Cheeca not Chickens

In December '09, I had done a little snorkeling in the shallow water around Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.  Lots of fun, so I thought we should try it here in the Keys.  We purchased a snorkel, mask and fins for Pam last winter, but never had a warm day without wind.  Today was 85 degrees with light and variable winds (which as a sailor, I know means "dead calm").  We left about 9:30--just after the fog burned off.  Our marina is on the bay side of the island, so we motored over and through Snake Creek to the Atlantic.  We'd been out on the bay in the dinghy and the water is crystal clear.  You can see the bottom in 6' like it was 6".

The Atlantic was indeed about as flat as it gets.

There are several designated dive / snorkel sites near us.  They are marked off with buoys, and also have mooring buoys to tie up your boat--no anchoring allowed.  I had read the long list of do's and don't's  for these designed areas, and one was that you're required to have a diver down flag if you're snorkeling.  There's K-Mart up on Key Largo, so yesterday, we bought one.  (Hope you're able to make out the flag in this photo against a background of all those clouds.)

One of the largest snorkeling areas close by is Alligator Reef.  Somehow, Pam thought there was something inherently wrong with getting into the water at a place with a name like that.  We headed out to a more sedate place called Hen and Chickens.  The chart shows some coral at a depth of 7' and 3'.  We cruised through the entire area and found no depths shallower than 15'.  I checked the chart, and just a few miles down the way is Cheeca Rocks.  Another designed area with some charted depths of 2' and 3'.  Off we went.

The water temp is 72 degrees.  A little cool to spend much time in, but not to worry, we have wetsuits.  Of course, mine is one I wore 30 years ago, and the one Pam has is the one our son wore when he was 14.

 
I noticed that my wetsuit seems to have become distorted while in storage all those years.  It has some lumps and bulges that weren't there 30 years ago.  I have no comment about Pam's.

It was really quite a struggle to get those wet suits and all that gear on.  As a matter of fact, we thought we might be too tired to get into the water after the effort of getting dressed for it.  So we sat and rested for a while.

At Cheeca Rocks, there were some dark areas under the water not too far from the buoy we had tied to.  As it turned out, the ocean is not nearly as clear as the bay.  We swam over that way, but could barely make out some brain coral about 8' below the surface. Either the water is cloudy, or my cataracts are getting worse.  Pam said she couldn't see it at all, but I think she had her eyes closed the whole time.

Of course, everything in the boat was wet when we returned.  It was a lot of work (and expense) for not much return.

However, all in all, I would have to say it was a great day.  I'm going to find out more about snorkeling in this area, and I'm sure we'll try it again.