Belize, Day 1 & 2

So, Belize! Michelle and I wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been, so we'd be on equal footing, and not know what to expect. I'd had a little Central America flavour from my trip to Honduras a few years ago, so I thought I knew what to expect. But I was wrong.

For one thing, one of Belize's national languages is English...which instantly makes it feel a bit weird. It's like a tourist attraction of a Central American country for English speakers. All the people speak near-perfect English, the signs are all in English, and American money is good anywhere. It's weird.

However, as soon as you leave the airport (in the amazingly named "Ladyville") the first sight is the Belikin Brewery - self-proclaimed beer of Belize. Says so right on the bottle. Later we learned that this is a major source of employment for a lot of people in Belize City and the neighbouring towns.

The cab from the airport to the water taxi was pretty telling however, as we rode through the town full of construction site, torn down homes, empty lots, bits and pieces of places...and brand name banks, gas stations, and restaurants that wouldn't be out of place back home. It's a weird dichotomy...Shell station! Gravel pit. Scotiabank! Half-built house with corrugated steel roof. Our driver took the backroads to avoid traffic, trying to get us to our ferry on time...we went through an awfully poor part of town (though it looks like most of it is really poor) and it shows as soon as you're off the beaten track even slightly. People filleting fish at the side of the road, barbecuing in half an oil drum...it was definitely eye-opening.

We got to the water taxi terminal and everything changed. Suddenly, we were surrounded by white people, and cheerful native Belizians offering us beer and passage to San Pedro, on a little caye called Ambergris, where we were headed. I had a beer in the terminal, which I was told I could take on the boat as long as I poured it in a styrofoam cup. Beer is fine at sea, but not glass. A whole pile of us crammed into the busy water taxi.

It was nice. Everyone was bustling and talking. The day was hot but the boat breeze was nice, and with us sitting right in front by the open window, it was not bad at all.


Going back in the day a bit...we'd started this endeavour at 3am. Left for the airport at 3:30, flew out of Toronto at 6:45, got into Atlanta around 10. After a quick layover, and a short jaunt a gate or two over, we jetted off to Belize City from Atlanta, getting in for around 12:45 Belize time (which is an hour back of us). Then the cab to the water taxi, then the water taxi for two hours, then finally a short walk through town to our hotel. It was a long long long day. We were exhausted, but we managed to haul ourselves down the beach for a quick bite to eat and a check-in with the scuba powers that be, to find out when we'd be diving.

The answer - was on Day 2!!!

Day 2:

Early night's sleep plus late morning start = nice full-length sleep, for the first time in AGES. Woke up, put my underwater housing together, and sauntered down to the dive shop. We got kitted up and then waited...we were supposed to leave at 9:30, but everyone was on island time. We waited.

Met some nice folks who were coming out on the boat with us. Lo and behold, they turned out to be from Sudbury, of all places. We connected as Canadians and shared dive anecdotes before boarding the boat.

It was Michelle's 3rd dive ever, and 1st one in the ocean. 1st time in warm water, 1st time on a coral reef, 1st time around marine life...it was a big dive of firsts for her, but it wound up being a lot of firsts for me to...because as soon as we got in - we were surrounded by sharks!

I've always wanted to dive with sharks! I've seen one or two here and there, but it's always a big event...this was mind-blowing! First thing when we got in the water, there they were! Not one, or two but five or six! Nurse sharks, mind you, not real sharks, but still! It's still so amazing to see them gliding through the water all graceful and dangerous. They're like dogs though...they'll come play at your feet, and come up and say hello, but as my Dad is fond of saying, "You're not on the menu."

Nurse sharks are really docile and are more like catfish than sharks. I'm not even sure they have real teeth [citation needed]. Anyway... it was pretty amazing. Some of the girls we were with were tickling the sharks. I got some cool footage of them swimming around. They make it look so easy.

The trip was full of awesome sights though, including giant underwater canyons...

Bright green barrel sponges...

Brain coral...

and big grouper!

All the sea life was pretty friendly, and willing to let us get right in there with our noses, and cameras if applicable. Michelle even spotted a lionfish! But it was too quick for me to get a good shot of it.

For Michelle, it was an epic first sea dive...and an unbelievable third dive ever. For me - it was unbelievable to finally get to see sharks up close, and in great numbers! That, coupled with the amazing canyons we could swoop through...it was a pretty excellent pair of dives. 

Toward the end, we saw a massive nurse shark, just sitting on the ocean floor, taking a nap. He or she was just chilling on the bottom, being cleaned fastidiously by a little remora. After we stopped to look for a bit, it decided it'd had enough of us eyeballing it and got up...swam right towards me! I got a cool shot of it shaking out the cobwebs and cruising along right underneath me, off to...wherever it is that sharks go.

It was a strong start to our Belizian diving...and put a lot of pressure on the dives to come! The stakes had been raised, but we still have the famed Blue Hole and the aptly named Aquarium yet to come. Lots to look forward to.

After our dives we wandered inland, dropped of our kit, and had a peek downstairs in our hotel's little plaza. We were sadly too late to get in on a trivia night that had started already, but we had some beers anyway, went for a quick dip in the pool, and picked up some late-night falafel from a spot called "Ali Baba's". We were both exhausted and full, so after a short bite and a quick stay, we were back to the hotel to catch a nap before tomorrow's long day...exploring the Mayan ruins of Lamanai!

We'd packed a lot in the first full day...and it certainly took a lot out of us. But more adventures await!

Catch you tomorrow!


-Jeff

Florida Keys - Day 06

THIS was the one I was really looking forward to. The General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. Second-largest artificial reef in the world at a whopping five hundred and twenty two feet long, sitting in about 150 feet of water. Two big radar dishes on top. I was jacked. Pumped. Stoked. Other positive adjectives. Plus, it was nice to go out with the same boat and the same folks two days in a row.

Got to the dive shop early am after a good night's sleep. Ah! The first of precious few! What a DIFFERENCE a good night's sleep makes! I was hoppin' and boppin' around in the car, sippin' my coffee and listening to the Ricky Gervais XM radio show of olden times. Felt amazing. Cruising down the Overseas highway.  Watching the sun come up.

The sun cracked open like a soft-boiled egg over the big clouds low over Key West. I rolled into town, right up to the dive shop like I owned the place. Parked, grabbed my camera, and strolled through the Hyatt, past the turtle tank, past the quiet parrot, and out onto the dock.

I saw some familiar faces from the day prior, both in the crew and the participants. Made fast friends with a british family not afraid of cold water, but sad their son with ear trouble couldn't join them on their dive. We chatted, and because there were an uneven number of us, I got tacked on to a buddy pair as the big ol' third wheel. But we all had cameras, so somehow it seemed right.

We hopped into the water and were immediately surrounded by jellyfish. Tons of them. The current was mild though, in spite of what we'd expected. Those of us not wearing wetsuits or exposure suits raced down the line as fast as we could, trying to escape the terrible tingling sting of the unknowing jellyfish. Before we could even get halfway down, the ship began to emerge from the blue, in all its massive splendor.

We settled down on the deck, and almost immediately, the current started up. We were on the wrong side of the boat for it to, in danger of being blown off the wreck altogether. I tried to duck behind the side of the ship to stay out of the wind. This thing was huge. 

The craziest thing about the Vandenberg is that because it hasn't been down there very long, it's remarkably intact...and thus, really eerie. It feels like at any moment, someone's going to step out of a doorway and onto the deck, ready to do a days work at sea, oblivious to the fact that their ship has indeed sunk.

There are still ladders, doorways, flags, ropes, all things that belong above-water. It's very bizarre to see...somehow it's like it just doesn't belong...or you don't belong. Maybe you've slipped into the afterlife where all the world is flooded, and you were none the wiser. Maybe this is what it's like to be a ghost, floating lightly through the graveyard of a world that's moved on, leaving ships and human endeavour behind.

We also saw a barracuda on the hunt, hustling to stay still in the current, eyeing up a school of fish nearby.

And hilariously, a jellyfish, caught up in the current, got stuck on the side of a pole on the ship, like a newspaper on a telephone pole swept up in the wind. 

It couldn't move...it was trapped in the heavy current, like a cartoon.

There were a number of elevator shafts that just went black after a few feet. Apparently most of them go right to the seafloor, at 150 feet. That's deeper than divers can go, until you get into the tech side of things. 

This massive satellite dish is called the skeleton dish, and was the smaller of the two satellites on board. We didn't make it across the the second one, sadly. 

It was an incredibly haunting experience, and I don't think i'll forget it as long as I live. It's very strange looking at these pictures and saying to myself "I was there...I was actually there."

The second dive of the day we were hoping for Vandenberg part 2, and the Captain of our boat said that's what he was hoping for, but some internal shop politics got in the way, and the shop radioed out to say that we had to go to Joe's Tug. Nobody was really happy about it...the captain says usually it's captain's call, but someone had booked the charter today, and it was Joe's Tug for sure. We were sad...I could've done 10 dives on the Vandenberg and not been bored. Truly, this was a dive deserving of the moniker "Awesome". It genuinely inspired awe. 

Joe's tug was no Vandenberg, but it was no slouch either. The Captain told us this fantastic story of how it was sunk by a few Key West drunks in the middle of the night. It had been sitting, rotting in the harbour for ages, and the plan was to intentionally sink it (on the site the Vandenberg now sits), but it had been put off, put off, and put off. Finally, a number of the local boat captains, after a heavy night of drinking decided that now was the time. 3:30 am, the captain of our boat handed them a case of beer and set them off into the night. He opted not to go along. With the coast guard boat just across the harbour, these three maniacs towed Joe's Tug out into the bay, aiming for their targeted site. However, the ages it had spent rotting in the harbour meant it was taking on a lot more water than they'd expected. Eventually, there was nothing to do but cut the lines with hatchets and let it sink - they'd pulled it as far as they could. One of the guys threw on his scuba gear and rode it down to the bottom.

The next day, during a dive, one dive boat radioed the other, shouting "Hey! Come this way! Joe found a tug-boat!!!" And Joe's tug became a dive site from that moment on.

It's seen better days, Joe's tug. A few hurricanes have blown through Key West, and it's been broken up and strewn about liberally. But a number of big chunks are still in tact.

We came down right on the bow, careful to avoid the fire coral on the end of the descent line. It was quite a bit bigger than it had looked on the surface. The best part is, the whole wreck is surrounded by reef, so you can't lose. It's either tugboat debris, or excellent reef. 

Big, filter-feeding barrel sponges soaked up the nutrients from what little current there was. We saw all sorts of little fish, darting in and around the coral. 

The rear of Joe's tug is also more or less in tact, though partially buried in the sea bed. We found all sorts of bits and pieces. Ropes, gas tanks, coils of cable. Very cool.

Some fish took refuge in a crevice that had opened, to stay out of the current. 

My dive buddy also spotted a puffer fish! It was tucked in a little crevice, but decided to come out for a swim. We had a look, and I followed him around a little bit for some footage. Just a little guy, but with the most incredible eyes. It looked like there was a whole universe in those eyes. 

A mighty barracuda presides over his domain, in the gloom.

More fish take shelter from the wind, tucked behind the boat. 

I'm not sure what kind of fish this was, but it was extraordinarily well camouflaged. My dive buddy spotted this one too...I don't know how people spot these things sometimes. It's slightly more visible from me altering the contrast, but to the naked eye it was nigh unseeable. It makes you wonder about all the things you don't see when diving...things your eyes have roamed over a hundred times.  

The fuel tanks were particularly cool to see...very sobering, reminding you that this was a real ship that did real work, and not just a decoration for divers to enjoy. You can see the fire coral all over the prow of the ship...that I managed to avoid all the way to the end of the dive, until I was taking this photo above. Suddenly, the current surged and I was pushed into it, and came out with a nasty welt on my shoulder. Fire coral means business. Ow. 

That was the last of the diving in Key West, and sadly, the last of the diving on this trip as well. Tomorrow it was off to meet my family up in Sarasota, to begin the rest & relaxation portion of the trip. It was a departure, but at the same time, I was excited to stop waking up early, driving for hours, and rushing about to pack in everything a day needs. I already missed diving though. I missed it so much. The idea of not getting underwater the next day made me genuinely sad. If I were to do this trip again, I think I would just dive the Vandenberg and the Spiegel over and over and over again. Those giant ships are just in a category of their own...it's too much to even comprehend, and you spend your whole dive in awe and disbelief. You are here, and this is real, regardless of how bizarre and unlikely it might feel. This ship had a life once, and the people on it had lives as real to them as your life is to you. It's a whole other world, and now, it's only experienced by the lucky few who have the chance to descend to its depths. I won't forget it. 

Hopefully, next year, I'll return to do it again.

-Jeff

Florida Keys - Day 05

Yet ANOTHER false start! This one was in NO WAY my fault. And it's probably just as well.

After the long, long drive last night, and prepping my camera for diving, I got to sleep at about 3:30. I then woke up at 5:30 to drive down to Key West for my dive. Two hours sleep was not really enough. I snagged a double espresso at the gas station. Still stopped for a 15 minute nap en route.

I finally rolled into Key West a few minutes later than I needed to. Pulled up to the dive centre around 8:30 and raced inside asking if I was too late to catch the morning boat. "We didn't go out." he says. "Why?" I asked. "Too rough. 4-6 foot swells."

I was diving those in Key Largo! Why not here? The guy was grumpy too, and didn't have a great attitude. I was frusturated. AGAIN, I'd gotten up super early, and AGAIN, I would not dive. Unbelievable. I stormed down the street to another dive shop, and asked if the conditions were so bad that they wouldn't go out in them. The guy goes "Nah, our boat's out right now. We went out." Could you take me in the afternoon, I asked. "Well we're full up...but if you wanna stick around for a little, there's always cancellations. Come back in a bit when i'll know for sure."

He seemed like a really nice guy, and he was really trying to help me out. He even called a couple of other shops to see if anybody else had room. I cooled my jets and went to have a good breakfast to try to relax. I'm a breakfast person, and normally a relaxed person, so I figured one return to form might bring along another.

Wasn't much in terms of a greasy spoon breakfast joint in Key West...it mostly operates at night, so at 9 in the morning it's largely a ghost town...with the exception of the giant novelty tour bus shaped like a train that drives through the streets, towing little carts shaped like train cars. It rumbles along at all hours. I wound up at a Denny's, which was actually pretty good.

At the risk of being offensive...down here in South Florida, being ludicrously overweight could be a sport. People go hard. It's a little bit scary. I saw a woman in Dennys who easily is the largest human being i've ever seen in real life. How do you get to be that size? Isn't there a point where you see yourself and think, you know, maybe I should eat a bit less. It's like there's no filter. She struggled to her feet over a period of minutes, every movement accompanied by laboured breathing. She genuinely had trouble just standing up. It was obscene. It made enjoying a greasy Denny's breakfast a little more difficult than usual. But I digress.

Key West is the southernmost point in the United States, and boy do they want you to know about it. Everything is "The Southernmost Dive Shop!", "The Southernmost Ice Cream!", "The Southernmost Duck Tour!". Because if there were two coffeeshops, why would you drink coffee at the Second Southernmost coffeeshop? You wouldn't want to come that far and then fall just short, after all. So I had breakfast at the Southern Most Denny's.

You better believe it!!! Don't think even for a second that anyone was having breakfast south of me. Not at a Denny's in the continental United States, that's for goddamn sure.

After breakfast, I stepped into a little local coffee shop across the road (the southernmost, i'm sure) and sat down to write the blog I'd missed the previous day. I sipped a nice coffee, and relaxed. It was good. I checked out some of the footage I'd gotten. I was pleased. Once 12:45 rolled around, I went back to the dive shop to see if I was going to get in the water today.

Lo and behold, Southpoint came through for me and got me out, full gear, on an afternoon boat. The swells had subsided significantly, so the seas were pretty reasonable on the way out. This did not stop a number of people from getting seasick. I've never seen so many seasick people on dive boats in my life as I have in Florida. It's bizarre. But I got in the water! We did two dives at Eastern Dry Rocks and at the imaginatively named Sand Key.

Saw a big, BIG barracuda that I tried to mostly keep away from. He kept prowling around the place like a wolf.

The surge was up big time so most of the dive was spent trying not to crash too violently into the coral. All the sea fans and other filter feeders folded gently in the rocking breeze.

It was nice though. Really shallow, so very bright, colourful, and full of fish.

The nice thing about shallow dives, is the colour red. You see, red is the widest wavelength, which is why it appears first in the rainbow; and as such is the first to be filtered out by water. It's so wide it gets refracted out all over the place, and then removed altogether. At around 60 feet it starts to appear desaturated, by 90 it's almost completely vanished, and at 100 red simply appears gray to the naked eye. When you shine a flashlight on it at depth, you can see it vibrantly, because only a small amount of water is between the light and the red object. But shallow dives let you see all the reds in all the fish and coral, and it's quite vibrant and a noticeable difference.

The big highlight of this trip was on the second dive. We surfaced after the first and compared notes with the other divers. Some folks had seen a Nurse Shark, others saw Dolphins tear by at full speed...the boat was full of chatter of all the wild and dangerous wildlife we'd all seen below the sea. I'd only seen the barracuda...and...well, I mean a parrotfish might give you a nasty nip. But on the second dive, I saw a big 6 or 7 foot Nurse Shark.

Not an amazing photo but I was trying to stay at a reasonable distance. A real nurse shark this time, by daylight it was easy to identify. It was tucked under a little overhanging bulge of coral, doing its best to stay out of the surge. It still was tossed around a little bit though, but man...what a cool thing. We got right up close to it. Maybe...four feet away? So cool. I've seen precious few sharks diving, so it was a real treat. My dive buddy was similarly impressed, holding up his arms like a fisherman would, in awe of the size of this fantastic animal. The rest of the dive was not highly eventful, but very nice. Beautiful reef, beautiful coral formations, and lots of fish. All bundled together trying not to be tossed about in the surge. Like schoolkids waiting for the bus in a blizzard. The sunlight broke the water's surface and we leisurely swam back to the mooring line to make our ascent.

 We were the last two back on board for the first dive, so we made a point of getting back in decent time for the second one. I'd lost track of what time it was, since my computer likes to show you how long you've been down, and not what time it actually is...though i've since learned how to see both. We powered back to Key West in the afternoon sun, warm and happy and a little soaked from the spray coming over the side of the boat. Today was a good day.

I stopped outside Key West for some good mexican food just off the Overseas Highway. Eating in restaurants by oneself is a bit weird...though something you get used to when travelling alone. Especially in a place as tourist-thick as this...servers usually know. The bill arrives as i'm finishing the main course, with still half a beer to go. Doesn't matter that I haven't asked for it. They seat you by the window, if there is one, but often in a corner where there's room. You get great service, because they know you won't be there long. Not talking whilst eating really shortens your visit. Good food, though. 

As I travelled back to my hotel room along the highway, I pulled over to remark on something I'd seen before...a little zeppelin, coasting along above the keys. It was much further east than the last time I'd seen it, and it reminded me of a lonely little fish, in the sea of the sunset sky.

As it coasted off into the moonrise, I couldn't help but think about the vastness of the earth...just as you've gotten a peak into a world that's not ours, you're reminded of the size and magnitude of the world that is. Key west is ever so small, in the grand scheme of things...and we have so many places still to go. The sun is hot, and the night is warm.

It's nice.

-Jeff

Florida Keys - Day 04

I did it! I got in the water.

After an exhausting and exasperating day yesterday, dashing all over Jupiter and spending most of my time reading, I finally managed two dives. Thank goodness.

Woke up early at the Super 8 and scarfed a continental breakfast. What was continental about it, i'm not sure. It might as well be called the "minimum effort breakfast". But I digress.

Drove up the highway with the stupidest name in the world; US Highway A1A Alternate (there's no US Highway A1A regular, just to clarify) and arrived at the dive centre with time to spare. Loaded my free rented gear onto the boat, calibrated my dive computer for the Nitrox mix I would be diving, and off we set!

For those that don't know, Nitrox is sort of the opposite of what it sounds like. It's not extra Nitrogen, but extra Oxygen in your air mix. Standard air is 21% Oxygen, 70% Nitrogen, and 10% miscellaneous. Nitrox can be anywhere from 24% Oxygen, up to 50% Oxygen (for the truly brave, and the tech diving crowd). The reason you would want this in your tank is because often, it's not lack of air that limits your bottom time, it's loading too much Nitrogen into your blood. After a dive, you have a surface interval before your next one, so that your body can off-gas the excess Nitrogen it's built up by breathing air at depth. Because the air is being compressed by the ocean, the deeper you are, the more air you consume in one breath, and thus, the more Nitrogen you take on in one go. Nitrox lets you stay down deep longer, and lets you have a shorter (or non-existant) surface interval. But as always...there's a catch.

You want to avoid building up Nitrogen in your blood because of a fun thing called Nitrogen Narcosis...it's basically like being a bit stoned. Like when the dentist gives you Nitrous Oxide, and you feel silly and giggly. This is a problem because people will do things like offer their regulator to a sea turtle, and then drown. With Nitrox, you avoid this risk, but you get a much scarier one...Oxygen Toxicity.

Because you're building up extra Oxygen in your body rather than extra Nitrogen, you get to fear the demon of Oxygen Toxicity. When the Oxygen Partial Pressure of your body reaches 1.6 (this is the pressure the extra oxygen in your blood exerts on the rest of the gasses in you) you'll tense up. Your limbs seize, you have convulsions, sometimes blackouts, and of course then there goes your regulator and you drown. So - you can stay down longer, but you have a very, very serious maximum depth to worry about.

Fortunately, you can just punch the mix into your computer, and it'll tell you your Oxygen Partial Pressure at any given time, and warn you if you get too close to your maximum depth. It's a little nerve wracking though when you're skirting the edges of it. Picture this:

You'll be at the side of a sunken ship, and you see something cool on the sand below it. Maybe a goliath grouper or something else amazing. You want to go check it out. You look down and your computer says you're about 5 metres above your maximum depth. The oxygen sat numbers patiently flash 1.21...(1.4 is danger, 1.6 is extreme danger, over 1.6 is convulsions, and likely death). You're well within your limits...and it doesn't look that far. How tall is this ship anyway? So you descend. Slowly.

The number rise and sink accordingly...4 metres, 3 metres, 1.24, 1.28...and you're torn between looking where you're going, and looking at your wrist. You pop your ears to relieve the pressure. Another diver swims by below you, and you feel better. Then you think wait...is he diving with the same Nitrox mix as me? Your eyes snap back to your computer, 2 metres, 1.5, this is getting a bit too close for comfort. How far is the bottom? Your oxygen numbers rise. Out of the corner of your eye, the other diver below you leisurely swims along the bottom, poking his head under the ship to see what secrets he can ferret out. Your computer starts beeping, startling you. You stop your descent, a little shaky, fearful of what's next. 

Why did I even come down here again?

It's very easy to be swept away but all the amazing things the ocean has to tease you with. Everything is foreign down here, even man made objects are transformed into fish villages, new reef, and predator stomping grounds. But you have to remember that you do not belong here. We're so luck to even see this much. We have to know our limits. Especially the ones we impose on ourselves. 

It's not all so scary as that though. If there's something interesting, and it looks too deep to go...you just leave it :P

Anyway... I got WAY off course there. I was talking about these dives. The first one was awesome - they called it the Wreck Trek. Three shipwrecks, all within a couple hundred metres of each other. The weird thing is, due to some odd Atlantic undercurrents, some days the water's beautiful, other days it's quite cool, and today in particular it was 25 degrees....right up until about 80 feet. Then you pass through a thermocline, and it abruptly drops to 19 degrees C. Glad I took a full-body wetsuit.

 

It was a pretty cool dive (no pun intended) and in spite of the current up top, the bottom current was pretty easy to deal with. We drifted over each of the three wrecks in turn, doing a couple neat swim-throughs and seeing a couple of massive Goliath Grouper. They were each about the size of a person. I didn't get a good photo of one, but I did roll a bit of footage on one that came right up close to me. That'll be still to come. 

The first ship was called the Zion, but I can't remember the names of the others. Fairly small, except for the last, but with a lot of wildlife hanging out. We dove with a spearfisherman who spotted and killed 6 lion fish (they're an invasive species here, and you'll see wanted posters for them). He was an interesting character...first one down and last one up on each dive, and going deeper than most of us. Must've been part fish. All in all, a pretty excellent dive.

After surfacing, we found most of the Americans so shaken by the cold, that no less than six people opted out of the second dive. I couldn't believe it! 19 is a little chilly, but hardly freezing, and these people were all in wetsuits! I felt as the only Canadian, I had to make it known that 19 degrees does not constitute cold water. I was met with mixed reactions. Anyway, more reef for the rest of us.

The second dive we did was on a reef nearby. It was pretty good, but not stunning. Though we did  have a few very spicy moments. The first came almost right away.

He was a little camera-shy, but this big 3 foot loggerhead turtle hung out with us for a little bit, before clumsily lumbering off to...whatever it is turtles have going on at 11 in the morning. That was a cool encounter.

We also saw a couple of massive goliath grouper, and again, I wasn't able to get great shots of them, but we did get to see them hustle at top speed under the reef, and they are fast for a fish that size! Must've been like 400 pounds. Although I kept hearing afterwards that for Goliath Grouper, those were quite small, and that there are ones seen often the size of a Volkswagen Microbus. That's crazy to imagine. These ones were big enough, thank you. I'd love to see one though. Maybe tomorrow...

Anyway, most of the ledge looked like this (above), coral, and small fish life. One or two lobsters under some rocks, and one crab who had seen the losing end of a serious fight. Maybe an eel? If so, he didn't come out to play. It was not a bad dive, but not an unbelievable one. And not as cold as the first!

I was relieved to finally be in the water, and diving all morning made me feel a lot better. I looked at my options for the afternoon...I needed to make up yesterday's dives, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do more diving in Jupiter. It was neat, but not amazing. I felt like the keys would have more to offer, so I figured I'd do a morning and an afternoon dive in Key West tomorrow.

In the meantime, I had a whole afternoon and evening to kill, and so when I realized I was 3.5 hours from my hotel, but only 3 hours from where my whole family had just arrived today, I decided to go surprise them for dinnertime.

I drove across the state of Florida, from the Atlantic side to the Gulf side, in just under 3 hours, and arrived just in time to catch my family sitting down for a beer before dinnertime! They were sufficiently surprised, and it was nice! We all went to the Outback, and had a great dinner together.

After coming back, I showed my Uncle my underwater shooting rig (he's a big cameraphile as well), gave my Dad the details on my arrival Tuesday, and took off back to the keys. It was a long, long night of driving, and I was really, really tired. I stopped a few times for naps.

Upon finally arriving (LATE) back to my hotel, I dumped my camera's cards, charged my batteries, assembled my housing and threw myself in bed as soon as was humanly possible. I had to wake up early to drive two hours to Key West in the morning, and it was looking like I was doing it on very little sleep. Oh well...warm water and big shipwrecks awaited me in the morning, and I couldn't wait! Another great day under the sea.

'till then!

-Jeff