I was hours away from a weeklong liveaboard charter on a dive yacht. I was going scuba diving for seven days with 10 complete strangers. I was going alone.
I had gone on a similar trip with the same company a year and a half ago, in Belize, so I knew what was coming. There, I had an excellent time, and had absolutely no problem being a solo traveller. That gave me confidence to book another trip, and I was looking forward to some much-needed relaxation time.
So I was surprised when a few days before flying out, my misgivings flared up. Didn't I go through this last year and had my every fear put to rest? Well, I guess no matter how many times you do it, how much you 'grow up,' the first day of high school is kind of nerve-wracking.
I fly from San Francisco to Kona, Hawaii, and make my way to the Kailua-Kona pier to board the Kona Aggressor II for a week of manta rays, sharks, coral, fish, gear talk and fine dining. The weather was not ideal, with some rough swells making their way into our sheltered side of the island, but it was far from bad, with sunny skies and calm enough water to make every single dive.
Five dives a day included a night dive, and let us see a wide variety of life, from tiny nudibranches hidden among coral to hammerheads cruising by to check us out.
The routine of breakfast-dive-snack-dive-lunch-dive-snack-dive-dinner-dive-sleep-repeat was an excellent change of pace from 2 weeks of visiting family and friends, traveling between states via bus or car every other day, or 9 months in Chad solving everyone's problems. It was a real, grown-up vacation, where you pay your money and you get your relaxation.
Now it's time to call the office to see what my next posting is.
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