It rained almost all night and the skies were cloudy and threatening this morning but the boat crew assures us that we will be able to go out snorkeling. We left home in plenty of time to eat lunch before boarding started at noon.
There were 24 people on the open deck boat, six went SCUBA diving while the rest of us snorkeled. Although they told us the water was 77°, John and I opted to rent wet suits and are really glad we did. They took us to two different sites on Looe Reef which is only about 5 miles off shore and we were in the water for about 60 minutes each time. The first spot was rather deep so the diving folks really enjoyed it. John spotted a huge grouper right off the bat so we followed him for awhile, then later there was another one hanging around under the boat. We saw all kinds of colorful fish and interesting coral formations and plants. The second site was less deep so we were able to see even the teeny, tiny blue fish darting thru the coral. One fish I found fascinating was a small, round, bright yellow fish who appeared to have two sets of eyes. One set was near the tail and was just a black spot that could fool a predator into thinking he was attacking the head. We also spotted several barracuda in this area.
The clouds never lifted and it rained most of the time we were out on the ocean. The wind also started picking up so that the water was pretty rough and at the last it was stirring up the sand so that the water was getting pretty murky. We had a very cold ride back to shore!
John found a nice place for us to have dinner, probably one of the best meals we've had on this trip. We sat at the bar and enjoyed the company on both sides of us while the bartender kept us all entertained. I had the daily special -- Fried Lion Fish.
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