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The sun isn't quite peeking over the horizon when I board the plane, but it is beginning to stain the sky with pink and yellow beyond the silhouettes of the mountains. That's where I'm headed. I don't know if I've ever seen anything more beautiful in my life—but I say that about everywhere I go.

As the plane takes off, the color grows in the sky until it at last overtakes the diamond-studded starry night. From up here I can see the rows and rows of various mountain ranges, each band a different shade from scarlet to maroon receding into the distance.

I got the compressor started on the second or third try. Much better than the first time around, which was also the last, when I neglected to set the throttle to the "start" position and kept yanking the pull cord until I tired myself out before DA came along and pointed out my mistake. That was in between trips, which now is hard to believe was a whole three weeks ago. Or only three weeks ago, at that.

Even in the Caribbean, it isn't always sunny. It rains, quite a lot actually. Freak storms come in the middle of the day or night and dump until the cloud passes--often only minutes but sometimes longer. Just long enough to soak you.

More so than on the last trip, the days are just flying by now. On day six, we've completed Advanced Open Water (for all but one of the students, who's having ear problems) and we're beginning EFR. At the moment we're motor-sailing, en route to Sandy Island near Carriacou, where we'll meet up with the other boat and the crew of the Arc, another BR trip, for a bonfire on the beach. The weather looks like it should hold out better than it did last time, where it drizzled all evening and after just a few minutes the kids were ready to go home.

The last three weeks are a blur of activity in my mind: 41 dives, Advanced Open Water, Emergency First Response, Rescue Diver, and countless specialty courses run so fast into each other it's hard to remember what I did three days ago, let alone at the beginning of the trip. I've got three new countries' stamps in my passport, eight islands to the list of places I've visited, and a few dozen certifications under my belt. Part of me is relieved it's over, but it's a brief respite: a new batch arrives today and we get to do it all again.

It's a cool, calm, breezy evening in the Caribbean. It's 12:17 a.m. and it's been a long day, but I'm not quite ready to sleep yet.

We're anchored off the island of Canouan, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and day 12 of our three-week trip has come to an end. Already we've done 26 dives and completed Advanced Open Water and three specialty diver courses, as well as Emergency First Response. Tomorrow we begin rescue skills practice, and at the end of the trip we'll have a week to devote to fun diving and specialties,

I awake with a thud. Slightly dazed, I blink my eyes. "I'm awake..." I groan.

I'm also on the floor. It takes me a moment to figure out what happened, and as long to catch my breath. Someone, awakened by the noise, asks if I'm okay. Blearily, I nod and work my way to standing to survey the damage.

The hammock cord has snapped. I unclip the other end and start packing the hammock and my sleeping bag away.

Today we actually got to sail. Without the engine, gliding along on the waves by the power of nature.

We're not really adrift. We're anchored outside Grand Case (pronounced "Cass"), St. Martin, on the 46-foot catamaran Freya. There are 18 of us aboard, all Broadreach Caribbean staff—though not all of us Caribbean staff are here. Others are at "the pad" in Anse Marcel, where we set sail from two days ago. Still others have left on their programs already, or have taken off to prepare their boats for student arrivals.

Me, I don't leave until June 17.

Well, I didn't make the top 20 for the World Traveler Internship. So instead I'll be spending the summer aboard a sailboat in the Caribbean's Windward Islands: St. Christopher, Grenada... I'll be teaching advanced scuba courses to teenagers on three-week summer adventure camps.

These are the sort of programs I'd have died to go on as a teen, but I think it's much better this way. I'm a good role model: I don't drink, don't smoke, am fit and active, love life and adventure, and have the patience to deal with anything.