SLS040211A dives and relaxes

Wednesday was a relaxing day. The day was beautiful, all day. We started at 7:30am with the alarm clock, the on board generator. Don't ever accuse this group of being up and at'em go getters. The boys are relaxed all the way, even when getting up. We had another cold breakfast, filled some tanks then headed out. We went out to Sombrero Reef/Key/Lighthouse, about a 45 minute trip, to do our first dive. We were disappointed with the visibility, 10-15 feet at best, but decided to dive. There is a large pillar coral formation at this reef that I was going lead divers to. I waited on the bottom for 20 minutes under the boat. When no divers showed up I went off to the pillar coral myself. I found a group of divers near the coral and lead them to it. After the dive we headed for Looe Key, about a two hour trip. When we are moving from site to site we usually troll for fish, change our tanks and refill the empty tanks. This group does the tank change quite well; something some groups never get. Another thing we do is nap. When we arrived at Looe Key there were few boats, a sign that dive conditions were not great. It turned out that visibility was about 15-20 ft. The crew went diving anyway, off to see some sharks. When everyone returned the crew was quite chatty, a sign that they enjoyed the dive. One buddy team saw a shark and others saw other animals. They also played fender rodeo. This is where you get one of the large boat fenders and try to climb on top of it and ride it, trying to stay up as long as possible. Several people finally mastered it. Some, including Jess, tried jumping off of the boat with the fender between their legs...not very successful. We left Looe Key and headed to the Stock Island dock for our mid-week break. It was another few hour trip; more fishing and napping. During the mid-week break the boat is tied up to the dock where there are power for the A/C, showers and no anchor watch! It was steak night, our favorite dinner, and we also ate Wade's fish. After dinner the crew took a walk to the 'Stop and Rob', our pet name for a local convience store. Most came back with a bag of goodies. Because there was A/C nobody slept on deck. Instead two people slept on the floor inside. If you want to see more information on the Conch Pearl go to http://schoonerconchpearl.com/ .