His hand slipped out of mine as he began to wave it around forcefully in front of the coral. With nothing surrounding me but black, plankton filled water, I grabbed at and dug my fingers as hard as I could into his BC. “He won’t know how tightly I’m hanging on,” I thought as my knuckles, had I been able to see them turned white. I blinked, and blinked, trying to get my eyes to adjust faster to the darkness. After seconds, which felt like minutes, giggle filled bubbles soon surrounded my mask. My eyes finally focused on swirling trails of glowing something. The glowing something was coming from the coral, and his frantic waving was somehow stimulating it. My fist loosened from his BC and I gave it a whirl, literally. I alternated between admiring the bioluminescent marine magic show and leaning back to stare up at the stars and moon through the 30 feet of water we were under. This surreal night dive comprised only about 36 of the total 609 minutes I spent underwater during my visit to Fiji.

I met Trevor a couple years ago when I was at the time filling in for a couple weeks on the S/V Juliet and also pretty much still a novice at the whole SCUBA diving thingy.

His seemingly bottomless patience with me was always appreciated while I bumbled around the boat trying to figure out how to tie a knot, and how to not die underwater, and how to not die underwater while tying a knot. We’ve both since moved on from our favorite sailboat but I was fortunate enough to take a break from my current job to visit him at his current job, at Wananavu Resort in Fiji. My learning from Trevor had also not ended, as it was there I completed a PADI Rescue Diver course. So many of the skills we practiced I realized I had already accidentally learned during my time with Trevor and on the Juliet. While my new friend Giulia, who was at Wananavu working towards her divemaster, did her best at trying to drown us in class as we each took turns saving her nothing can ever quite replicate real world experience.

Trevor and I had a great time reminiscing and lamenting that fact that both our new jobs don’t exactly condone (nor do they forbid….) wearing silly hats and singing songs about marine creatures.  However, we both still are doing exactly what we love doing and there’s nothing better than that.