Monday was our first full day out on the water. The winds were still up, still blowing about 25 knots, when we got up so the days activities were still unknown. We had a slow wake up and a cooked breakfast. After everything was cleaned up we left the mooring ball and headed out.
We decided to head out to the bay side rather than the ocean side. The water is shallow on the bay side so the waves can't build. The site we were headed to was Cottrell Key. It is a shallow site where most of the snorkel boats go when the ocean is too rough. We had to get our initial dive out of the way. The first dive is always a led dive where the divers stay with the divemaster/instructor. This gives us a chance to look over the divers in the water. It's a two stage process. First we had them in the pool where they go through a scuba skills circuit then we take them on their first dive where we watch them dive, check their buoyancy aand make sure that they are comfortable in the water.
The conditions at Cottrell were marginal but still diveable. The bottom is all sand and about 15ft. deep. Visibility was about 10 ft. and there was no current. We did the usual dive briefing then put everyone in the water. Divemaster Mike was sitting out because of an ear problem so I took all 12 of the divers myself. We went to the bottom and met under the boat. Once everyone was together we went for a short tour of the bottom to the reef line and back. The dive went quite well. With the led dive out of the way they were now free to go diving on their own in buddy teams.
After the dive we had lunch then the crew opted to go snorkeling.
We headed back to the mooring ball in Key West harbor for the night. Once we were on the mooring ball a few of the crew fished with Cuban Yo-yos while dinner was prepared. We had crazy dream burgers with mac& cheeze. Then is was off to bed for me.
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