Okay, so my November dive yesterday – which I wasn’t sure I would get in – started out well. Conditions had improved after a few days of wind and there weren’t many people on the boat. What should have happened was two good dives, then a leisurely waterfront lunch. Mother Nature, however, didn’t care what the forecast had showed. On the “upside” a manatee decided to come into the canal and passed under the boat twice while we were still docked. Can’t beat that for a pleasant surprise.

Trip out to the first site was okay although heading into the gray clouds made the timing tricky as to if we would get into the water before the rain started. We all did. Visibility was only about 30-35 feet, but we did see some of my favorites. Lots of blue parrots, rock beauties, little chromis, couple of queen angels, hogfish, and Hubby found a spotted drum which I hadn’t seen in ages. Toward the end of the dive Hubby found a turtle. Hooray! Came up and moved to the second site and rain had stopped. Better vis, but fair amount of surge with nothing very special although there was a nice grouper and several schools of yellow tail snappers. We all managed to get on board as the rain started up again. This time wasn’t so gentle and fortunately, everyone could fit under the covered part of the boat. The mate finally had to close the plastic forward curtains. The temp dropped some and it was right on the edge of manageable for me. The poor folks who didn’t have as much “natural insulation” were chilled. Surface conditions had kicked up too, so ride in was bouncy.

Hubby did have his rain jacket with him and told me to stay on the boat as he off-loaded everything. He did say he was okay with going in search of conch chowder instead of straight home and I gave up the idea of lunch out in favor of heading to the house. The rain had pretty well stopped except it was moving north which meant rain on the way home. This is when seat heaters in the truck came in handy. Ah well, so it goes. This photo was from a previous dive, but also a Key Largo reef.

Juvenile Spotted Drum on reef off Key Largo, FL