Tuesday, May 22, 2007

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere


Hi kids. The Patriot is taking off to Florida on Thursday for some well deserved R&R. I plan on recreating my dive on the sunken troop transport Spiegel Grove, (hopefully without coming as close to death as last year-see my posting at scubaboard.com), and doing some easy reef dives to look at the abundant marine life and coral. The 120-mile Florida Keys island chain is home to North America's only living-coral barrier reef which runsthe length of the archipelago about five miles offshore. The reefs are famous for their abundance of fish, from schools of blue-striped grunts to green moray eels, sharks and Goliath Grouper and everything inbetween. The U.S. government established the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to protect the reefs. Their site is worth a visit.

Seas are said to be rough this weekso I packed plenty of Dramamine. I’m dropping Jack off with my folks in Tampa and then humping across Alligator Alley at 4am in time to be at the dock at mile marker 100 by 12pm for a reef dive. The sacrifices we make for our leisure pursuits. I feel like I haven’t slept in four months. I also haven’t breathed through a regulator since last August so I’m thinking of taking it easy for the first two dives until I get my undersea legs back. I’m meeting 21 other divers from the New York area and we’re all staying at the same hotel so it should be a good time. I enjoy the Keys, which is kind of perverse because they are pretty touristy. Not quite Jersey Shore touristy, but near enough. Miami is only an hour away.

I’ve been contemplating bringing my laptop since the internet is a major hobby of mine and I worry that I’ll be lost without it, but I probably won’t, although I would like to blog the dives…we’ll see. So what I’m trying to say is that the Patriot may or may not be on hiatus until after Memorial Day, depending on how badly I feel like lugging my Toshiba around the airport(s). I hope you all have a nice holiday.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have fun, and be careful cousteau. we finally moved into the new house - in a park, nestled in a bend of the san antonio river - hurry up and get your ass down here for a visit - a man gets lonsesome sitting on the front porch drinking with only the skunks and critters for company