Dive #117 - Rich Torkington's Dive Log

Janel in our SUV returning from Looe Key
Videograph by John Torkington in Florida Keys 2002

Dive Journal: Jim is right. When we surface after dive #116, all the mooring sites at the reserve are taken, and dozens of others boats are anchored around as well. Literally hundreds of divers and snorkellers are in the water. Pristine conditions today!

Jim tells us he has another party to meet around noon, and so a quick return to the water would be appreciated. No need for surface interval here – let’s get back in.

We head southwest from the boat, exploring all the sandy grooves on that side. We head down one groove to the sandy shallows again, discovering some nice tarpon and a great school of horse-eye jacks. We head back up another groove to find a wonderful tight little school of bar jacks.

At the end of the groove, while we’re exploring around, I suddenly see the manta ray approaching us again. It is very likely the same one as last dive. I check the family and everyone but John is already stopping to see the manta approach us. It is a SUPERB encounter, as the ray flies by barely 2 feet away, showing its underside, as we kneel in the sand quietly. Johnny is busy rooting around in the sand, and as he catches sight of the 5’ manta in his peripheral vision, he quickly looks up, then wildly double-takes and watches in awe.

The manta circles around us several times for over a minute, to our delight. As he makes yet another turn, we watch as a snorkeler quickly appears from the surface, chases the manta, then grabs onto its shoulders attempting to ride it. The manta jerks violently and is many yards away in an instant. I feel like going up and tying my weight belt onto this ignoramus.

We continue on a long exploration of the reef. There are beautiful corals everywhere and some nice nurse sharks. There is an occasional blue parrotfish to be seen - simply stunning. We spy one Nassau grouper being cleaned, a few highhats, and yellowtail damsels.

We end up out over the sand on the deep end of the grooves, checking out an isolated coral patch. It is a long way back to the boat but I think I’ve kept track of where it is. We swim a long way, passing the hulls of many other boats, studying them to try and recognize ours. After a 5 minutes swim, I decide to surface since it’s so shallow. We’ve overshot our boat by one groove, and so we all quickly vector back to the boat ladder.

Jim is impressed we’ve directly found the boat in all this traffic, until I own up that I surfaced to look once. We have thoroughly enjoyed our easy dives here – Looe Key is excellent!