Key West, October 2013

Our vacation to Key West, Florida was a fluke accident.  One I hope happens every year.  We booked a trip with my sister-in-law to Washington D.C.  Then, the government shut down.  We decided to go to the beach instead of our originally planned vacation.  Best. Decision. Ever. 

I started with a shop called Dive Key West.  I did not have a buddy, but had called ahead to make sure that could be accommodated.  I was put in a group with a couple from Germany and was buddied with a Divemaster.  At this point in my diving adventure, I have been landed on every dive.  This dive was no exception.  We explored an area called the Haystacks.  The coral formation looked exactly like a haystack, hence the name.  There was lots of fish to look at, and even my personal favorite, barracuda.  

The second dive that day was in The Cut.  Named because the reef cut back and forth like fingers in the sand.  This dive was incredibly shallow, at 20 feet, and there was lots of surge.  I  saw my first nurse shark while scubaing, and played fisticuffs with a lobster.  Add a few barracuda and it wraps up as a nice dive.

I hooked up with a different shop for the remainder of my dives: Southpoint Divers.  I was very impressed my them.  Our first dive of the day was the Vandenburg.  I will tell you right now, this has been my favorite dive to date.  FAVORITE.  Because of that, I am going to go into minuscule detail.  

Preface:  My instructor has always been an advocate of wearing a snorkel at all times.  I have picked up this habit.  Never know when you are going to need it.  

I head to the shop pretty early in the morning.  I'm the first one there.  Shocker, I know.  I enjoy the beautiful morning sunrise, studying my Advanced book.  When the shop opens, I get my boarding pass and head to the dock.  It's a little boat ride to the dive site.  

As I'm suiting up, I'm about to giant stride into the water and one of the divemasters says, "Hey, let me take your snorkel, it will whip around in the current."  I am reticent to give it up, again, never know when you might need it.  I just reply, "It's ok, I can manage."  To which he says, "Really, I promise, you won't want it."  Alright, I give it up.  I jump in and quickly grab the trail line.  This current is STRONG!  3 knots, I find out later.  The water is also pretty choppy.  Everyone's in the water but 1 person.  He's monkying with some equipment or another.  The rest of us are struggling with the current and equipment.  We have to put our regs in at the surface.  I call up to the divemaster, "Really wish I had my snorkel!" We all had a good chuckle.  Finally all in.  We descend to the traverse line to get to the bow of the boat.  The water is clear, but deep.  It just turns to darker and darker blue.  I can see lines of bubbles streaming from different points.  We then use the mooring line to pull ourselves hand over hand down to the wreck.  Slowly, the hull creeps into view

Not my exact view, but pretty close.  There was a moment of truth where we had to let go and descend rapidly into the ship without getting caught in the current and swept away.  Exhilarating!  Inside the ship, I see a lion fish taking a nap and a cucumber on the ceiling.  We can only spend a little while at this depth (max 95 ft), so we make our way back outside.  The most enormous barracuda is chilling just out of reach.  Awesome.  My diving spirit fish makes an appearance.  Here is a cool Youtube video from Southpoint Divers.  

The next day, dives are back to the reef.  We first dive Sand Key.  Easy 30 ft depth, mild current.  On the ride out, I saw a flying fish and a turtle from the surface.  As I am looking back in my logs, I am noticing my air consumption is pretty good.  Those 2 Vandenberg dives only used 1/2 the tank.  This one was excellent.  My whole group ran out, so I surfaced with them.  This is where I got my first non-Scubabros diving compliment.  How long had I been diving?  You have great buoyancy.  I gushed.  Even sent the compliment back to my instructor.

Last Florida dive:  Rock Key.  This is where the barracuda becomes my favorite.  The divemaster had a pool toy, a torpedo.  He pulled it out and started playing with it.  When he tossed it, it would go up, then shoot fast in some direction to the bottom.  The barracuda love this toy.  They chase it.  The DM tossed the toy and it headed straight for me.  It shoots a little past me and as I turn, there is a barracuda not 5 inches from me.  Cool!!
There is a resident sting ray here named Stubby.  Can you guess why?  Yep, no tail.  I caught a glimpse of him, lucky me.  There was another woman in my group that tried to bolt for the surface on this dive.  I held on to her jacket and let all my air out.  I was able to calm her down.  That was a very good feeling, a little scary, but good.  She had to hold my hand the rest of the dive.  

All in all, this was a magical trip.  I will be going back.