Underway

Sun rays beamed down into the deep blue water, illuminating the faded rope that ended in a small weight, hanging just barely in sight in the clear Fijian sea. I held onto the buoy the rope was tied to, floating at the surface and staring at the weight 20 meters below me. I was familiar with this depth as a concept; I’d scuba-dived around it and Cayuse could anchor in it, but I’d never thought about sending my body down there unaided, willfully.

I’d been sailing with my parents on Cayuse, an Outremer 51, for a year at this point; we were circumnavigating with the World ARC. After graduating college

I had joined them, and while sailing itself took up most of our time, I needed a new hobby to give myself a sense of purpose. Matt, my boyfriend and our other crewmember, and I had signed up for an SSI Freediving course at Mantaray Bay; I wanted a challenge, and Matt saw it as fun and a useful skill for cruising.

A siren wailed from shore after we dropped anchor in deep water off the Mantaray Island Resort, an

The author on the bow of Cayuse, an Outremer 51, as they approach the Yasawa islands of Fiji—a place known for manta rays.