I am officially in the keys once again for our annual ‘boy’s trip’. On this trip I am joined by my father-in-law Bill, his brother John and family friend Patrick. My goal is to get more reference photos for my art and to energize my creative batteries. All week I will be logging our day to day dives and experiences under the Islamorada sun.

Dive 1:

The first dive was a great drop just a little south west of Alligator Reef. While the visibility wasn’t too great, there was plenty of underwater life to see. The interesting thing about this dive was the segregation of species from the different parts of the reef. When we first found the relief I encountered various species of butterfly fish. Later in the dive juvenile hogfish were abundant. Even later in the dive I ran across many large Squirrel fish. With the poor visibility I was unable to come back with a good deal of clean photographs, but here are a few that I am happy with.

Dive 2:
Our second dive was a little rough. We decided to navigate a little north west of Alligator reef to a spot where we found lots of Black Grouper a few years back. With this dive I decided to take a Riffe spear gun in order to gather dinner for the gang. After a short briefing by John, I hit the water and descended to 40 feet. Unfortunately, Patrick and I descended to a sand bottom. After searching for the reef, we surfaced for a re-drop. Once John positioned us over the reef we descended right on top of a 13 pound grouper.

I stalked the grouper for a few feet and missed one opportunity to spear him. Later in the dive a suspiciously familiar grouper decided to taunt me one more time. This time, however, I was ready. I turned my gun on him and shot. The spear landed in the sand almost four inches BELOW the grouper. As I began to reload the spear gun the same grouper circled back to taunt me one more time. As I struggle with the spear gun I missed several opportunities to secure a meal for my comrades. When the gun was secure and ready to fire again, my dive buddy signaled that we had reached the end of the dive. As we ascend I checked the bottom one more time and there it was. Laughing at me. That same damn black grouper…