Spirit Journey & Manatees - Part 9

The next morning dawned cloudy and drizzly. It was our last day in the keys and Sean really wanted to go out and snorkel one more time. So did I, but the weather was ominous. We did not have a charter arranged, so we would have to rent a boat ourselves. We decided to go to the John Pennekamp Park again to rent a boat. It surely wasn’t far. We probably would have walked if it weren’t for all of our gear.

The docks at John Pennekamp State Park

When we arrived, we bought a dive and navigation chart and planned our voyage. There was a shallow wreck straight out from the Park that we were sure we couldn’t miss and we decided to head for there. We walked out onto the docks to look at the boats that were available. I don’t specifically remember the sizes, but we picked one out that was affordable. The staff kind of gave each other looks, and upgraded us to a bigger boat for free because of the bad weather. The water was a bit rough with peaky waves, but not white caps.

This one was not for rent and too big.

We threw all of our gear into the boat and fired her up. Sean has lots of experience piloting boats, so he was fine with taking her out. She plowed nicely through the waves but I was glad he was doing the driving. I prefer ideal conditions. We were both fine on the way out and found the proper mooring without any problems. I caught up the mooring and we were tethered before we knew it.

This is what it looks like heading out of the park on a nice day.

This is about the size boat we got, but ours was an open whaler.

Then we began to feel the waves. Our little ship was tossed! We hurriedly got out of our warm dry clothes and donned our cold wetsuits. God, I felt so green in the cool breeze. Suddenly, Sean leaned over the side and tossed his cookies. That certainly did not help matters. I just had to get into the water. Sean got in before I did and said that it was really much better in the water. So, I got in and he was right. I did, however, throw up a bit in my mouth. The water felt warm and I could no longer feel the waves. I put my face in and with my snorkel mask there was an illusion of calm and the nausea went away. Thank god!

We set about trying to find the wreck. Sean spotted it first and directed me to it. It was really shallow and I could see it well. Even though it was kind of boring, I really wanted to stay in the water. I idly followed fish around to amuse myself. I certainly did not want to get back into that rocking boat and throw up my guts again.

Sean and I surfaced and we talked about it. He proposed that we could get on the boat and get going right away with our wetsuits still on and get changed when we got back to the park. My man is so smart sometimes. That is why I love him. So, that is what we did. Neither of us got sick again. It was great to be on dry land upon our return. The park staff eagerly asked if we had a good time, like they were expecting to hear horror stories, but instead we told them we did have a good time. We had an adventure together. We faced a challenge and together made it work out for the best.

Sunsets are best after storms.