonlit morning dive. We turned off our lights and wiggled around to activate the bioluminescent algae, which reminded me of thousands of mini glow sticks floating around at my fingertips. We surfaced just as the sun was rising and were greeted by the crew waking up for breakfast. A huge shoutout to Ghost, who took over my skipper duties while I was diving and personally woke each crew member. The reaction to her wakeups had a wide range, to say the least. Alison said that she had never been more creeped out in her life, but Isabelle said that it was the perfect start to her day and put her in a great mood.
After breakfast, we divided into groups: some stayed on Vela to watch Emergency First Responder training videos while the Advanced-Open Water divers geared up to do their Navigation dive with Sam. As the Divemaster candidates, Rachel and I got to assist with this dive. They all successfully navigated back to the boat, with the only hiccup being Jac’s extreme fascination with the anchor chain. He swam away without a care in the world, and no one could get his attention until Rachel and I went chasing after him. There is one downside to diving off of the boat, which is the front-row seat to the last step in the journey of the result of using our luxurious heads. After the code brown cleared away, Rachel and I completed our Dive Master tired diver tow swim test. The fams will be happy to know that we both passed and swam like little fishies.
We then had a delicious lunch, and during clean up, Owen discovered a new job for the wheel when a patch of trash floated by. Our new ocean trash master had no hesitation to jump in the water like a golden retriever chasing a tennis ball to collect the trash and do his part to save the ocean. The fishies, thank you, Owen. We switched groups for the afternoon, and some of the newbie divers went for their first open-water dive, where they saw some dope rocks and a sea slug that Jimmy and Carolyn got very excited about (rightfully so). Back on the Vela, a bunch of us went for a swim and hung out on the bowsprit before Nav Master class. We then had time to chill and catch up on homework before dinner. Lizard and Allie surprised us all with a delicious dessert, and we finished the day with brownie cookies and a squeeze.
Love and miss you, Mom, Dad, Dillon, Mo, and Sami.