The Dive

I was on a ship for 3 months (one day I will tell you of the other exploits I had on that ship) and one of the best moments that the crew and I had was the swim stops.

The captain would stop the ship between transits and the bosun (the boss of the deckhands) would inform us that we can have a swim.

But not so fast and easy for me. At that time I was an assistant cook and I had to do my job first. Usually the swim stops were 5:30 or 4:30 just as when I was my busiest in the galley….*SiGh* Sayang…Inggit ako to the max.

Oh well. All I saw was the telltale wet footprints in the hallway trailing after the erstwhile swimmers for the day. After we cooked, the others would tell me how good the water was…wwwwwaaaaaa!

Although I was able to swim in the last swim stop….hehehehe..much to my pleasure…all for 10 minutes. I was just warming up and the captain said ok ok in 5 minutes we need to leave because the chief engineer said we have to test the engine. DRAT!

Then right after he said that, the greywater (THE SEWAGE) started coming out of OUR side of the ship. Mmmmm yummy! Luckily the current was moving AWAY from us.

BUUUUTTT! I digress. Anyway.

We were anchored in Thailand for more than a month and after putting in 8 hours of hard work, we had swim o’clock at 5 pm! EVERYDAY.

Happy happy joy joy!

I was in my element! We had fun jumping off the boat and diving. I eyed the bulkhead (THE WALLof the ship). My friend Paul was diving HEADFIRST (btw, from that height, the distance from the top of the bulkhead and into the water was like 2 1/5-3 meters, which was too high for me to dive in headfirst)

AHA! Since I could dive headfirst now from FOUR ft hight maybe I could do it from that height….?

Paul encouraged me and he said “Ah its easy!Just dive in headfirst”

Sounded so easy.Piece of cake. Like taking that first bite of liver (which I hated eating until I was 25)

SO I jumped.Jaysus.susmaryosep scheissendreck!

ANG SAKIT!!! (translation for my non-english speaking friends IT HUUURTS!)

I smacked on the water. The minute my head cleared the surface, ang nasabi ko na lang…ooohhhh gggooooooddddd ang sakiiitttttt….

Everything smacked on the water. My thighs, my boobs, my arms…araaaayyyy.

After a day, I got my badge.

And here in glorious technicolor is the aftermath of my dive.

Hhehehehee..it was worth it. Nothing doing. Now I can dive headfirst from FIVE FEET!