SLS041611A Windy Day

Yesterday was a fairly windy day. We were still on the dock at Stock Island so the crew got to sleep in a little and had a cooked breakfast. We are protected from the wind at the dock so we rely on the information from 'conditions buoys' out in the ocean to get accurate conditions. From the dock we can also see the flag at the power plant and it was standing straight out; 20 knots or so. There were a few chores to do before we could leave the dock. The boys had to finish some laundry, clean up breakfast, put away the power cords and clean up their stuff.
We left the dock, put up the sails and headed out until the ocean. It was windy and a little bumpy. We had to refill scuba tanks so we went out into the Gulf Stream to do a little blue water fishing. Trolling is a passive activity where you wait and wait and wait for a fish to hit. We caught a few 'grass bass' but that was it. Some of the boys spent this time studying, especially Zach. Some spent the time sleeping.

We had lunch and headed in to Western Dry Rocks to dive. It's the most western site that we dive. The names of sites in this area aren't that creative. I did a conditions check. The surface was rough, there was some pretty good surge and visibility was only about 15 feet. Everyone got in and did the dive.

After the dive we moved on to Sand Key. The visibility was so poor that we passed up the site and moved on to Eastern Dry Rocks (I told you the names weren't that creative). The visibility was better here. The condition check reported that the surge was leas and the visibily was about 20 feet; a little better. Abunch of the scouts saw a large Nurse Shark. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_shark Overall it was a pretty good dive. I even found a large pile of chain that I had been searching for during the past few dives at this site.

After the dive the crew raised the sails again and we headed for the mooring behind Key West. While passing the corner at Key West the wind was really ripping. When we got into the harbor the sails were taken down and we motored to the mooring. Once on the mooring the boys started fishing with Cuban Yo-Yos again. Lots of pinfish were caught and a grunt or two. One of the pinfish was used as bait on the shark line, which we put out at night. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pinfish .

We watched a wonderful sunset and had a late dinner of spaghetti. The boys were really wound up, this being the last night on board but they eventuelly went to sleep.

Tomorrow is the last day on board.