Key West 5/12- 5/15/07

So since I got Scuba certified down here last August, Doug and I have been dying to do a dive. Florida has some of the best diving in the country, and we totally wanted to take advantage of it being so close. And after 3 attempts at matching up schedules we finally grabbed our friends, threw way too much stuff in the car and drove through the night last Friday for our Key West adventure. We got into Key West about 7am Saturday morning, hit up the hotel, and made our way over to the beach for a few hours. We really weren't too impressed with the beach we found- it was pretty rocky on the shore and there were zero waves, but the cool part was how shallow the water was. You could walk 300 yards out from the shore and still be waist deep. We managed to knock a few coconuts down from the palm trees, and bust them open only to discover how bitter the "sweet cocomut milk" was. We later went back to the pool and then took a nap. That night we went down to the infamous Duval Street to check things out and grab some dinner.

Sunday morning we went to Dog Beach and went snorkeling. The water was pretty clear but there wasnt much in the way of sea life to see. We then went back into town to rent some mopeds to cruise around on. Where better to do it that somewhere small like Key West?? They were awesome!! We took them out to Fort Zachary Taylor State park to another beach and enjoyed the blue water some more. That night Doug and I borrowed our friends scooter and he and I cruised around the island together and raced around before heading back to the hotel pool to hang out in the amazing night.

Monday morning we were scheduled to scuba dive with Southpoint Divers at 8:30. We headed down to the dock, and got on the boat and learned we would be diving first, a wreck called the Cayman Salvage Wreck- an old boat from 1936 that was sunk by the navy in the 80's to be an artificial reef. The dive would give us 20 minutes bottom time, and would hit a maximum depth of 93 ft. I was freaked out. Not only was that my FIRST real dive, but it was DEEP, a scary old boat, and in the middle of the atlantic ocean. I sucked up my fear and dove in. The descent down was long, and slow to equalize my ears. I finally made it to the wreck and it was intense. But I couldn't find Doug. I started to feel myself panic and I looked up and down and all over for him. Meanwhile I am clutching onto the descent rope like its my saving grace all the while forgetting the Dive master said not to hold onto it, because it has fire coral on it from being down there all the time. Finally doug arrived and we swam around the wreck for what seemed only minutes before we noted our air was low and it was time to ascend. I was still so panicked I ascended faster than I should, and really was concerned because of how much my hands were burning. Back on board I was told I got a good dose of fire coral on my hands and was told it should go away in 20 minutes. We arrived at our next dive- the 3rd largest natural reef in the world. 20 feet deep and 1 hour bottom time. It was amazing. I have never seen such clear water or so many beautiful fish- eel, grouper, shark, barracuda, brain coral. It was awesome!! Toward the end I got lighter and began to not maintain a depth and ended up snorkeling the rest of the dive but it was amazing!! We all had a great time, but were really exhausted when we were done. We rested up that day and had our last dinner downtown. The weather turned rainy and by the following morning we were ready to head home. It was an amazing vacation... and being back at work is oh so sad!!