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
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