Back in the Keys!

I've been in Key Largo for a week! I had come down with Frank & Krista Pate, with the intention of heading for the boatyard at Lantana on Saturday. However, the steady march of Tropical Storms/Hurricanes, etc. across the Atlantic, plus the advice of the locals make this seem like a bad idea, so I'm going to postpone my boatwork until late October, if not later.

That being said, this has been a delightful trip. We spent 4 days on the water, alternating between taking Lou's powerboat "Jubilee" and my sailboat, "Harvey" on snorkeling excursions. The first day we took the Harvey towards White Bank and places thereabouts. We had to be careful every day about where we went snorkeling, as the Keys are in the worst Jellyfish bloom in anyone's memory. At some places we'd send one brave soul overboard to observe the condition of the water, and they (well, OK, I) would come right back up in a panic as Jellyfish were just everywhere. I got stung twice--not terribly bad, but certainly something you want to avoid.

The most spectacular place we saw was a reef with a wreck on it called "Uncle Tom's Wreck". This is a small reef, with the remains of a good-sized wooden boat covering a good portion of its 150+ foot length. It was absolutely covered with living, brilliantly colored coral, and thousands of fish, with a large portion of them juveniles. We saw huge schools of baby Sergent Majors and all sorts of Angelfish--Grey, Queen, and French. Also Trumpetfish, Puffers, Porkfish, Parrotfish, Barracudas--you name it. Another remarkable thing was that Lou, with his 20 years of living in the keys, had never been there, so it was new for everyone.

Lou and Chase were delightful hosts and showed us all a great time. I'm looking forward to coming back in October with Tracy for an Intro to Scuba course, and to get Harvey in shape for our Bahamas trip.