South Florida habitat includes entire populations living on the waters. Yesterday I ventured from the verdant swamps to the turquoise waters of Key Largo. I was out to snorkel to see fish in their natural habitat. My buddy just bought a large salt water fish tank and I did a quick portrait of two of his fish last week.
This week, I was swimming with the salt water fish.
The catamaran that carried me to the reef was the most comfortable water vehicle I’ve experienced. I’ve tried the large cruise ship, small yachts, smaller vessels and finally a kayak. Most of the smaller vessels were fine for my vertigo. The large cruise ship was not. I never got used to it. A little timid of my own seasickness tendencies, I tried this cat and it was smoooooooothe! The waters were choppy but the cat jumped over the lazy brown dog waters to the bright turquoise without losing my lunch.
At the coral reef, I used the cat’s equipment of snorkel mask and snorkel hose. They fit the best I ever tried on. With the fins, I dipped into the waters fearlessly. Once able to manage the kicking gear, my legs took me where I needed to view the fish. And they were waiting! I saw a cobalt blue fish about the size of my hand; floated in a school of striped black and yellow fish, praised God for the huge size of angel fish that hung just below me and was waved by purple and green coral flyswatters.
When I returned to the cat, I got momentarily nauseous but fought it back and it fled. I found the best spot to sun bathe and that was right on the mesh netting in the front of the catamaran. Sunburned to a crisp, it was the best sleep I’ve had being rocked by the sea on a cat.