Snorkeled at Looe Key Protected Reef; Anchored at Sugarloaf Key

When I woke up this morning, I looked outside and spotted Chuck with a fishing pole casting his line. I snapped this shot through the dodger without him knowing I was even awake yet.

 

We had breakfast and then pulled anchor around 10:15 a.m. and headed for the reef to snorkel. At 11:25 a.m. the water turned a beautiful blue. We were going over a reef and the depth was 16-20 ft.

 

We moored at Looe Key Management Area to snorkel the reef. Chuck and I donned our gear: lycra body suits (skins), short wet suits, fins, masks and snorkels and jumped into the water. There was a cluster of mooring balls all around the reef so you could moor your boat and jump in. And that's just what we did.

 

We couldn't believe our luck. We were in about 11 ft. of water right over a beautiful section of the reef and there were hundreds of fish swimming right under our boat. As soon as we jumped in the water and looked down, we saw that we were surrounded by hundreds of tropical fish. Very vibrant colors.

 

This photo shows how blue the water was where we were snorkeling. Isn't it pretty?

 

We swam all around our boat and then over to Bum's Rest. They were in deeper water so we didn't see as many fish there. Wayne took some photos of us in our snorkeling gear. We then swam back to our boat and Chuck climbed into our dinghy. I held onto the back and he rowed us over to Bum's Rest and asked Wayne to climb in and take us to where the water was breaking so we could see the reef over there. He was afraid we'd be too tired to swim all the way back.

 

We saw very colorful fans and coral and larger fish over there. It was like looking at an oversized aquarium. It ended up that the best place was right under our boat! So we swam back to our boat and I took some pictures with an underwater disposable camera. Won't have those until the film gets developed!

 

At one point, the fin came off my right foot and I thought I lost it. But I swam and got it. Close call.

While swimming back to the boat, we saw a three-foot Barracuda about 8 ft. away. I climbed back onto the boat and Chuck took Wayne back to his boat in the dinghy, came back and hooked the dinghy back to Sheet Music  We were starving, so I went down and made lunch.

 

After we got underway, I went down and got a quick rinse off and put my clothes back on because I was cold. Chuck took off his wet suit and left his lycra skin on and put cutoffs on top. He looked like a dancer in tights! I had to take a picture. LOL. He was taking the diving flag down.

 

At 2:45 p.m. we were motorsailing at 7 knots with 7.5 knots of wind. The main sail jammed in the track again from pulling it out under pressure. Damn. Hate it when that happens! We kept coming about to get the sail out and it finally budged.

 

We're anchored at Sugarloaf Key for the night.  We first tried the plow anchor, but couldn't get a good hold. So we pulled that up and dropped the Fortress Danforth and that has a good hold. Chuck dropped the claw too just in case.

Wayne took this photo of Sheet Music with the sunset.

Patti made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with chocolate pudding and cool whip for dessert. Yum. Good thing I didn't have to cook tonight...I'm exhausted from snorkeling!