Key Largo Part 2

The Hungry Pelican:
We arrived at our hotel around 6pm. It seemed fairly packed, but it was the last day of vacation for many, so I had a feeling it would be vacated soon. We checked in at the office and received the key to our room, the Conch. I knew from the many reviews that the rooms here were not large, but I was still a little shocked by just how small it was. Maybe 160 sq feet if you squint real hard. It was going to be 'cozy' with all our gear.
We spent a bit of time unloading, and getting aquainted with the bit of property, taking a short stroll down to the dock. Following our short stroll about, we decided we should contact Silent World Dive center to talk about what was going on and get aquainted. With it being early evening, we weren't able to get anyone on the phone, so decided to take a drive to find where they dock the boat.
We were in luck, as we pulled up, there were still a couple guys unloading gear and getting tanks put away. We decided to stop and introduce ourselves and get the low down for the next morning. We were asked to meet at the dive shop at 0745 to sign away our lives in triplicate.
Liesl and I then went to find some food. Liesl noticed a restaurant called The Fish House. I figured I might be able to find something to eat there, so in we went. Liesl ordered Matecumbe (Mahi Mahi), and I had shrimp and scallops key lime over rice. The dishes were pretty tasty, even for me, a non-fish person. With our stomachs full, and an early morning ahead, it was time for some much deserved sleep.

At the dive shop the next morning we learned that we would be diving the USCG Cutter Duane, opted out of diving nitrox as we have not yet bought an analyzer, and spent a small fortune. Liesl and I then drove to the marina where we would board the Silent World 4. Capt. Bob and the DM Robert were crewing the boat. We took on tanks and weights, boarded the boat and hit the high seas.
The trip out to the Duane took about 50 minutes. The first 30 minutes were ok, a little chop but not bad, the next 20 minutes, were a bit more rough. They gave a short briefing, including entrance instructions. I found this interesting, as every trip I've been on has had different procedures. On this dive, we were to hang on to the granny line as we step in, then hand-over-hand to the bouy, then pull ourselves to the stern of the ship along the bouy line. It was either this or fly off into the deep blue, not a good option.
We were paired up with another man named Matt, but would otherwise be solo. The current was fairly strong, 1-2 knots. The visibility as we decended was poor, less than 30 feet. We made it to the stern, and saw a barracuda, a pair of gray angels, school of grunts, as we kicked into the current for about 15 minutes, before having to turn back. Liesl took a few pictures of the crows nest, then back to the line to ascend. In all we were only down for about 23 minutes.
Back aboard was not pleasant, and we ended up getting seasick while we were waiting for the tech divers to come up from tehir 2 hour dive. We were green enough about the gills to not want to attempt another dive in those conditions. We also ended up calling off our night trip scheduled for the Spiegle Grove, as it was in the same conditions.
Sea sickness sucks!
The ride back was a bit miserable, but we made it. Liesl and I then headed to the dive shop to talk about changing our schedule around to possibly include a second shallow dive in lieu of the Spiegel trip. They agreed, and we were set for a better day ahead.
After a quick cleanup at the hotel, we ate at a great little place called Mrs. Macs, where Liesl later became addicted to the Key Lime Freeze. We ended up eating here a couple of times. Good food in a good environment.
We spent a while sitting on the dock at the hotel sipping our shakes, then it was time for bed.

more to come...