Castawayll Great Loop: February 26, 2014 Wednesday Marathon

All dressed up and snorkeling to be done.

After breakfast we motored out to "Coffins Patch" to go snorkeling, everyone else had an excuse why they couldn't go with. Departed around 11:30 am and was anchored at West Turtle Shoal just North of the Patch Dive area. Took lots of pictures but unfortunately Curt didn't turn on the flash so they weren't that good. Saw lots of colorful fish, stingrays going across the bottom in the sandy spots. 14:30 Noticed we were really bouncing around in the water, after getting back on the boat found there were White Caps and the waves were really getting big. Pulled anchor out of the sand and started back to the Marina. Noticed we had a missed call. It was Attitude Changer trying to find the way into the marina and they were in 1 foot of water trying to cross the bay. Curt told them to turn around go South now and we would come find them. After getting the Lats and Longs we found where they were and motored over to them. They were rocking pretty good up on the fly bridge in the big waves. I noticed as they were following us they lost a fender so we called them told them we would go back and get it. Our second MOB of the day, the first was a pillow Curt had put on top of the Bimini to dry out and forgot. Took to tries to get the pillow out of the water, one try for the fender. Guess we needed to practice our Man Overboard. Anyway we all made it safe back to the marina and glad to be in calmer waters tied up in our slips. Curt and I went for a swim in the pool, showered. Made Pizza on the Grill, thank you Linda for the idea. Opened our bottle of Greek wine we got in Tarpon Springs and had Pizza and Salad. Yummy. Went over to Barb and Ross's/Attitude Changer discussed our trip to Key West on the bus meeting at tomorrow 0730 in the morning.

Curt had the camera ready for some beautiful fish while he was snorkeling, the wind was starting to blow when we first went in but not a big deal

A sea monster, no it's me, I probably had to clear my mask or snorkel, a few strands of hair between the mask and my skin seemed to be an avenue for water to come into my mask

You have to use your imagination, the other lesson today was to turn on the flash when taking pictures in the water, will try that next time and see if it helps, so sad, the fish were such bright blue, yellow, black and white, stripes

I think he was trying to get a picture of a stingray going along the bottom

I didn't trust the anchor so thru out the PVD connected to the boat, another lesson learned, won't work unless the rope is untangled and attached to the PVD and ready to immediately deploy with MOB, {Who would of thought!} not tie to the boat, take out the multiple knots and throw out while underway or the wind is blowing the boat away from the person in the water. Usually the wind is blowing strong when there is a Man Over Board and immediately action all the same time is required. Sails down, motor neutral, mark the GPS for MOB, and PVD deployed for the person to hold on to or swim to if possible and pull himself back to the boat. We're ready for emergencies now 70 miles out from land or closer.