St Johns – “I like!”

---

We’re now 12 hours South of Marsa Alam. Apparently, some guy knocked on our door around 5am. All I know is that Ryan was shaking me around 6, and told me to make it to the Saloon before our morning briefing. (It’s 10 to 6 right now on the 14th and I can’t think very well… So, it’s hard for me to make this stuff funny). We did 4 dives on the 13th. So, now I’m pretty much a dive master; I have 10 under my belt and counting! I found Nemo again today, he was being guarded again by his parents who were a little more intimidated by my huge presence (I’ve been wearing this sweet wet suit that exposes my guns. It’s been nice. But, since I switched to the bigger tank - because I like to down a lot of air - I’ve started wearing a T-shirt to protect my sensitive shoulders)
I got everyone on the boat obsessed with the phrase, “I like,” from the movie Borat. Now, Sayed, my brotha from anotha motha who lives in the Saloon, says it all the time and also pounds us - complete with a rising explosion (something he added that I think is pretty cool). FRIDAY THE 13th was a FULL day. You know it’s a good day when you can’t keep your eyes open at 21:30, you stumble up to the crows nest, and crash on a bench that is half the size of your bed!! Hanging out in the crows nest has been one of my favorite activities on the ship. There is a nice breeze, I have a little privacy, and I can see in all directions!
I’d say the highlight of the day was diving off the bow of the boat (about 4 meters high) with Sayed and then snorkeling with him around the reef. The diving was also SWEET. Ryan accompanied me on my first night dive into the darkening blue water. One of the scariest things in the world is shutting off your torch when you are about 30 feet below the surface in the middle of the ocean!! Ahh, it is extra scary when you shut off your light while surrounded by coral and you cant figure out how to turn it back on - you become totally helpless for a few seconds!!! While snaking around the tall coral pillars in the area, I shined my torch on a 3 foot white tip shark. The little guy was mildly interested in my torch and my presence. He swam around for about 30 seconds in my area as I shined my light directly on him and rang my carabineer on the metal clip of my BCD to alert Ryan of our first shark sighting! Soon after, I spotted 3 feet of a green eel’s tail. As I looked a little further down I saw another 2 feet of the eel hanging in the middle of some coral! This eel had to be 7 feet long! I could have touched it (due to the fact that it was sleeping), but I thought that maybe that wouldn’t be the BEST idea, lol~ and I didn’t want my Mom to get worried if, say, I lost an arm 
The rest of the night consisted of eating fish, some banana strawberry jello, crashing on the saloon benches, stumbling up to the upper deck, crashing there, and slowly making my way to my cabin and floating into bed (I like adjectives!).

---