I had two things on my mind going to sleep and catching the boat. My brother, my dad and I hopped in the car and drove to the harbor. Dad paid for parking as Nathan and I went to catch the boat.
"Tom VanKosh" an employee on the boat said.
"Yes, Quinn and Nathan VanKosh too" Dad said
The skipper and the crew greeted us and we sat down. The boat was medium size with two floors. The first floor had the snorkel gear and scuba gear. It also had a small kitchen. We got to the first reef. The diving instructor came up to me and said you will be second so you can go snorkeling for a bit. I was thrilled that I was going diving for my birthday but I was nervous because dad told me how hard and dangerous it was. I grabbed my snorkel stuff and jumped into the water. A jellyfish came right in front of my face and stung me. But it didn’t hurt. It just felt like a bee sting. Just lasts a lot longer.
I sat there worried I wouldn’t go scuba diving. The diving instructor came and told me it was my turn. I told myself that I did not get stung and somehow it worked. The small pain went away. I sat on a step and the diving instructor gave me the gear. I checked my regulator and my gauge.
"Listen carefully" the instructor said.
He told me to stand up and I almost fell backwards.
"Hold your mask and take a big step in" the instructor said.
"A small step for Quinn, a big step for VanKosh" I said told myself and took the step in.
The gear felt a lot lighter in the water. The instructor signaled me to go down. I looked down to see fish swimming by and the coral getting closer. I popped my ears and kneeled on the sandy sea floor. My instructor made the ok signal. And I made the same back. We went over reefs and under reefs. The two of us got to an open spot. A giant clam sat at the sea floor. I reached my hand in the clam and the monster clam snapped closed. I pulled my hand out easily because of the slimy lips of the clam.
Together we went on swimming with the fish. Then I saw a clown fish.
"Nemo" I said to myself.
We watched as the small clown fish kept poking his head out. It became comfortable with me and came out to say hello. We left the nemos there.
We slid on the seafloor until a stingray came one meter in front of me. It was covered in sand. Only the eyes of the stingray were visible. A fish came by and scared the stingray. We came across another stingray. This one was spotted with little blue spots. We made our way up. I sat down and got out of the gear.
"Now, you’re going to want to go on the second dive, right?" dad said.
"You bet" I said.
I went to eat and I talked about my dive.