5/21/2011: I guess this day officially started with the midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a good show - I won't spoil it for anyone by telling what happened. But we were up until 2:30 being among the first to watch it.
Friday morning was a lazy time of sleeping in, eating breakfast, sleeping some more, reading, and finally heading for the dock before noon. We stopped at a flea market and vegetable market and got to the dock on time. Unfortunately, nobody else was, and our group of about 15 left the dock quite late - maybe at 1:30 or so.
The first dive was at the same location that Dad, Emily, Abel, and Carl did their first certification dive - the City of Washington shipwreck on Elbow Reef. It's a fun dive among the ship debris (they blew it up after they realized it couldn't be retrieved from the water). The most interesting fish was a very large barracuda that had a fish hook in its mouth. The captain told us before the dive that the fish on this reef are used to being fed by humans, so they are quite tame. Carl and Dad had a face-to-face encounter with this hefty barracuda who we learned has a name: Psycho. Here's a link about the dive site:
When the four of us did this dive as our first certification dive four years ago, we were immediately surrounded by sharks when we descended. They were harmless nurse sharks - bottom feeders - but it was very exciting and they were the only sharks I've ever seen on a dive.
Our second dive of the afternoon was on a reef called Key Largo Dry Rocks. This is where the famous Christ of the Abyss statue was placed years ago. The base of the statue weighs 20,000 pounds! We were also warned that the statue is covered with fire coral. Captain Bob warned us that if we touch the statue, we will likely be using the name Jesus in very loud ways. We visited the statue and cruised along the very impressive coral reef that is full of steep walls, canyons, and arches. We weren't disappointed with the marine life either, as we saw a moray eel near the statue, and a sea turtle swimming through one of the canyons. Here's more info about this location:
Because of the large group on our boat and the late start, we got back from the afternoon dive about 5:30 and had to be back at the dock at 7:00 for the night dive. So, it was a quick subway sandwich for dinner and a brief rest at the hotel before our night dive.
The night dive was another trip to the City of Washington wreck. Diving at night was a first for both of us, so we didn't quite know what to expect. The basic ideas are: 1) it is dark, 2) everyone has an underwater light, 3) learn a few signals with the light - it's actually easier to communicate with your partner using a light than it is during the day with hand signals, and 4) don't shine the light directly at anybody. We tagged along on the dive with a group that was taking a class, so the instructor pointed out some very interesting marine life - several moray eels, a few lobster, a very large crab, and a "lump fish" that looked exactly like a rock, except it had eyes.
Almost as good as the dive was the boat ride home. There are lots of phosphorescent forms of marine life - algae, coral, etc. There were greenish lights everywhere in the water. One of the instructors told us that in August when the coral are spawning, you almost don't need a light on a night dive.
It was quite an experience! So great, in fact, that we celebrated by purchasing a whole key lime pie (kind of the same color as the phosphorescent coral) on the way home and consuming half of it in the first half hour. The rest is for tomorrow! It's nice to have a fridge in the hotel room!
Now it's time for bed. Saturday is our last diving day, with an afternoon trip awaiting us.
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