We did it! We went Kayak diving - twice

Mini Season

August 6 to March 31 is lobster season in Florida. To give scuba divers a head start on the commercial operations, there is a 2-day mini-season on July 29-30.

July 29 came around and the weather was decent, so we went. The seas were not as calm as I like, but they weren't bad. I felt so out of shape, Jim had to drag my kayak to the water for me, I just couldn't do it. Paddling on the ocean in the sunshine was gorgeous. It did feel good to get outside in a socially distant, safe way.

I hate current. I am holding on to the down line for the kayaks when we're underwater so Jim can be free to hunt for lobster. The current was taking the kayaks one way and I needed to go another. Kick as hard as I might, I could not make any headway. We're usually down for at least an hour, but I sucked down my air in only 40 minutes. 

Jim did catch a few lobster - yay! And we made it back to shore just fine. It was still wonderful to get out on the ocean on a beautiful day, and I felt good for getting a bunch of exercise, but I told Jim I may be getting too old for this. 

The next week

August 6 is the first day of the real lobster season, and it was a gorgeous day. The kayaks were still on top of the car from last week so that was one less job to do. 

What a difference conditions make! I'm so glad we went again this week. The seas were flat calm, no current. I was in heaven. We stayed underwater for over an hour and I still had 1200 psi of air when we got back on the kayaks. YES! This is the kayak diving that that I know and love. And, I spotted a lot of lobster too! Jim bagged 7 of them. Limit is 6 each.

People always ask, how do you get back on the kayaks after coming up from the dive? So I took this little video of Jim.

And, oh yea, we ate a nice dinner too.

So, that was all Good News. And, I'm making real progress on my book. I think it's going to be a good one. 

Then there's the 

Bad News

As of today, August 14, the Covid-19 numbers in the United States according to the Google aggregate data.

Cases: 5.35 million

Deaths: 170,000

The Alzheimers facility where Mom lives has been on lockdown since the end of March with no reported cases. I have not been able to visit. Worse than that, her wonderful aide Vilma has not been able to visit. Vilma is much better with her than I am at this stage, she would always get her to walk and take her outside. I'm sure Mom hasn't walked since the lockdown started. The staff at the facility are fine also. Sofia, her main caretaker at the facility texts me a photo now and then.

Here's one from June 30. I won't post the one from August 8, it's just too sad. I got a call from Hospice today that she has stopped eating. The nurse will be with her over the weekend. I hate this disease.

 

Diving with Sharks

We like Bimini. Both Jim and I have a history there from long before we met each other. Bimini is the Bahamian island that is closest to Florida. We went on a short dive trip there two years ago with our dive club, and this year we did it again. This time we took advantage of Neal Watson's Bimini Scuba Center and their special Hammerhead shark dive.

It's a 2 hour fast ferry ride from Fort Lauderdale to Bimini, then we checked into the Big Game Club and relaxed for the rest of the day, ready to dive in the morning. I just love the palm trees in the tropics! And the beautiful turquoise water.

On the first day, we dove the famous Sapona concrete shipwreck and a shark dive with the ever-present Caribbean reef sharks.
The weather turned a bit ugly on the second day, but we were able to get out and do the Hammerhead dive anyway - the most dangerous part of the dive was getting back up on the ladder in the 6 foot seas! There were 2 hammerheads in the water with us and, although the water was a bit murky, they came close enough for us to get a good look. Here's Jim's video:
https://youtu.be/MmeuJ42wqV4

The weather continued to get worse until our ferry home was cancelled. Darn! We're stuck in the Bahamas for another day :-) We're very good at making lemonade when we're handed lemons and found out about the Bimini Shark Lab where they study all the sharks in the area, especially the Hammerheads we had just seen.
We were able to get in on a tour and listened to one of the staff tell us all about it. Two very interesting tidbits.

1. Their studies (using radio transmitters on the sharks) show that the shark-feeding tourism has not changed the Hammerheads migration pattern, or basic feeding habits. That is very good news.
2. Sharks are not, as we've always believed, attracted to human blood. Fish blood, yes, absolutely, but human blood - no. They experimented with dropping a quart or more of human blood near the sharks and they paid no attention at all. Just a drop of fish blood made them come running.

They also had an enclosure with some baby sharks that she told us all about.

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Geeks go Diving

Ahhhhh a vacation in Paradise!  Actually it's Bonaire, NA (Netherland Antilles)  That's an island just off the coast of Venezuela in what's known as the Dutch Caribbean.  It is well-known among scuba divers and that's why we went!  We stayed at the Divi Flamingo resort.

It was Jim's old dive buddy, Jimmy Lyon who told us about the trip organized by his local dive shop up in New Jersey - American Diving Supply.  The timing worked, so we signed up.  These two have been diving together for nearly 40 years!

Here's some video that Jim edited from our First Day of diving in Bonaire.


We had a beautiful sunset almost every night.  And lots of other opportunities for taking pretty pictures.

Great trip!  Lots more pictures on our Web Album. And Jim is editing more video too ... coming soon.