1-12-21 Diving the Benwood Wreck and White Banks/Dry Rocks

The Benwood

After nearly a month of windy and cloudy weather, a good dive day finally arrived. Although it was cloudy and cool, seas were quite calm so we decided to head to the Benwood Wreck about 10 miles NE of our house. No other divers in the water and visibility seemed to be better than normal. I was able to capture pictures of the hull that showed the great length of the wreck that was normally unseen in poorer visibility. It turned out be be a great dive. Dave and I were both chilled after the dive and had a hard time warming up with cloudy skies and a breeze that had picked up.

White Bank Dry Rocks

2nd Dive of the day was at White Banks - a patch reef inshore of Molasses. Dave was still chilled and elected to stay on the boat. This is a very shallow dive with sand bottom at 15’ and the reef extending up to 5 feet below the surface. Winds had picked up, so there was some surge that made it hard to get focused photos. I encountered 2 eels, one of which had a 3 banded coral shrimp cleaning around its mouth.. Also lots of nice coral photos.

Click the link below for the YouTube video of this dive

2 Green Moray eels , one with coral banded shrimp cleaning around its mouth. White Banks is a patch reef at snorkeling depth in Key Largo inshore from Molas...

12-17-20 Diving Molasses Reef and Pickles Reef

12-17-20. With a good stretch of weather, we were back at Molasses Reef for dive number 1. We swam by the winch and then closer to the tower. A reef shark cruised by in this area and I got some good shots of angelfish, parrotfish and elk horn coral.

Click below for viewing YouTube video of this dive

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2nd Dive at Pickles Reef

2nd dive was at Pickles Reef - near the Pickle Barrel wreck. This shallow patch reef dive has become a favorite 2nd dive with its large schools of fish an frequent sightings of stingrays, sharks and eels.

Click the link below to watch my YouTube video of the Pickles Reef dive.

12-15-20 Diving the Molasses Reef Wall and then shallower reef.

Another nice day for diving, so Dave and I again headed to Molasses. He wanted to try a deep dive, so we tied to a mooring on the Molasses Wall. After a brief divein the deep blue to 100’ we head back up the wall, encountering a few fish and lots of barrel sponges.

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We moved into a shallower mooring for our 2nd dive Lots more colorful coral and an encounter with a Green turtle that seemed to be less than healthy.

Click the link below for the video on the 2nd dive on Molasses.

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12-5-2020. A day of fishing then diving at Conch Reef

With a beautiful fall day in the Keys, Dave R. and I decided to combine fishing and diving into one day. After some mild fishing success (a few yellowtail snappers) Dave and I headed to Conch Reef was a late afternoon dive. Other than an encounter with a turtle, which is always delightful and a spotted eel, it was an uneventful dive. What I did discover is that at the end of the day I was dead tired and could barely stay awake after dinner. I’m not sure how many dual fishing/diving days are in my future!

Click the link below to watch a YouTube video of the dive.

Finally! Back in the water for our 1st dive of the 2020-2021 season

Hurricane/Tropical storm Eta made landfall in early November and left some cleanup on my shoreline and also delayed my diving. I had to wait for the installation of new parts on my boat lift and then more waiting for decent weather for diving. Finally on November 28th I was able to pick up my boat and head out diving. Dave and I headed to Molasses Reef. A nurse share swam right under Dave before he saw it. Visibility was OK and it was a pleasurable dive with some nice photo opportunities.

Click the link below for Video of the dive

Fall Fishing

Shortly after arriving in the Keys for the season, I joined my friend Dennis for a trip on the Satisfaction with Brian McCady. It was a very successful trip to the reef with multiple Yellowtail Snappers and I even caught a huge Barracuda.

Fall Road Trip back to Florida - October 2020

When begin our journey in late October to cover the 2000+ miles between our MN home and our Florida Keys home, with stops in Kentucky and the Blue Ridge Mountains areas of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia and then 2 night stop in DeLand in central Florida.

The first leg was a days drive to overnight in Peoria IL. The next day we stopped to visit a friend in Bardstown Ky and overnighted in London, KY. It rained the entire 1st two days of driving. Day 3 started with a drive through the Cumberland Gap, with a 3 state overlook that was shrouded in fog. We continued on toward Asheville NC and entered the Blue Ridge Parkway. Fall Colors were near peak. We exited the Parkway on Hwy 276 for a spectacular drive down to Brevard NC to overnight at the Hampton Inn. Day 4 was a trip south of Brevard to DuPont State Park in SC for a nice hike to waterfalls, then back to the Blue Ridge Parkway, turning west an exiting on US 74 heading toward Sylva and then south through Cashiers to overnight at the Hampton in Sapphire NC. Very scenic drives. Day 5 we headed west back through Cashiers on a scenic drive through the Blue Ridge Mtns in north Georgia. We stopped for lunch in the Bavarian town of Helen Georgia, then on to Brasstown Bald, a mountaintop overlook near Blairsville Ge. Next stop was Vogel State Park and then on to Blue Ridge for an overnight at the Comfort Suites. Day 6 was driving down through Altanta and on to a 2 day stay at the Hontoon Landing Resort on the St. Johns river near DeLand Fl. Our 3rd year of stopping at this quiet resort where we rent a pontoon and explore the river. Day 8 we drive to our home in the Florida Keys.

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Road Trip back to Minnesota from Florida - May 2020.

Getting back to our summer home in Minnesota lake country was a bit of a challenge during the Covid-19 Pandemic. We had to wait until roadside facilities were open as well as places to stay and eat during a 5 day journey of over 2000 miles. We decided to head up the east coast on I95 and then cut over to Columbia SC and then Greenville to then head NW through the Appalachian Mtns with a stops at Whitewater Falls near Cashiers, MN, Dry Falls near Highlands and Bust Your Butt Falls near Franklin. After overnight in Dillsboro NC. we continue west with stops at Byrson City park and Nanatahal Outdoor Center. Few people around. By taking this route we avoided highly populated areas and were at least able to have some scenic drives through the Blue Ridge Mtns to make the trip a little more enjoyable. We were able to find hotels along the way with only a few cars in the lot and rarely ran into anyone inside other than desk staff. With digital check in and check out - minimal contact with people. Some Hampton Inns allowed us to get a digital key to enter the facility and room and we never had any human contact in those facilities. So we felt very safe. With few to no restaurants open, it was take-out and fast food drive-ups for culinary experiences!

Great Fishing Trip with Capt. Brian McCadie. Lots of Yellowtail snappers and a big barracuda.

My friend Dennis and I went out fishing with Capt. Brian McAdie from Islamorada. Winds were strong from the SE at 18 knots with lots of swells, which made it very hard to stand up while fighting the fish. He hooked into a school of nice Yellowtail fairly quickly, but a barracuda was eating our catch. One snapper came up with only its head left. I ended up catching the barracuda that lead to a 20 minute fight that we all expected to end with a cut line. But I got him to the boat and discovered I had it hooked in the eye. Quite a catch on 12lb test line with no leader and just a small jig.

Snappers Ledge and Molasses Reef - Late afternoon dives - April 18, 2020

Wind forecasts have not been very accurate. It was supposed to be 5-10 knot winds, but it was closer to 13-15 from the SE.. So some big rollers. We did a late afternoon trip with the 1st dive at Snappers Ledge. This was to be Dave’s last dives of the season. Lots of action. Great pair of scorpionfish . Active Sergeant Majors with males guarding eggs.

To watch the YouTube video of the Snappers Ledge dive, click the link below

Molasses Reef Dive

For our 2nd dive we headed to Molasses. It was nearly 6pm and the reef was deserted. Lots of rolling seas and some light current. The water has warmed up to nearly 80 degrees now.

Hooked up with a turtle right away. He seemed to enjoy the company and let me swim right beside him, even waiting for me when I stopped to check out some angelfish. It lasted for quite a few minutes and was a thrill.

Visibility was not great, but for some reason the sea life seemed to be less wary of us. Dave spotted an Moray eel out swimming around, probably hunting. We I swam over to video, he saw me and abruptly stopped, checked me out and decided to head back. Lots of juvenile fish out and about. Dave and I both thought it ended up being the best dive of the year for us.

Click the link below for a YouTube video of the dive.

Molasses Reef - Sting Rays April 11,2020

Dave and I headed out to Molasses Reef for a couple of dives on Saturday the 11th of April.It was one of those rare calm days. Lots of recreational boats tied up. No commercial boats of course due to the Covid-19 shut down. We did 2 dives on the buoys 2 and 3 in from the SW looking for the the caves of the area. No luck, but we did encounter a couple of rays, 1 missing part of his tail. In addition to lots of fish we also spotted at Moray Eel. Water temps are getting warmer, around

Click the link below to view the YouTube video of the dive.