Key West Sunsets & Snorkeling

One sunset was watched from a Sebago catamaran on a sunset snorkel & sail. This trip was my first snorkel experience. The Sebago crew was fun. Part of their instructions for snorkeling included to be sure to get back on their boat – the other boats have warm beer and ugly crews! LOL They weren’t exaggerating about the good looking crews on Sebago either ;) Interesting Key West fact – the 2nd largest coral reef of the world is in Key West. We motored out to Rock Key for snorkeling. Pam and I take the long way into the water by going down the ladder (Tom jumped in from the deck). I swim out a bit from the boat and take my first try at snorkeling. At first I couldn’t keep my face in the water more than a few seconds – it felt claustrophobic. I had no fear of sinking, I knew I could breathe but wow, it feels weird at first. For the first 15 – 20 minutes I figured this would be my last time snorkeling too. I was wrong. By the end of the hour I was loving every minute and wishing for more. It was awesome to swim with the fish and watch them in their natural world. At one point a school of Sergeant Major fish were swimming with me! Tom saw a sea turtle and on our sail back a trio of dolphin followed for a bit.

We signed up for a day time snorkeling trip on Sebago after all, the first crew was hot and the beer was cold! ;) This time we went to Sand Key for snorkeling. We saw even more fish this time. Bright sun lights up the world under the sea. We all saw more variety of life in the Sand Key. At one point I looked down and there was a fish as long as me! Talk about an adrenaline rush especially since I didn’t know what it was at first. After the second look to confirm it wasn’t a shark eyeing me up for lunch, I followed it for a bit. I found out later it was a Tarpon fish. At one mesa of reef I saw two schools of fish just hanging out for the longest time. I saw Sergeant Majors, Yellowtails (mmm…sushi), Groupers, and Parrot Fish among others. On the sail back we saw a sea turtle and more dolphins. The snorkeling was awesome, the beer cold and the boat fun. I love being on a boat and soaked it up from the deck both times.