Snorkeling, Lobstering and Boca...

During our last weekend our friends planned some really fun activities. This was extremely nice of them to plan because I was starting to get a little stressed in regards to packing, cleaning, worrying about our deposit on the apartment etc.. so I could not wait to get out on the water.

Dave and Annette took a small group of us on a boat ride to a little sandbar for sun and a picnic. The sandbar was located in the channel that leads toward Snipe, Cher and Frogger beach. On our attempted journey with K&K we had stopped at a similar place because we were unable to make it all the way to Cher and Frogger. We stayed at this little sandbar long enough to enjoy a few beverages and to eat our lunches. After eating we headed back to Dave and Annette's house to exchange for some more beverages and to gather some snorkeling equipment for a lobstering adventure.

Not a great image but this is along the pathway to the sandbar that we had our lunch 

Our lunch view was something more like this..

I have done a number of amazing things in Key West, and in all honesty I love crabbing.. it is fun trying to snag the buoys and the anticipation while pulling up the crab pot just adds to the experience. Also there is not much that can compare to a dinner of fresh crab.  I think though, I may have found my most favorite experience. I am pretty sure in previous life I was a mermaid and when you go lobstering this plays right into that previous life for me. To begin, when you lobster you are wearing snorkel gear or at least a mask with the snorkel, a "tickle" stick and a net. Next, you need to find areas the lobsters like to hide. They tend to be around rocks, sunken ships, or man made areas. When you are in the water with your snorkel gear on you are scanning the areas for the antennas of the lobster. At first, it can be very difficult to understand what you are searching for. I saw my first antenna sticking out of a small sunken flat bottom boat. After you locate the lobster the fun begins. You may be wondering what a "tickle" stick is and how you get a lobster into the net. I know you are wondering because I wondered the same thing. The "tickle" stick is used to literally tickle the lobsters out of hiding, generally when you touch them with it it causes them to move - even they hate being tickled- the interesting thing regarding lobster is they swim backwards. Once the lobsters are removed/tickled out from their hiding spot you place your net behind them and then continue to probe them.. they swim backward right into the net.. but the fight is not over. As soon as the lobsters hit the net you need to quickly turn the net in a manner that twists the net around which cause the opening to become closed.. if you do not do this the lobsters hit the net.. realize they are going to be trapped and quickly change directions shooting out the net the same way they came it.

As I swam down toward the small flat bottom boat I had a brief realization I did not have the lung capacity to fully enjoy the experience. Then, I think my mermaid life kicked in because the more times we dove the longer I was able to stay below to watch the techniques. I decided to partake in the experience.. grabbing a tickle stick I handed Rick a net and we dove down to try to snag our first lobster. Approaching the boat, I wanted to get all the way to the ocean floor because I wanted to see what I was tickling. Looking along the edge of the boat there were no less than 10 lobster sitting there waiting to be caught. Taking my stick I managed to dislodge a few of them and Rick was there to snag them. The problem with lobstering is that when you are in the ocean snorkeling things seem bigger than they actually are. Like crabbing, there are limits on what lobsters you can keep. Dave and Annette have been lobstering many times but have not had any large enough to meet the minimum requirement so they always have to throw them back. With that in mind it was practically a miracle that we had collected 2 keepers. On my 5th or 6th approach I noticed a set of antennas that may be thicker than the others. I did my best to tickle at the lobster attached to these antennas. Just then a very large, very mad lobster came out from under the boat. If he had a voice it would have been east coast and he would have been saying something like "Hey.. what.. you want some of this?!" He had his lobster claws up in the air.. his antennas were erect on top of his head and the his flipper things on his tail were splayed outward making him look very menacing. I am pretty sure that his demeanor would have scared off potential predators because I screamed in my snorkel and went immediately to the surface. Another guy in our group had to go back down to get him in the net.

Here is his images once we got back to shore...

He is menacing.. 

After our day on the sea and all the water I drank while we snorkeled for lobster we elected to spend a quiet night at home eating delicious Tai Island.

Then next day we got a call from Dave and Annette for another day of snorkeling as well as Boca Grand beach. Piling into two boats we took off toward >>> While we road in the boat toward our snorkeling destination Rick spotted a lone dolphin, but when we slowed down it disappeared and didn't come back to the surface. Rick and I had been to >>> the year we got married. It was the day before our wedding when our families took a snorkeling excursion and day trip. Needless to say we learned that day that the excursions go out regardless of if they should and that my mom really needs a life jacket... not the ones you can blow air into.

This particular day was a perfect snorkeling day. The sea was calm and everything was very clear. I didn't get images of this but I know that Dave video taped a bunch and I will see if I can get some of those videos. After we snorkeled we proceeded to Boca Grand. To remind you this is what Boca looks like..

We spent the day hanging on the beach with very fun people and beautiful weather. There was only one down fall that we learned about the next week. As we hung out at Erin and Phil's house the last week we lived in Key West, Erin informed us of a not so fun fact. One of Erin's friend's dad had been fishing just off of Boca Grand and he caught the following

Yes my friends that is a very large hammer head shark and it was caught very very close to where we hang out at Boca Grand... The next time we are there I may not get in the water!

On Sunday make sure to kiss your mothers..


Rick and McKenzie

K&K stay in Key West

Every year, or at least for the past 5 or so, Kurt and Kim visit Key West for about 1 month.  Rick and I had been looking forward to this month since we moved to K.W. because we had learned so much about our island and the surrounding water and we couldn't wait to share it with them. K&K arrived at the end of January - and as luck would have it Rick and I were out on our bike ride. We had decided that we wanted to go to an art/craft show that was set up on whitehead street, and of course by we I mean I decided that I would like to go to the craft show and I persuaded Rick by promising booze. Oh who am I kidding we went for booze and we happened upon an arts show.  This is what we were doing when Kurt and Kim arrived at the Galleon.  We met up with them in the late afternoon at their boat and spent the evening drinking, eating and chatting.

Over the next few days and weeks we did our best to spend time with K&K but with work during the week it was a little difficult. The days that we got to spend with K&K we would either go shopping, hang out at the back of their boat or go up to the Galleon's pool area. If I had known that the Galleon was pretty accessible for everyone I would have been there a lot. One of the best thing about the Galleon pool area is that Monday -Thursday you got to play bingo. The cards were $5 a piece and the prizes were money.  The blackout bingo prize could be up to $200 or maybe $250 depending on how many people were staying at the Galleon and bought bingo cards. Unfortunately, a little busy body lady was at the pool one day and it happened to be during a week where a lot of families were there with their kids. The kids had won a few of the games and the prizes were $20 (ish) dollars.. this lady turned in the Galleon for underage gambling and the prizes have now changed. Only twice a week will the prize be money and the other days they give away bags and drink cups. The day I got to play bingo at the pool I learned I am to competitive for bingo. There was a group of people at the pool with southern accents and they got to laughing at me because I was caught unknowingly mumbling curse words when I didn't get a number on my bingo card. Sadly none of us won that day at bingo.. I am not surprised by this because it is very rare for me to win prizes when it is a raffle or bingo. I figure that one day all this losing will allow me to win the lottery.. bring on those millions.

Besides lounging at the pool, we went on an excursion. K&K's boat type is an aft cabin. This means that they have a huge butt that makes their center of gravity very high. Needless to say wind and their boat are NOT friends because it makes their boat very very hard to maneuver.  The day we were going to attempt our excursion to Cher and Frogger beach it was a low to mildly windy day with winds out of the north east - this was the direction we were headed and that could be an issue. Rick and I went to White Tarpon to grab some sandwiches for lunch. White Tarpon is located in the marina area of Key West between Alonzo's oyster place and The Boat House. White Tarpon is a deli style restaurant and bar. They also carry wines and beer. I had been there for the hurricane party as well as Rick and I once ate dinner under their outdoor patio while listening to music. After snagging our lunches we hurried back to the boat for our outing.

Accompaning K&K's boat is a dingy that has been very nice for outings. As stated the Thompson's boat is not that easy to maneuver so the dingy allows for K&K (and friends/family) to investigate surrounding areas with less stress. It was elected to take the dingy on this adventure because if was going to be much easier to use. Here is an image of our vessel :)

Once we were all on board we started off toward Cher and Frogger. I was really excited to show K&K this area because it is just so beautiful. We headed out through the navigational beacons which was a really nice calm ride. Here are a few images of our ride.. sorry they are blurry but my new water proof case apparently doesn't like distant images.

After traversing between the reds and the greens we turned the corner and hit the waves. The waves were not by any means huge but when you are in a vessel that is literally on the same level as the water any wave is bad and it likes to splash over the front of the boat. We made it approximately 15-20 more minutes before as a group we elected to turn around. Once we were headed with the waves the ride was back to being very pleasant. Unfortunately, Rick and I never got the chance to show our knowledge of K.W ocean surroundings to K&K but I think that is just an excuse to head back as a group for vacation.

In a previous blog I had mentioned that Tyler and Sherry came to visit us. During that time we took them through the marina and we had stopped at Kurt and Kim's boat. As we walked toward the boat the three of us had noticed a very beautiful aqua green/blue fishing boat. The boat was equipped with matching paddle boards and next to the fishing boat was a small wooden sailboat that may have been associated with the fishing boat. Here is an image.

The following day I received a message from Kim regarding the fishing boat and sailboat. Apparently the boats belonged to none other than Jimmy Buffet. The day before they had noticed a bunch of movement surrounding the recording studio - which is located along the board walk in the marina area- and that was the day after these boats had arrived. It was rumored around the marina area and the Galleon that Mr. Buffet was in the area recording but those are they types of rumors you hear all the time. "Oh the Kardashians are down from Miami... Nick Carter is out at Sunset Key... We saw George Strait at the grocery store... Christain Bale owns a house... Ophra owns a house... JayZ and Beyonce own an island" etc.. but who knows when these things are true. During the course of about a week Kurt and Kim chatted with Mr. Buffet's body guards, watched him eating a sandwich and also watched him give an interview from the back of his fishing boat. When I write that it sounds a little creepy of K&K to watch him eat a sandwich but in all fairness they only kinda watched him. You see between their boat and his boats was a giant tug boat that obstructed their view.

Rick nor I got the opportunity to see him while he was on the island.. hopefully next time.


xoxoxo

Rick and McKenzie