We drove from Destin to Gainesville, Gainesville to Key Largo.
The November sun was fire, burning us from the inside. I expected Florida in November to be mild. That's what I remember of my childhood. This week provided different.
We arrived in Key Largo already dripping with sweat and a stench of cigarettes and old clothes. Setting up camp provided easy as we were three deep in layered hammocks.
That night we ate at a local bar where the dive instructors take a load off. We had tons of Conch and Snapper and drank rum and cheap beer.
I slept naked in the tent because the weather wouldn't let up. Every night it was the same thing, drink just enough that when you wake up you're soaked in your own sweat but don't care enough to move.
Over 3 days we dove six times, each better than the last.
We saw sharks, a Goliath grouper that something had taken a bite out of, sea turtles, eels, stingrays and an array of fish that I can't remember the names of. Matt took the nikonos and had field day with the underwater film shots.
Our last night poured buckets. Jimmy's raptor snores were drowned by the rain. Everything was damp and smelled sour but it was ok because we ate sunny food and then ralphed because we were seasick and cried because we were scared and smelled horrible for a week but we got to watch each other grow and enjoy so like every messy trip, it was worth it.
We took these images with a disposable camera and an underwater nikon camera.