Back in the water

Well, nothing like a nice long break from your blog ;-)

Been pretty busy with the whole art thing, some results of that have shown up on FB and my website. More recently, my work was juried in to the Key West Art Center, and I've also joined another local art co-op, The Guild Hall, so more paintings will be seeing the light of day in the physical world.

Since I haven't officially turned this into an art blog, I'll get on with the dive stuff.

Had an invitation from a new friend to come out on the boat Sunday. We launched from Cudjoe Key and tried out front (Atlantic side, toward Looe Key) but despite 2 or three color shifts, the vis just wasn't there. Had had stiff breeze for 2-3 days prior, so no big surprise, & we went back the other way to the Gulf side. Jumped in I think 3 or so places, progressively nicer. (Wind dropped through the day, also. Fairly overcast at times but always well lit). Last spot we found hogfish, grey snapper, grouper (out of season), and lobsters (shorts mostly). Water was only 15' max deep, and vis closer to 20, so it was pretty relaxed sightseeing mostly. Found a turtle asleep with his head between two sponges. Never seen it before but am told its standard. He blinked at me a couple times when I got close but didn't seem too disturbed. Kinda cute in an ET/ grumpy old man sort of way. No camera at hand unfortunately.

Overall a really nice day, culminating with fresh fish dinner.

I'll digress slightly and say I've been swimming a bit around the island, or snorkeling or something. Have seen quite an array of sea life near Ft Zachary Taylor, a state park. Vis is hit or miss, and the best days typically have cooler water, but on the right ones, wow. Big baracuda & morays, big schools of tarpon and snook, frequent mackeral/bonita type fish, a few trevally, schools of pilchars (4-6" shiny baitfish). I'd almost forgotten the pleasure of just going limp and schooling with the little guys.
Anyway its pretty cool. The one thing I'm kind of jonesing for is some deeper water. Nothing extreme, but it'd be nice to stretch the legs a little. So I'm hoping that'll be somewhere on the horizon. Oh and maybe some airtime, though that's likely gonna have to wait until summer.