Location: Sidney's, Jost van Dyke
Today is known for being the longest day at ActionQuest for a reason: the day of the hike, sandcastle competition, and Sidney’s Peace and Love barbecue. We woke up early because we had to be on the dock by 7:00; Jake and David celebrated as this is by far the easiest day for chefs… their only meal was cereal. Once all boats were on the dock, we listened to a short speech before the masses began trudging up the steep beginning. Due to complications with my ability to hike as fast as the others (Floridian who doesn’t know what a hill is), I will simply state that I have scaled Mount Sage basically every year since I was nine and skip to the part where everyone was back together in Caine Garden Bay. The word of the day… “PADI.” In two days, every one of us will be taking the 120-question final exam, so (mostly) all of us brought our divemaster books to study while on shore. Caine Garden Bay is actually the location of where Jimmy Buffet wrote the song “Cheese Burgers in Paradise,” ironically only Jake and Player got a burger and I completely forgot to eat lunch, I did however buy and bring my dad lunch so that counts for something right? (It also was not a cheeseburger…) After a fair bit of studying, shopping, and coffee, we were back on the boat, ready to drop our mooring ball and head to our next activity!
Our next activity did not involve sand castles and instead was another dive… because we hadn’t done enough of that. In all seriousness, though, it was a great dive. What did suck was seasickness, thanks to the lovely hurricane that formed in the Atlantic, we were faced with massive waves that rocked the entire ship. Sally, Daisy, and Sedona obviously weren’t affected much, considering they started filming a TikTok in the middle of the galley, the thoughts of which I will keep to myself. We all had to practice briefing the dive before performing a negative entry due to the large waves and strong surface currents. My group consisted of David, Claire, and Stick, and it was probably one of the most eventful dives I’ve ever been on. The sights started small: a porcupine fish, some flamingo tongues that David claims are “awesome,” and a flounder that I personally thought was really cool. We then took the scenic route, increasing our dive time by quite a bit but allowing us to see some amazing animals. The first thing to be seen was by me, and apparently me alone, a massive hammerhead shark. I was so excited that I forgot how to signal. Instead, I just frantically pointed and basically screamed with delight, which could be heard underwater. The only other person to get a glimpse of the beast was Stick, who only saw its massive tail swim off into the distance. David still does not believe I saw a hammerhead shark, he is just jealous and was most likely closely observing and taking pictures of flamingo tongues like how he was that caused him to also miss the massive porcupine fish. Hope was not lost for David and Claire though, a decently sized reef shark swam around us for around 3 minutes giving David plenty of time to realize there are other things in the ocean apart from the majestic flamingo tongue. After hanging around the shark for a while, Claire and I realized we made the mistake of choosing small, under-pumped tanks, and we were approaching the time to head back to the boat. We made it so close to surfacing at the bow but thanks to the current and waves we showed up more off the starboard side of our ship.
I am now realizing I’ve written this essay and did not switch it to MLA format, so I’ll try to wrap up the barbecue (That and the staff want to go to bed, and I have the iPad). We attempted to be first off the dock in order to buy all the Sydney’s Peace and Love merch we could carry. I am now the proud owner of a yellow hat that boldly declares “Boat B!tch” (The staff may or may not silence the people, and you’ll have no idea what the hat says… the First Amendment is dead) and the hat will soon be gifted to a friend who may or may not enjoy it. The barbecue, as always, provided some delicious food that I happily downed. Lizzie had gotten her hair braided with some beads, I don’t know when but all I know is that when we go back to the boat she had beads in her hair, I’m not paid enough to pay more attention then that. A bit of dancing, ice cream, and more merch later, we returned to our boat for the night, but not before I clicked and clacked out an essay that would have probably got me admitted to a community college. This is the end by the way, you can stop reading now and feel connected to your children (hopefully.) Except for you, David, I saw that hammerhead. It’s not my fault you’re salty.