As someone who is already a light-sleeper (a trait I inherited from my mother), trying to do so in a moving boat over rough seas was pretty much futile. To illustrate how it felt, imagine two people laying on a thin cushion in a 6×6×6 cube. Now, place this cube aboard a B-17 bomber, 5 minutes from its target during WWII. That's exactly what it felt like - or at least the Hollywood rendition of it cause I surely wasn't alive then. There's the engine noise, the sound of the exploding anti-aircraft shells nearby (hull crashing into the waves), and all the shaking and rocking caused by them. I had visions of waves sweeping the deck of the ship (or rather, moping) and the two poor souls at the helm trying to hang on for dear life.

I think Laurel was pretty freaked out too. She looked to be asleep and mostly calm - she always claimed she could sleep through anything. However, I think we finally proved that theory wrong. Sometimes she can be pretty negative so I pictured her thinking we would never get out of this alive. The boat is going to sink and whatever is left of our bodies is going to be the main course for nearby marine predators while our families would go on asking themselves Why? It was just a vacation!

Ok, enough of the drama.

At around 4:15 am I was curious to see how things were above deck. I walked up and surprisingly enough it wasn't bad at all. Both Ryans were up there with Danielle. They seemed to be pretty calm and just goofing around. The waves looked larger but nothing out of the ordinary. I felt much relief and was pretty glad I had checked things out because I was planning on changing into swimming shorts and booties and wrapping myself in Laurel's poncho. Wouldn't I have looked like a super-freak!

Feeling better about our safety and once again expecting to see daylight the next day I decided to get what little sleep I could before 5:30. Combined I had probably slept a whopping hour. However, it was going to get worse before it got better.

As I remember it, once I laid back down, the sea started to feel rougher. I figured it was all my imagination considering how much better things were above deck. Well, I was wrong. At 4:45 am, the boat felt like it hit a huge wave - the sound was loud and it was followed by life vests falling on me and Laurel getting catapulted off the bed. Then, there was the sound of air tanks coming loose and rolling and banging against each other and all kinds of things on the deck.

Everyone started to head up to the deck. The hall was covered with everyone's stuff that had fallen out of their cabins. I ran to the front and started to help with the tanks - we took a couple below and secured the rest. At the stern, others doing the same with the other set of tanks. Most of us were on the deck by now with the exception of a couple of people throwing up below.

We drifted for a bit while we were stopped so Joe worked to steer the ship back on course. Laurel was feeling really nauseous now and refused to go back to bed. Isabel then came up warning everyone she was going to throw up. At 5 am Joe called on the next shift - half an hour early so, with that, Luke steered while I watched. Laurel finally couldn't hold it any longer and started throwing up as well. Tina was also above deck because Margaret had thrown up in her own cabin and was now asleep in Tina's. So far, we've all gotten to know each other rather well.

A bit before 7:00 am, Luke asked whose turn it's next. I pointed to Laurel and Isabel who were in no shape to do their watch. John took over for a bit and then I took over for him. I steered the boat until around 8:30 am at which time I went below deck and crashed with a vengeance.

I woke up to the sound of the boat slowing down. It was around 10:30 am. We were coming up on Bimini where we would be anchoring for a while. Things were definitely much calmer now, but the mess was still there.

The view was absolutely out of a brochure. Light green water, beaches, palm trees, and sun, sun, sun. We ate some breakfast - scrambled eggs, sausage, and fruit - and were given the go for some snorkeling. Laurel and I jumped in and swam to the beach. On the way we ran into dozens of tiny little jellyfish - which she originally thought were raspberries. These were dark while the ones I remember while growing up were always white.

From the beach we got a great view of the boat. I wanted to bring the camera over so I decided to swim back to the boat, inflate one of our air mattresses and come back. Laurel decided to stay - she just wanted to be on sturdy ground for a bit longer. Once on the boat, Wayne mentioned we would be heading out soon so I gave up on going back to shore. Instead I helped put up the tarp to provide us with some shade. I then took a few pictures and started inflating my mattress which seemed to take forever. Danielle helped me out a bit until Isabel offered to let us borrow her air pump. Once finished, I took a look at Laurel on the beach and realized she's taking a nap. I did the same.

Later, I saw Laurel swimming back to the boat. Someone mentioned we're not supposed to be on the beach anyways since we haven't cleared with customs - imagine that: Laurel is an illegal alien.

Once back we had lunch - sandwiches and Suddenly Salad. Joe started moving the boat to our dive site - 45 ft. coral reef - which is about a mile away. At some point I became part of the anchor crew: Greg, John, Luke, and I. Once the anchor was down, J.B., Greg, Laurel, Linda, and I started getting our stuff ready. I felt a bit nervous because during my check-out dives I wasn't able to equalize below 25 ft. so now I didn't want to ruin everyone's dive.

We all jumped in. Laurel, Linda, and I met at the anchor line by the bow. We started to descend but Linda had trouble doing so. Laurel went up to help her out. Linda decided to abort the dive. By now, Laurel had spent so much time fighting the surge, she couldn't equalize and tells me to go on by myself. I'm like, mhmm.. Ok.. I guess the buddy system is overrated.. I looked for J.B., Greg, Wayne, or Joe and couldn't see any of them, so I decided to go down to the bottom while hanging on to the anchor line - all of which was pretty damn easy after all. Once at the bottom I saw a barracuda staring at me so I started to feel a bit uneasy. With 2800 psi left, I surfaced.

At some point, Greg, Luke, and John got their first catch - a small yellowtail snapper - which they decided to use as bait for bigger things. Dinner was served - honey baked ham, alfredo noodles, and salad - and afterwards we started our sail across the North West Channel towards Andros. It was going to be a longer trip than the previous one, but the sea wouldn't be as rough. Wayne assigned our new watches with Luke and I coming on at 1:30 am. Around 10:00 pm, I was exhausted and crashed.