Enroute to FIT Level III.... Part 1

Well, it's family vacation time and what do you know, FIT Level III falls right in the middle of it. So we head to my parents house in the Sarasota Area first. The day after we arrive I have plans made to dive out of Clearwater FL. There are 5 of us headed out and I thought I felt fairly good. We were headed out 15 miles to a site when we saw a smaller sailfish cruising on the surface. That was a first for me and the rest of the guys thought it very unusual.

At the first site I was having trouble with my gun so I was headed back to the boat. I heard one of the guys scream like a little girl "A dolphin was this close to me". I looked up and the dolphin was headed toward the boat. I get to the boat at the same time as the dolphin and start swimming around the boat with it. One of the guys on the boat handed down his video camera and I hope I got some good foottage, I was a bit excited!

Not many dives into the day, Matt, the boat owner, got into the water. Two of the guys told him he needs to shoot this HUGE cobia. Matt hits the bottom and comes back up to inform them they were talking about a nurse shark. They insisted it was a cobia so Matt goes for antoher look. He sees the nurse shark again and thinks these guys are in need of visual aids. Just then he sees the cobia come out from under the rubble and places a shot in it's head. From there the Cobia ended up with 3 more shafts through it. I figured it had enough line and steel to drag around, so I just watched the activities. The Cobia turned in at 50lbs.

Shortly after that some of the guys saw some smaller Mahi. They kept commenting on the strange sightings.

The water was very calm so they decided to head to the Sheridan and Blackthorn. The water was nice, the Barracuda were a plenty! But I was not seeing anything to shoot and I was more tired than I though and ended up sleeping a couple hours on the boat.

The last spot we hit was a ledge. They pulled a couple of hog fish off the ledge. On the fish side of the dives, I did not do so well...I got skunked actually. I still had fun though. I almost wish I shot a couple of the fish I saw, but I was not sure on size limits and I just didn't pull the trigger. No reason, I just didn't/

Monday I went to Warm Mineral Springs with cdavis. cdavis and I dove the spring for 2.5 - 3 hours. Again it was a rough day for me, but cdavis made some progress on his exhale diving.

I'm looking forward to Lobster diving with Wreckrunner on Thursday and then Level III starting Saturday. I'm a little concerned however, since I cut my hand pretty good with scissors.