Morning started with a dive,  woke up with my ears feeling congested. This afternoon we were to do “Coral Watch”, assess the coral for bleaching. Had a class on Coral Health. The coral reef has a very narrow temperature range to thrive, approx 72-85 degrees F. With the sea temperature rising due to climate change. Other risk factors such as  pollution and land run off, combined the reefs around the world are dying.  When coral is threatened, it spits out the algae, that helps it feed, then begins to die and turn white, called “bleaching”. Today we will dive with underwater writing slates to assess the bleaching on certain coral indicator species.

For me, I was also busy today planning for tonight. I dropped bits of my standup throughout the week, and they laughed. Tonight, our last night on the Island, I was to try my stand up. I am unsure if you can make it educational and still funny enough?  Instead of being the ham, I wanted to include everyone. I organized the first in the history of Reef CI, “TALENT NIGHT”. I hit up all staff and guests for their artistic abilities.  Several said, “I have no talent”. I made suggestions and help them find one. Polly, Director of Reef CI, started by thanking everyone and gave her favorite quotes about the beauty of the ocean. Some just gave their favorite quote, read a poem, Tracy made drinks for her talent.

Ben was the emcee, “Master of Ceremonies”, as the Brits say, “Brilliant”.

The ladies from the kitchen, sang and danced. One girl juggled fire, Poi.

Another juggled and others did magic tricks. Only one person, I could not get to participate, not a bad average, all things considered.

Guess I was the headliner, the last.
I talked about erectile dysfunction, mainly geared to older men, but told the younger ones this is what they have to look forward to. I had re written much of the material, after my Professor Donnie let me practice in my audio production class. It was so helpful to see which jokes bombed or flew. This was my first time to actually present to a group. I got laughs, even on jokes, I was not sure about. After talking about men, it only seemed fair to discuss women. After a disclaimer about the graphic nature of discussing women’s issues and anatomy, I proceeded just off the cuff.  Begin with the startling statistic that a third of women had never had an orgasm, ever. Men would never put up with that. How women got screwed with the location of our anatomy, etc. Went over very well. Hope I can remember it all to write it down.

We did the verbal talent inside because the wind was blowing hard and loud. We moved outside for the final acts. Capt Roland, for his talent, built a huge bonfire.  Adrian and Brittany the chefs, sang and danced. Sami did fire juggling, and Haley did some contortionist moves.

The night was a great success. Everyone had fun and it created more camaraderie in the group. I felt love/lust in the air after my sexual comedy, plus the aphrodisiac nature of diving, but not for me. Just the fond memories of those “long naps” after diving with Randy.  In other ways, it was a perfect night, a roaring fire under a palm tree canopy,  feeling the cool breezes, the sound of the ocean, bright stars above and music playing in the background. I tried to imprint that moment on my mind forever.