Florida Diving Trip(2012) -- Day 4

American White Ibis
As you know, I like to have coffee in the morning. If you know Brad, you will also know that although he loves coffee (possibly even more than me) he does not love morning. What I'm saying is that I've had to make due with another of my weird animal coffee buddies.

Meet the American White Ibis. They seem to be quite curious, and though they are a little skittish, they don't seem to mind posing for pictures.

If you were checking Google+ early this morning, you probably noticed that I was feeling pretty positive about my chances for diving in Key Largo today.

 I'm really not sure how I managed to be so upbeat after yesterday's gore-fest on the boat. But, I shall not keep you in suspense. I held my breakfast down today! Let the trumpets trumpet and the banners... ban.

Brad and I did two dives after lunch totalling about 1hr 55min. The number of fish was really quite spectacular.

I found this lovely fish in Florida [Nope! Link now broken. Thanks stupid internet - 2023 "future Mike"]. I'm pretty tired so I'm just going to guess that I saw them all :)

Joking aside, without an expert diver along to talk about these things afterward, there are such a variety that I really have little idea what I've seen. Just like trying to learn Spanish for a trip to Spain, I suppose one should try to learn to speak some fish if I am going to discuss diving.

Wreck of a Cement Ship -- Can't remember what it is called...
The first dive was along Horseshoe Reef (brief desc.) from 1-7 metres in depth. I saw half a dozen barracuda and an eagle ray. The second dive was at a place called Minnow Cave. Can you guess what we saw a lot of there? Brad's video is currently under construction, but I found several links that really get the idea across. Here is Minnow Cave. If I had a $2000 underwater video camera this is what my video would look like. FYI, I did not see an octopus on my dive. Score one more for the internet. The first 3-4 minutes is pretty much what we were able to see.

Now, if you will forgive me, I am totally exhausted and would like to sleep after Brad and I decide where we would like to try and go tomorrow. Until then...


Comments

rainswept said…
I'd love some deets about the pictured wreck. Is it a dive site?
9:59 am
captainorange said…
It is not a dive site as it is in very shallow water. We only happened to pass by it on our way to one of the many reefs in the area. I guess in both World Wars the U.S. built a number of concrete vessels when Iron was scarce. I know little of this one, but I found a site detailing their history
7:01 pm
rainswept said…
It's pretty cool... I'd not heard of these babies until your note, so your vacation has turned out to be quite educational. None of the ships detailed on the site is yours, I'm afraid, & the internet has failed on this point thus far. Maybe local sources can be found.
10:19 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Master Gift Getter

Image
Perhaps there is a school you can attend that will teach you how to find perfect gifts for your friends. I haven't been there, but I know someone who should be lecturing. From the hands of the man who brought me lock-picks, Swiss army knives and countless... Liquid Metal ... dangerous (previous blog entry) Prince Rupert's Drops ... adventures !(another old post) I give you Shape Lock , which is a brand name for something more generally known as "friendly plastics" or polycaprolactone (wikipedia). We had loads of fun with it the first day, but had to keep it on a shelf for a few days to allow me to speak directly to other humans. Even then concentration was difficult. My mind raced constantly thinking of cool uses for this stuff. Eventually, when the Christmas hubbub was dying down, I settled on a project that I've wanted to attempt for a long time -- making a custom attachment for my Gorilla Pod . Before we go any further, if at any time you find yo
Read more

If you see Lake Louise, start walking in the other direction

Image
These direction might be a little bit rough. You could probably get away with these type of vague instructions on the prairie without becoming seriously lost. Although death from boredom is a distinct possibility for some. At any rate, the title of this post gives you a pretty good idea how to begin my latest mountain expedition. As always, I was guided into the wilds by fellow Quester, Dave Aschim. We are starting to have a bit of a mountain legacy: 2009 ,  2010 , 2011 , 2014 , and now 2015 A map with a rough route drawn on it can be found here . One more note. I took a series of "geo panoramas" or " photospheres " as Google calls them. If you follow one of the links to Google Maps (I tried to imbed on the site, but failed), it isn't just a static image. On a laptop or desktop PC, you should be able to click the compass or click and drag the image to see an entire 360 degree view. The resolution isn't as good as my DSLR camera, but for now, it is stil
Read more