Today started off slow. I was right about mosquitoes last night, so everyone was a little dragging this morning. Probably from the blood loss, yes, there were that many mosquitoes!!! But that is the way it goes sometimes, it is HIGH ADVENTURE, after all. 🙂
The day went along reasonably. First thing we stopped off at the fuel dock in Marathon called Pancho’s. There is a convenience store there as well, so some guys had ice cream post breakfast. But it was good to cool off early because the day was hot! We were all sweltering, all day long. After fueling, we made our way to Sombrero Reef, which has a lighthouse on it that was built in 1858 by General George Meade.
We ended up doing all our three dives today there, both ends of the reef during the day. Then it was back to the west end for a night dive after a few hour toodle out into the deeper water south of the reef line to fish. It was a mission accomplished, because we at least caught a few fish, finally! No keepers, though, as they were Little Tuny, not a pleasant tasting fish.
The night dive was lovely. Good visibility and calm conditions made for a good intro to night diving for these guys. I actually got into the water, too. I led half the group, and Jim the other half. Megan has been battling a head cold for the duration of this trip, and doesn’t want to risk making matters (reverse blockage or severe ear infection) worse by diving. We saw some interesting things, a small turtle, some lobsters and baracuda (standard fare), a large group of tiny juvenile fish that were swimming around us like a living cloud. The phosphorescence was highly visible, and the moonlight was bright. I love night dives!
Tomorrow we must work on buoyancy for some folks. And see if we can help young John slow down a little more to equalize the pressure in his ears. He is not having much luck, and has yet to spend a full dive in the water. Too bad!
So we end our night doing something we usually never do–we are on a mooring ball on sombrero reef. The mosquitoes were so bad close to shore last night, primarily because of the lack of breeze. Conditions are the same tonight. No one wants another night like last night (though we have had worse boughts with the skeeters). Usually when folks ask if we can spend the night on the reef, the answer is no. “Only thing preventing me from staying here is fear and common sense,” that’s Denny’s usual reply. But here we are, nonetheless. The winds are predicted to be light (bad for bugs close to shore) and chance of rain 10 %. So we’ll risk it! It’s better to run into shore from a freak thundershower, rather than be drained by the little bloodsucking bugs! So with that, I’ll end this day’s entry. And now to the pictures!
