SLS033112A - Thursday

I woke early to the sounds of a thunderstorm. It didn't seem to wake anyone else. A hard rain is good...it washes all of our gear that's up on deck. We call it a 'Key West Bum Wash'. We we're on the dock overnight for our mid-week break so we had a civilized, cooked breakfast of pancakes and sausage. After breakfast we set out to go diving again. It would be a long ride because we were going west. We filled tanks along the way and tried fishing again. It was a bumpy ride since the winds had been blowing again.


Green Moray Eel



We arrived at Eastern Dry Rocks with a good roll on the ocean. The boat really rocks and rolls when it is tied to a mooring ball, making getting dressed and changing tanks challenging. The conditions were more spring-like rather than the summer-like conditions we had earlier in the week. The visibility was only about 40 feet instead of the 100 feet and there was a good surge below. We found a large Green Moray Eel as soon as we started out.

Golioth Grouper

The next two dives were at Sand Key. This site is marked by a Civil War era lighthouse that has lasted through many storms. We did two dives at two different locations on the reef. The first dive was at a mooring ball that is tied off right next to a hugh coral head. Alot of the divers got turned around and ended up diving out in the deeper side of the reef rather than the shallows. The second dive was down at an end that I had never been at before. I led a group of four divers on an easy tour of the shallows where we encountered a hugh Golioth Grouper.

After the dive we headed back to Key West where our mooring is. We passed by the Sunset Festival crowd at the Mallory Square waterfront. Everyone loves to wave and photograph the boat as it goes by. We tied onto the mooring ball and went about getting dinner ready. This was our last night on board so it's Steak Night! Capt. Denny also cooked up the mackeral that was caught the night before. After dinner was cleaned up we all turned in for the night. Scuba diving is tiring business. 

Capt. Denny 'launches' a diver.

Gustavo hides from the sun.