Only in South Florida

[John A]

Went down to the beach Sunday morning to get in a little free diving/exercise. My usual short routine is to get out into the water before sun up and do a half hour to three quarters of an hour work out on the first reef, nothing deep, 15’ to 30’. It is great to watch the phosphorescence in the water as you swim out in the dark! So, this morning being no different, I park the car and grab the long fins, mask and snorkel and head for the surf. Right. As I approach the surf line, there right above the high tide mark is a half buried dead goat and a foot away a dead chicken, also another large garbage bag up from that I choose not to look in. Guess I just missed the Santeria moon rise service! Not letting a little bad mojo affect a perfectly good flat sea, I walk down the beach a bit and get in.
I don’t think I am in the water 2 minutes when I get whacked across the face with an errant man-o-war tentacle, hits the lip and across the cheek, ouch! After a brief pause I figure, what’s the chance of that happening again (got hit on the shoulder on Saturday) so I keep swimming. Get out to the reef and the vis looks like I am swimming through skim milk, so I just get a good rhythm going of ups and downs and do this for about 30 minutes. The sun is just now starting to peek above the horizon as I swim back in, and there on the beach now are about 5 or 6 surf fisherman, oh what fun, swimming through fresh bait and hooks just to get out of the water! All and all, not the greatest dive, but a lot better then not getting wet at all! The nasty red blotches on my face should be gone by Friday.

[Erik]

Originally posted by John A
I don’t think I am in the water 2 minutes when I get whacked across the face with an errant man-o-war tentacle, hits the lip and across the cheek, ouch! After a brief pause I figure, what’s the chance of that happening again (got hit on the shoulder on Saturday) so I keep swimming.

Reminds me of the joke about the guy who was scared of terrorists and brought a bomb on the plane because the chances of TWO bombs on one plane are billions to 1

"Some days the Sea doesn't want you..." : Jacques in 'The Big Blue'

As I always say, a day in the water, even a shitty day, is still better than a day out of the water
Cheers amigo,
Erik Y.