First to Freedive the Vandenberg

Very big day: we drove out to the Vandenberg and became, I think, the first people to freedive the USS Vandenberg artificial reef. The vis was so good you could see the ship from the surface. I mean, you could even look down from your boat and see the Vandenberg without getting into the water. It won't be that way forever, as things growing on it will cover the white paint and obscure it more and more. But as it stands now, you can snorkel the Vandenberg!

We spent at least an hour there, and nobody took out any guns. It was just that amazing. There were fishermen trolling the thing- I bet all they caught was barracuda, if anything! It's a little too early, guys! There were some good-sized cudas hovering a few feet off the Vandenberg, unfazed by anything, loving their new home, welcoming visitors.

Also present on the Vandenberg were various groups of scuba divers. Now I know why they call them "bubble makers" or whatever the phrase is. The stream of tiny bubbles flowing out their tanks created a column of bad, bubbly vis that went all the way up to the surface. I think we startled a few of them!

The top deck of the Vandenberg is about sixty feet down, so it was good practice for all of us, since that's just about everyone's limit. Mine is about 45 feet. The satellite dish was fabulous, and creepy at the same time. Great picture taking opportunities and the best day freediving I've had in a while.

Key West Snorkeling- Never the Same Twice

Painters can paint the same scene every day and see something different every single time. Monet did this in his impressionist paintings of haystacks, lillies, and anything else he found to be beautiful. Key West snorkeling is the same way. You can go out to the same spot every day and see a totally different scene. And it's not just that there are different fish there each day, it's the quality of the light coming through the water, just what Monet was painting. It's the vis- some days it's very blue and clear. Freedivers and spearos call this "blue water", which is optimal conditions for seeing and spearing fish. Some days you can only see 10 feet in front of you. This day, the vis was ok in some spots, but tinted a very distinct green. We called it Green Water Day. Take a look.

The Vandenberg!

It's a big deal, and it's here now, soon to be sunk on May 27. The Vandenberg, to be an artificial reef just south of Key West, was a war ship from World War II that's been cleaned and picked apart so there are no contaminants or pollutants which would harm the real reef once it's sunk. This cost millions and millions of dollars, and took at least ten years, I think. It's going to be the second largest artificial reef in the world, at 528 feet long. It'll be in 140 feet of water, good for scuba but not so accessible for Key West snorkeling. If you can freedive down to forty feet, you will be able to see the dishes, which will be at that level. But too bad it's not a little bit shallower for snorkelers.
She has to be sunk by June 1, 2009, which is the official start of hurricane season. Hurricanes can seriously mess up sinking plans! Anyone who has a boat has to stay outside a one-mile radius of the deployment area, so I'll be curious about what we'll be able to see when we go out to watch. It'll be located south of the Cayman wreck, convenient for dive boats out of Stock Island as well as Key West.

Best Fish Sauce

We catch a lot of fish, (spearfishing) and eat almost all of it ourselves. So eventually the need for lots of fish recipes and fish sauce recipes became an urgent matter. You can get tired of fried fish pretty quickly. Here's one of our favorite sauces, the all-purpose sauce for fried fish and baked fish too.
It's called Red Reef Coral Sauce and it's from Mastering the Art of Florida Seafood.
Fast, easy and delicious.

Coral Sauce
Just stir it all up in a bowl and then put it on your fish!

3/4 cup Mayonaise
2 TB ketchup
1 TB prepared horseradish
2 TB pimento (optional: we never put it in)
juice of 1/4 lemon
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/8 tsp tabasco sauce

Star Gazer Reef

One of the coolest snorkel spots in Key West is Star Gazer Reef. Not really for the fish, but for the whole scene. It's a sculpture, kind of like a series of tables under water, with small balls of coral growing all over. Under the "table" there are lots of mangrove snappers and other fish, and one giant resident Jewfish underneath. There's a pair of angel fish here that are ginormous, too.
Star Gazer Reef is lots of fun to snorkel or dive because it's so strange. You can take some pretty cool pictures, too. The challenge is trying to get as close as possible to the Jewfish. Poor thing, he can't really hide himself here. He doesn't like to be bothered, so you feel kind of rude trying to get close. He will keep his eye on you and keep swimming, although slowly, to different sections of the Star Gazer to avoid you. Best option for getting a good picture is to find a place in the sculpture where there's a hole and look down through it, or peer over the top of the "table" at him.