SLS080611A - day three

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Yesterday was a day where we had to invoke the FSB motto 'Semper Gumby' or 'always flexible'. We were going to have a nice, cooked breakfast. Unfortunately the water pump that supplies all of the fresh water had different plans. Fortunately Capt. Denny is always prepared. He replaced the pump in short time and the only impact was a cold breakfast instead of a hot breakfast. Since it's 83 degrees at 7am a hot breakfast wasn't missed much.

We pulled up the anchor and headed for Poncho's Fuel Dock in Marathon. There we refill the water tanks, refuel the boat, compressor and generator and dump trash. It also gives the crew a chance to get off of the boat for a few minutes and buy goodies at the store; soda, ice cream, etc.

After we finished at Poncho's we started filling tanks and headed back out to Sombrero Reef. The scuba tanks get refilled by a deisel powered compressor on the back of the boat. The weather was beautiful so there were alot of boats at Sombrero. The only impact this has on the divers is that they have to be hyper-aware of boat traffic. The diving at Sombrero was better than the day before, with improved visibility.

After the dive at Sombrero we headed back to Looe Key. We trolled for fish along the way and the crew caught several small tunas called tunys. We also filled more tanks. Tank filling is an almost constant process when we're moving from site to site. Looe Key was also filled with boats. Looe Key has about 20+ mooring balls for boats to tie up to and they were all full but one or two. Luckily one was clear next to a nice part of the reef. This dive was the best so far; seas were smooth, there was no current or surge and visibility was 40-50ft. We were also planning a night dive here so we advised the divers to take a good look around to familiarize themselves with the area around the boat. The dive was great and it ended with a large Golioth Grouper hanging around under the boat. It was almost as big as Ben.

We decided to stay at Looe Key for our night dive but best laid plans...semper gumby. A storm was forming over the Keys and was threatening to come our way. Again, summer in the Florida Keys. We packed everything up and headed in to the mooring. Better to be under way than sitting on a mooring during a storm. So much for a night dive that night! By the time we got to the mooring place next to Key Lois the storm had passed. We had made the right choice because it had been full of lightning.

Once we were anchored the crew immediately grabbed the cuban yoyos for more fishing while dinner was being prepared. Dinner was bratwurst and more Wahoo. They were very successful catching plenty of fish for the nightly shark line. This was also a success but not with a shark...they caught a rather large barracuda. It was not happy and Capt. Denny had a rough time wrangeling it into submission. Large barracuda have large, nasty teeth which deserve great respect and caution when handeling.