Fury!

July 2, 2020

 







Fury!

I intended to title this blog for the Fury Watersports snorkel trip that we took this week, our first trip to the reef by boat this summer, but I could just have easily used the same term to express the outrage over the continued explosion of the Covid-19 pandemic. The current situation has us setting new high case numbers on an almost daily basis both locally and statewide with the national situation spiraling out of control as well. 

 





It is truly a frightening situation that has accelerated to truly horrific numbers as we obviously reopened the economy way too soon and the first wave has continued after a brief time when we had started to flatten the curve. Now it has accelerated to truly restart a drastic upward trend of new cases as every day seems to bring more and more scary news. Just today, we added a total of 24,947 new cases nationwide to grow to a total of 2,696,000. Over 10,000 of those new cases are from our home state of Florida. The death toll reached 125,998 in the United States.



 





Locally the number has grown rapidly as well, with a total now of 296 cases, 96 cases in Key West and one additional death today for a total of 5 for Monroe County. The steep incline continues as tourists have returned full force and bars, restaurants and other establishments have been open with varying levels of adherence to the state and local guidelines. At least until this week when the state mandated that all bars are now banned from serving any alcohol for on-site consumption which basically shuttered every bar in town that doesn’t getting more than 50% of their sales from food.









It has created a strange situation where wait staff and other employees have been put in the position of becoming enforcers of the mask wearing rules and social distancing to a crowd of tourists that are not always willing to comply creating some ugly moments. City police and code enforcement officials have recently joined the fray and have begun patrolling Duval Street to assist and help contain a crowd that can be unruly.

 







We have been keeping busy trying to stay away from gatherings and to enjoy and take advantage of the beautiful summer weather and the island life by enjoying the ocean. We have been spending a lot of time snorkeling at the Higg’s Beach Pier. I have been going fairly regularly and each time we go, we see something different and exciting. There is always a ton of beautiful and interesting sea life.

 





This most recent visit, I had one of the coolest experiences that I have ever had there. When I first entered the water, I was immediately confronted with a decent size nurse shark that swam right at me, turning away literally only a foot or so away from my face, it then began circling me in a very curious manner that I had never had happen with a nurse shark, which generally are fairly placid, often lying on the seafloor.  It was really cool and I tried to get decent photos, but the shark was actually too close to get a decent shot.



 





After snorkeling the wall on my normal route, when I returned to the area where I had seen the initial shark, suddenly there were 4 nurse sharks of varying sizes swimming around. It was pretty obvious that someone had been feeding them or other fish in the area that attracted them, as they are rarely seen at the surface so close to the dock itself. It was pretty cool and gave a thrill to the folks on the pier who looked on with some amazement as I swam among the sharks.





 



This experience made me even more desirous to get out to the actual reef. I contacted my friend Anna who works for the Fury inquiring what was the best and safest of their many trips and she suggested the double dip snorkel trip, which is on the relatively smaller Reef Express boat and makes two extended reef stops for snorkeling. I called and booked on the day when they had the fewest bookings and Kathy and I joined a small but safe group for a trip to Sand Key.





 



It was so nice to be back in the ocean and snorkeling at the reef. The visibility was excellent and we saw all sorts of cool tropical fish, coral and other sea creatures. The highlights were a visit from a small Caribbean Reef Shark and a beautiful spotted eagle Ray that swam with us for a few minutes and was truly beautiful. The entire experience was awesome from the wonderful job and safe conduct of the crew and passengers to the beautiful weather and awesome snorkeling. Of course the reef is still not anything what it once was and that always depresses me a little, it was still a magical experience during a time when they are certainly needed and appreciated.