We inflate our BCDs and bob on the surface. The water laps at our chests. I lick the salt off my lips. The humidity soothes my mouth, which is dry from breathing in straight oxygen. Everyone is quiet. There is a collective feeling of astonishment and joy. It feels like the moment during a concert where the entire crowd starts singing the lyrics to the same song. I relish knowing that I am just as affected by what we just saw as the strangers next to me.
Miguel and Vanessa scurry up the ladder first, pulling themselves out of the water easily, and lowering down a bucket for the rest of us. One by one, the group takes off their fins, shucks them into a bucket hanging off the side of the boat, and hoists themselves up the ladder with effort. Hugh and I are last.
‘You go.’ I gesture at the metal rungs bobbing in the ocean waves.
‘Ladies first,’ he replies. Even though he’s technically being polite, it feels pointed. I glare at him, but he doesn’t budge, his eyes sparkling an electric blue, water dripping off his eyelashes. Tired of waiting, and desperate for a drink of water, I haul myself, cloaked in heavy scuba gear, up the ladder while he watches.
We towel off and huddle in the shade of the captain’s room, balancing our lunches on our laps. We’re all seated once again on the worn vinyl, in our usual seats. Hugh and I are as far away from each other as we can be while still sitting on the same bench. Vanessa is eating with us, sitting next to Andrew. Miguel and Aaron are busy elsewhere.
The group quiets as we start to eat. The crew whipped up a series of grain-forward salads, a remarkable feat considering how small the ship’s kitchen is, and worlds better than the PB&J I was expecting. A bowl of fresh pineapple sits on Aaron’s chair.
‘That was incredible,’ Andrew says to Vanessa between mouthfuls.
‘This year is the best it’s been in years,’ Vanessa tells us. ‘The reef is just starting to recover from a bad bleaching event a few years ago, and the coral cover is coming back.’
‘Cool,’ Andrew says, ‘so the worst is over?’
‘Not exactly,’ Vanessa sighs. ‘Global warming won’t magically improve. And pollution is still a big problem,’ she says, ‘fertiliser from the nearby banana farms is really harming the reef.’ Vanessa gazes at the horizon. I nod vigorously.Vanessa is saying exactly what Millie thinks!I glance at Hugh. He’s pointedly staring at Vanessa. He’s not smiling.
Andrew looks sombre.
‘Garbage is also a big problem,’ Vanessa continues. She inclines her head towards the ocean. ‘Almost every dive I go on, I find plastic.’
‘So, the coral bleaching could come back?’ pipes up Natalie, surprising me, and by the looks of it, Hugh as well, with her interest on the subject.
Vanessa sighs and nods. ‘Every year we roll the dice on whether it will get worse,’ she says.
Natalie sits back in her seat, her expression blank. She whispers something to Derek, who nods. I wonder what she’s thinking. I glance at Hugh and he makes eye contact with me, raising his eyebrows triumphantly before settling back into the bench.
Any hope I had that to look for the butterfly wrasse in peace disappears. He knows I’m searching in hopes it will divert some fund-raising efforts towards pollution, and he thinks I’m not going to find it.
I want to ask Hugh if we can just agree to disagree, and not talk about it, so I wander to the front of the deck, hoping he will follow. There’s a platform on the hull of the boat that’s raised (it’s right over the portion that’s below deck), and it’s large enough to fit two or three people. I climb on top of it and sit myself up against the window to the crew’s room to stretch my feet out. The sun is bright, and I’m thankful I put on a large T-shirt before lunch. There’s a zero per cent chance I can make it through these few days without getting sunburn.
There’s a hammock right next to me that stretches from the window to the mast for the large sail, but I don’t want to be the person who claims the hammock immediately when it’s clearly the best seat in the house, so I stay put.
I gaze out across the ocean and take a deep lungful of salty air. The morning fog has completely lifted. White boats speckle the horizon, all of them appearing after we surfaced from our dive. They’re still far enough away that they’re just dots, and Aaron said they probably won’t come any closer.
‘So, what did you think of our first dive?’ Miguel asks me excitedly, interrupting my train of thought. He’s paused in front of me, mid-walk to the front of the boat.
‘I loved it.’
He bobs his head in agreement. ‘What’s not to love?’
‘I can’t think of a thing,’ I lie.Hugh Harris being on this boat is something I don’t love, I think.I am living a lie, and he is too close for comfort.
‘Have you been to this part of the world before?’ Miguel asks. His hands are full of equipment that looks heavy, but he’s carrying it like it’s air.
‘No,’ I shake my head, ‘but now that I’m here . . .’
‘Let me guess, you don’t want to leave,’ he fills in for me.
‘You caught me!’ I put my hands up, laughing. ‘Who can I bribe to get citizenship?’
Miguel laughs. ‘Hey, I was that way too.’ He shrugs. ‘It worked out for me.’
‘I can’t actually abandon my home to live a life of adventure . . .’
Miguel tilts his head, the smile on his face only getting bigger. ‘Why not?’ he asks, his voice lilting with charm.
