Gulf Coast!
Phase two included scuba certification and my fantasy will soon be in the works, with the assistance of FantaSea dive instructors of Port Charlotte.
The longer-range goal of a career in fiction writing and some travel writing and photography is worth working for. This is why I appreciate all the feedback I get from this site, and enjoy hearing from you new readers every week.
Christmas 2002 brought with it a nice digital camera, and just in time for the relocation to Florida. I tested it out on the medieval event I made costumes for and the pics came out wonderfully, as some of you can attest. Next stop-an underwater digital for my scuba adventures.
I hope this page will show the good reasons I had for enduring the hell of moving, which is only slightly more desirable than a 20-year sentence in a Turkish prison. If one hasn't the stamina for life in the Caribbean, or prefers the comforts of the First World, Southwest Florida is about as close to the lifestyle as one can get, and still make a decent living. I swim daily in our pool and often in the sea just minutes from my home. I can snorkel with dolphins or manatees, cruise the rivers or sea, jam down to any style of music with concerts and live bands at clubs, there are museums, plays, a murder mystery train, and other attractions everywhere, and this area is one of the largest in eco-tourism in the world. After viewing this page, I imagine you'll agree the move was worth the stress. No pain, no gain.
Now if I can just save my pennies for a boat...
a private home on Gasparilla Island
for watching manatees & dolphins off shore, fishing, taking a romantic stroll, or maybe sending that annoying partner to take a long walk off of...
Those wonderful Gulf Coast deep beaches with plenty of room for everyone to spread out and find their special spot for the afternoon....
My daughter Sapphira and I loaded our gear into the car just as the sky was going black to blue yesterday. First stop-gassing up and loading up with our day trip ritual breakfasts: orange cream Sobe and peanut butter granola bar for me, Strawberry Daquiri Sobe and spicy cornuts for her. Not exactly Ital I know.
As the sun rose we headed past Fort Myers and Naples, and onto the Sawgrass. We briefly considered stopping for some Gator-watching near Everglades City but passed the exit doing 90, being so psyched for Key Largo, and Pennecamp reef calling softly but firmly in the recesses of our sub-conscious.
We entered through the lush overhanging greenery of John H. Pennecamp State Park and National Marine Wildlife Preserve (Phew! What a name-put that on a business card!) and drove down the narrow lane to park close to the beach at 10 ish. They have a lovely aquarium inside the info center, not a full-fledged city aquarium but walking through the hallways looking at the different aquariums and reading the plaques to learn what we’d shortly be seeing in the wild was anticipation-building (as if we needed THAT!).
We rented our boat and Bullfrogged up (we use the waterproof stick-it jams) and headed out through the narrow channel straight toward a storm hanging directly over the Christ of the Abyss. Christ of the Abyss is a 38 1/2 foot, 4000 pound bronze sculpture of Jesus Christ that stands in 45 feet of water off of Key Largo, Florida. It is located near Dry Rocks, about six miles east-northeast of the Key Largo Cut, in the Pennekamp Coral Reef Park. Christ of the Abyss is one of the most famous and popular underwater sites in the only underwater park in the world.
I’d checked my Doppler and satellite and through faith in it and The Sisters (of fate) I just KNEW the storm was moving Eastward and we’d have 6-12 hours of sun before the storm to the West rolled in. It WAS 12, in the end, as Mom didn’t start pouring and sending lightning across Her sky until 7 pm ish, well after we’d hit Holiday Isle on Islamorada below Key Largo a few miles. More on that below.
We tied up at a reef just west of the Christ and snorkeled for 45 minutes, seeing a huge cluster of coral that was impressive for size, though not color like the bright oranges, reds, greens and lavenders I’ve seen elsewhere. It was host to tens of thousands of fish and dozens if not hundreds of species. There were the yellow tailed snappers and butter fish, some huge silver groupers and barracudas weighing 30-40 pounds and more, and the bright yellow-tailed butterflyfish in number.
We saw lots of brain coral, huge masses of it, and fan corals. There were indigo hamlet and huge parrotfish. There were blue tails and red bellies and polka dots, stripes, and even pyramids galore. Lots of angelfish in varieties. We saw every color in the spectrum on those fish, in wild and unusual combinations.
When we’d almost sensory-overloaded, we picked up and moved to the East side of the same reef, where we snorkel-dived to the bottom of the Christ. Luckily we already knew we could only touch His hands, as the rest of the statue is home to fire coral-definitely something you don’t want your hands on.
He is beautiful-Italians sure are masters of spiritual sculpture! And the setting, fish of every color and species swimming about Him, feeding on the life encrusted upon Him, makes Him even more beautiful, almost, to be corny, viewing Him was a religious experience. At His base is a plaque to an original Parrothead and Keys character, Mike Kavorkian, who was a local dive shop owner and instrumental in many marine preservation enactments before his passing. He is a local hero in an American subculture (the Keys) where the ocean is truly, the life.
After the Christ of the Abyss we snorkeled some 18th century Spanish galleon wreckage, cannons, anchor, other pieces, upon which the fish, large and small, feed constantly, and feed well, judging by their enormous size. The parrotfish are huge, with their yellow pink and blue spotted bodies.
I got some vertigo from looking into the deeper crevasses and canyons so tried to keep myself to shallower spots to keep my head from spinning. I attribute this to a Starbuck’s overdose (I’m caffeine hypersensitive), as I’ve never had mal du mer or vertigo before.
But faith had been rewarded, as the sun did come out shortly after our arrival on the first reef spot and shined brightly through the day. I have pink shoulders to prove it.
After rambling around Pennecamp we headed South on Hwy 1 to Islamorada for some well-earned sustenance and some party time. Holiday Isle is an excellent place for that, year round, barring ‘cane weather. There’s a middle class reasonably-priced hotel there but more importantly, the place is open and free to the public, and I mean FREE in more ways than money.
It’s sort of a Parrothead’s/Rasta’s/Beach Bum’s Heaven Complex with pools, beaches and lagoons, multiple bars, tiki huts, restaurants, and boardwalks, and multiple bands on stages all afternoon and evening every day. The most popular stage is where the Caribbean bands play soca, reggae, and some steel drum music. They dubbed that stage/area Kokomo. It’s right by the raised pool and “cliff”side lounges.
We had a hard time deciding which restaurant (all open style tiki type of course) to eat at but ended up along the water with blackened mahi mahi, conch fritters, and seafood salad. We watched some young Trini girls show up one arrogant drunk fat white woman who thought she knew how to dance Soca and was quite sexy at it. That was pretty amusing. The food was great and though neither of us drank the rum we guessed it was too, judging by the fun the hundreds of partyers around us looked like they were having. Old and young mingled and it was unusual and great. Especially all those tan beach boys and men hanging about (the locals-many pink tourists as well).
After we ate we took a stroll along one of the boardwalks looking into some of the shops at things we would love to own but you have to draw the line somewhere. Since our arrival in Fla we’ve seen lots of tacky things done with sea shells but one shop along the boardwalk had made some fantastic shell and stone jewelry set in gold. At the end of the boardwalk we again got to laugh at the stupid tourists-some drunk young studs, obviously trust fund babies, were having push up contests to impress the g-string-clad girls lounging on the deck of daddy’s 140 footer at the dock a few feet away. I love to people watch!
But even better, a few yards from the collapsing push up princes, manatees! A cow and her young had wandered right into the marina and were playfulling rolling and surfacing right between two yachts! It was wonderful! I’d never seen them in the “wild” before. And judging by the atmosphere at holiday isle, I’d say that marina could be called wild.
It was a fantastic day and today nothing Sapphira and I could do could top it-so I’m just working on the site and lounging around the pool, chilling in the gulf breeze and catching some South Florida rays. Wish you were all here! Well, many of you, but not, perhaps, Our Lady Twins of Perpetual Sorrows.
Have a great Sunday all! Marble