Once again we dragged the Scarab down I-95 1245 miles from Maryland to Key West for 2 weeks of fun and diving.
I saw a lot of winter cold kill damage on the shallow reefs and now they are blanketed in abrown algae. sad. But... some spots made it in that Jan cold snap and are lush with some nice clusters of staghorn coral . the deeper reefs 60 ft and deeper escaped the cold kill. 6 divers on miniseason got their limit in the atlantic side. , no problemo We were diving close to the scarab and came across and another boat's grappeling hook. I said just great!! who the hell? i get back on my boat w abunch of bugs and and I say , who the hell is that ole guy so close to me? Then he jumps in and free dive up to my boat "say I m lookink to spear some divers!" Unbelieveably its Capt Franco from the old days who owned Reef Raiders , the largest dive operation in Key West 20 years ago. He boarded the Scarab and told a few stories. what a cool way to see an old friend, 10 miles out in the ocean. I gave him some spearfishing specialties ban rubber he needed and he hopped back in the water.
1st calm day we ran to the Marquesas. the deeper rolloff were fine from the winter, but most of my shallow ledges from the CB bouy to Cosgrove lite were hit hard by the Jan cold and now tons of brown algae covered the reefs. AND...on every shallow Marquesas drrop we saw lionfish, often hidding upsidedown under the ledges is clusters of 3 or more.
I saw a lot of winter cold kill damage on the shallow reefs and now they are blanketed in abrown algae. sad. But... some spots made it in that Jan cold snap and are lush with some nice clusters of staghorn coral . the deeper reefs 60 ft and deeper escaped the cold kill. 6 divers on miniseason got their limit in the atlantic side. , no problemo We were diving close to the scarab and came across and another boat's grappeling hook. I said just great!! who the hell? i get back on my boat w abunch of bugs and and I say , who the hell is that ole guy so close to me? Then he jumps in and free dive up to my boat "say I m lookink to spear some divers!" Unbelieveably its Capt Franco from the old days who owned Reef Raiders , the largest dive operation in Key West 20 years ago. He boarded the Scarab and told a few stories. what a cool way to see an old friend, 10 miles out in the ocean. I gave him some spearfishing specialties ban rubber he needed and he hopped back in the water.
1st calm day we ran to the Marquesas. the deeper rolloff were fine from the winter, but most of my shallow ledges from the CB bouy to Cosgrove lite were hit hard by the Jan cold and now tons of brown algae covered the reefs. AND...on every shallow Marquesas drrop we saw lionfish, often hidding upsidedown under the ledges is clusters of 3 or more.
:d
