Last Friday morning around noon I stumbled down to the beach not expecting to do much more than swim. When I got there I ran into my neighbor and her kids. She saw me eyeballing the color change in the water where the coral heads began and offered me one of their masks. I wasted no time heading out. It was awesome! That was my first snorkeling on the reef off my beach. Not much coral, but plenty of macroalgae and fish. The water was perfectly calm and clear. I had no idea at the time, but that was the perfect day for snorkeling.
The next day I treated myself to some new snorkeling gear: a panoramic mask with nose purge and glass lenses, a "dry" snorkel (doesn't take on water!), and some midgrade fins. I made a few calls and organized a dive for me & a buddy off of Pompano Beach. It was a beautiful clear sunny day with a nice breeze. We didn't get all prepared until about 4:30, then went down to the water. The wind had picked up a lot, so much that we were getting sandblasted! Both of us bought new gear that day and we weren't about to wuss out. So into the water we went. I was in charge of the flag. The wind acted like an anchor on the way out and like a sail on the way in. The current was so strong I felt like I was crawling, even with nice fins. We never found a reef--just a random crab claw and a few dead baby crabs  We did find a buoy with its own ecosystem on our way back to shore. That was the highlight of the dive. We continued to move towards the shore, but the current was taking us down the beach. I finally made it to shore--completely exhausted --far down the beach from where we got in. After the walk back I found my shoes, sunglasses, etc... underneath a sandpile the wind made. I looked out over the ocean and saw quite a storm moving in. Hmmmmm...maybe that's why it was so windy?
The funny thing is that a few of my friends cancelled a fishing trip that day because of the weather forecast. Moral of the story: always check the weather!
Oh yeah, afterwards I made a complete recovery by stuffing myself with yummy sushi  I figure if I can't see fish, I can at least eat them!
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