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Summer in Southwest Florida – my favorite time of the
year! It’s hot, it’s sweaty, the streets are less crowded and I can park
within 2 miles of the grocery store. How much better could it get? Here’s
how -- we are able to dive the Gulf more frequently and very soon, we’ll
be able to stuff those thick wetsuits back into the dark corners of the
closet for the next 6 months.
The long Memorial Day weekend is a big deal for the Caloosa Dive Club.
Some divers head to Marathon for a weekend of diving the coral reefs of
the Florida Keys and others pack up their boats and head to Cayo Costa
where they drop the hook in Pelican Bay and then dive the Gulf. Since our
boat, Dippy Diver, isn’t blessed with a generator, we really love the
early summer when the night air is still cool and the bugs haven’t
discovered that the floating armada in Pelican Bay holds a feast for them.
We joined the usual group of suspects early Friday afternoon and
immediately dipped into the shallow water with our pool noodles and cold
drinks where we floated blissfully until cocktail hour (different than the
previously mentioned cold drinks) got close and we had to think about
lighting up the barbeques.
Pelican Bay is a good jumping off point for many Gulf dive sites and at
this time of year, getting further north offers better visibility
underwater. We can have a leisurely breakfast before loading up the dive
gear and heading out to our favorite spots. On one particular day, we
joined our friends Nick & Holly on their spacious Tiara, the Knot Bad.
Nick is an experienced Captain who spent many years running charters on
Long Island before succumbing to the sunny, southern breezes of Southwest
Florida. When you are defining great boats, the Knot Bad ranks right up
there. The spacious deck holds all of our dive gear, camera housings and
coolers and still leaves plenty of room to move around easily. The dive
platform (many boaters mistakenly call this the swim platform, but we know
what it really is) is wide and easy for entries and exits. The ride is
smooth and comfortable even with some of that wave action that
occasionally stirs up our peaceful Gulf.
We had a leisurely trip out past the tip of Boca Grande and made good
time, despite the fact that there must have been over a hundred small
boats, all seemingly on the move, looking for Tarpon in the area. We
zigged and zagged our way through and set a course for the Temblay Reef
area. This popular site for Charlotte County divers, includes a large
ferry which sits upright in 58 feet of water and a 70’ barge close by,
with piles of rubble between the two. The weather was absolutely perfect,
water calm, no current and great visibility – combine that with a reef
area that can keep you busy for quite a while watching Bar Jack, Jewfish
and a pair of Sheepshead in some type of ritualistic mating ceremony. We
spotted a few large barracuda but they kept their distance. A second dive
for our small group on a wreck that is closer to Boca Grande Pass, kept
our day interesting and trouble free.
 And now for the rest of the
story… Last month I told the tale of Doug and The Shark. One of the other
boats leaving Pelican Bay on this same weekend included Doug, who may need
a legal name change to “Shark Bait”. We weren’t on that dive so can only
relay the action as told to us by others, and you know how that can change
from “ear to ear”. It seems that the word is out in the Shark Daily News
that Doug catches fish and then lets them go when a shark shows its pearly
whites. The scary part is that the sharks are getting bigger and the one
that got the prize catch on this particular day was a Hammerhead. We’re
not sure why, but Doug is having a harder time finding dive buddies
lately!
We have a good friend and fellow diver who flies helicopters whenever he
gets the chance. Larry is a retired airline pilot who still enjoys being
airborne. He recently had a chance to fly low over some shallow waters
just off the area around Boca Grande. The photos he took confirm the fact
that there are Hammerheads hunting for game and these aren’t the friendly
guys from Finding Nemo. The stalking Hammerhead spotted a good size fish,
probably a Tarpon, and headed straight for the kill leaving a boat size
wake for a fair distance before closing in on its prey. The photos are
enough to send a grown man under the bed and we’re betting it will give
Doug some bad moments too.
And finally, on July 10, the Caloosa Dive Club will have a few boats
competing in the annual Cape Coral Cardboard Boat Races. For the past few
years, our cardboard boat captains and crews have taken many prizes at
this event so we’re hoping for the same this year. This is a fun event
that takes place at the Cape Coral Yacht Club and there is no admission
fee so it’s an inexpensive way to enjoy a Saturday on the water.
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