Another Great Day on Looe Key Reef

 

The wind cooperated for us again yesterday and we headed back out to Looe Key Reef.   It was even calmer than the day before and we made good time getting to the reef.

Two days in a row, we’ve been offshore and I haven’t been sea sick.  I hope I’m not jinxing anything.

We decided to go back to buoy #3 since the water there is shallow and perfect for snorkeling.

Since I was chilly in the water the day before, I brought along a shorty wetsuit, which is like a regular wetsuit but with short legs and arms. 

I put on my two thin skin suits and added the wetsuit on top. It was not comfortable out of the water but felt pretty good in that cold 77 degree water. I felt much better with that added layer.

Al toughed it out with only his thick skin suit.

We saw a lot of barracuda yesterday.  Most of them smallish 2 footers.  We saw a shark or two while we were on the boat, but none in while we were in the water.  A lot of people saw spotted leopard rays, and sting rays, but we didn’t.

I tried out my housing for my underwater camera, but I couldn’t see anything when I tried to take a picture, so I was just pointing the camera and shooting blind.  I had hoped for the best but my pictures were terrible.   I have another idea for today to see if I can improve anything, but I’m not hopeful.

The yellowtail were back waiting to be fed.  We were better prepared yesterday because Al brought along some cat food. 

I think the water was even more clear than the day before.

In the next picture, you can see the buoy we tied onto, and notice the reef down below.  That was probably 25 feet deep there.

This family was having a wonderful day on their houseboat.

The Boy Scouts of America seem to have a pretty good gig going, because not only do they have a huge WATER FRONT campground IN THE KEYS, but apparently they have at least two boats.

I wonder where they got the money for all of this?  Their beach property must be worth millions.

 

This boat was filled with young girls, and when they got into the water for some snorkeling, they couldn’t seem to keep their snorkels in their mouths because all they did was talk, giggle and scream.  Here they were on a gorgeous reef and they couldn’t shut up and enjoy the beauty.   I wanted to tell them to put those snorkels in their mouths and their heads in the water!   (but I didn’t)

After we snorkeled for a while, we decided to head further offshore to the deep water.  We cruised over there through some very beautiful and clear water.  As we got deeper, the color of blue changed from the color of a swimming pool, to deeper and deeper blues.

My photos can’t quite capture the true colors.

In the next picture, you can see all the boats at Looe Key Reef in the background.

We got into 100+ depth of water and turned around and came back.  We decided Al wasn’t really set up to do any deepwater fishing, so we went back to the spot he was at the day before that was full of fish.  We were careful to get well outside the boundaries for Looe Key so we didn’t get in trouble for fishing there.

We no sooner got anchored, than Al started catching fish.

He caught grouper, grunts and a special surprise that he thought was going to be a really big fish!!  It wasn’t.

wait for it….here’s the special surprise.

None of the fish were big enough to keep so we came home empty handed, again.

He fished a while then we decided to more to a little different spot.  Unfortunately, our anchor had other ideas.

The anchor was hung really good and would not budge.  We moved the boat all around, coming at the anchor from all different angles and still it would not budge.

Al finally decided to go down and get it, but that required scuba gear since the water was 26 feet deep.  I dressed his tank while he put his skin back on for the third time.   Unfortunately, our very old scuba regulators had some issues and after trying unsuccessfully to get one of the 4 regulators working properly, I started getting uneasy.  I believe sometimes God may be trying to tell you something and the money to replace our anchor and chain was not worth risking his life.  After a few more attempts at the regulators, Al finally decided to give up on the anchor.

The regulator is what you attach to your scuba tank. It has a mouth piece that allows you to breathe the high pressure air inside the tank.  If the regulator doesn’t work, you don’t breathe.   Neither of us have been scuba diving in many years and we planned on our first dive trip in shallow clear water so that we could ease back into it.  This was not the right place, so we marked the spot on the GPS and cut the anchor.  We plan on going back another time to retrieve it.  In the meantime, we have a spare anchor, so we’re heading back out today.  New regulators will probably be in our future.