Eliza and Sean

Every Tuesday our community gathers in the boathouse. During the past couple of meetings we have sent the hour discussing pressing issues and schedules for the week. Today, however, we decided to spice it up and shorten it. We started the meeting with an opportunity for people to voice their opinions and concerns, but kept this part as brief as possible. To get people moving, we transitioned into a game. We played “captains coming,” a game that requires people to obey the commands of a captain. In the game, we used nautical directions (port,starboard, bow, and stern) for running around. Throughout these directions we would yell a command, after which the participants would get together according to the command given. If people did not end up in a group, they would be eliminated and “walk the plank.” Tyler and Gaby were the victors, shunning out Justin Simmington for the win. The meeting ended with a 10 minute meditation led by Sean, which soothed and relieved our stresses of the day.
Our first group of students, the Ju-Jus, went on a Night dive. After dinner we hussled to assemble our gear and load the boats. As the sun began to set, the reality set in: we were going out and it would be dark. Kristen Key and Maxey prepped us for the dive with identification slides and what to expect. We all sat in the quickly darkening dive locker until finally we got on our boats. No lights were allowed to give better visibility to the boat captains. When we got to Tunnel Rock a few of us stumbled to put on our gear, but we finally got in the water. We descended in our buddy pairs, and spent the time observing nocturnal marine life. The sand phosphersants glowed and a southern ray was on the prowl around us. When we surfaced the stars above us were defined by the dark ocean. The glow sticks on tanks scattered underwater and then loaded on the boat around 9:15. We spent the boat ride sharing what we saw and I think we used the word “cool” enough times for the entire month.