Was I glad to see land after that boat ride.  The island, Tom Owen Caye, was smaller that I imagined.  There were many building made of coral. The main building, 2 stories, contained the public rooms, lounge, dining room, and guest rooms.   Throughout the grounds, round, stone/coral cabanas dotted the grounds. I wanted to stayin one, but they did not have private baths, always a plus. I got a private room in the main building in the back side, facing the ocean, with 2 queen beds and a private bath. Don’t think I ever closed my door once.
Lunch was waiting for us, Nachos. There was introduction to all the staff, there was much more staff than volunteers/guests.  We had time to settle in our rooms, after a short tour.

Had a dive briefing. There is a shore dive planned to check out our gear, check buoyancy.  Divers were assigned a buddy if they  were solo. I was assigned this cute, young British guy, who was also a divemaster. I just knew he had to prefer on of the young cute girls, but got me. He was very sweet and helpful, but most of all he “got” my wicked sense of humor.  I had trouble with mask leak, and realized that I had packed Kasey’s mask. I did have a back up, that was fine. Had a little problem with buoyancy, first a little light on weights, the divemaster put an extra 4 lb. wt. into my BC pocket. Then I was a little over weighted, put some air in BC to compensate, but put too much. My ears equalized without much effort and all other gear worked fine. One of the divemaster’s, Steven, I was to later learn, helped me. We became friends.  After our dive, we had dinner, and conversation until one by one or couple by couple retired for the night.