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What a great day of diving! My boss / friend Joe, came to work and said that we needed more pictures of wreck diving for our brochures and for a diving convention in March up in New Jersey! He said everyone get ready we are going diving. WEll.. lets see it was either sit in the office all day answering phones or going out on the water... hummm... I of course chose diving! Let me tell you, it was cold and windy out.... the waves were rolling!! it was 5-6 feet and occasionaly 8 feet out there! The air temp was 60degrees and the water was 75. The day before we had went to the Spiegel and we were very cold.. so we were expecting the same conditions. The only difference this time, as opposed to the pic of Jackie and I above was that we could NOT wear wetsuits! The pictures were supposed to look TROPICAL! Since we are a tropical climate and it barely stays cold for long.. the advertising had to reflect such!
Soooooo we were planning on going to the Duane and then the Spiegel grove. The Duane is one of my favorite wrecks here in the Keys. I've been to it now about 5 times, and I love it. It's an old US Coast Guard Cutter (built 1936) that was donated as use for an artificial reef. She was sank November 27, 1987 at Molasses Reef. She lies upright on a sandy bottom 120 feet deep. She is 327 feet long and the deck is at 90 feet. She is awesome to look at!! Lots of goliath grouper and eel and shark are all over the place. Tons of fish and coral as well! Just beautiful!
But... instead of going to the Duane first we went back to the Spiegel... to do the first photoshoot. We had heard it was really rough at the Duane so we thought lets try the Spiegel first and get some pictures taken down there. Sooo.. as we pull up we see some of our other friends out there on different boats. Steve told us that there were ton of Man o Wars all around and that we need to keep an eye out before we jump in... and yes.. we saw them EVERYWHERE! That wasn't what REALLY worried us.. it was the COLD WATER! So as we kept telling our selves it was going to be hot... we all took shifts in jumping in.. two groups every 10 minutes. Austin and I were the last group! I told him to stay close.. and he did. Austin is 18 and has been to the Spiegel Numerous amounts of time.. and I have not. So we go on down the decent line..and it wasn't cold at all.. even being in our bikinis!1 It was beautiful but the viz wasn't everything we had hoped!
Here are a few pics of us from the shoot.. I am the first two.. Jackie is the 3rd..and Joe is the last two!
I missed the next dive on the Duane... cuz I had a really bad ear squeeze.. and yes.. the viz was apparently 100ft on the duane and the no current! OF COURSE.. I missed my favorite one.. The boat was rocking bigtime.. but that puts me to sleep (the waves were 6 and 7 feet..) but it was still fun!!!
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01/01/2007, bed
Hope you all had a safe and happy new year! We had a great time lastnight..as far as I can remember..lol! Anyway.. today we are going out fishing..on the FantasticII with Chris and his Uncle Butch! Hopefully they will catch dinner..while I just catch the rays!!.. I can't be asked to do anything more than just lay out!!! :) I'll post the pics of the trip later!!!! Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Merry Christmas Everyone!!! I'm very happy this Christmas, even though I'm not with my parents this year..but I am with Eddie! Last year at this time.. was really hard on both of us.. being without eachother... but this year we are together as well as a great friend..Chris and his mom, uncle, and Max, Max, and Bailey! Yes, three dogs! Atleast we aren't all on the boat... I don't think that we would all fit! Anyway.. I couldn't be happier..and I'm very lucky to be able to share everything with
Eddie. I love him with all my heart and I'm looking forward to a lifetime of Christmas' with him...on whatever island or country that may be!!!
I hope you all had a great Christmas..and Mom and Dad.. I love you very much and miss you more than you know!!!!!
XXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Ok.. the one thing about being on a boat... is that you kinda lose your privacy.... not in a bad way really... but you just do. If you want to go outside and hang out on top of the boat...and read or just relax...there is always someone who wants to strike up a conversation. Now..for those of you who know me.. I almost never shut up.... but there ARE times.. (yes...really) when I just want to relax...as well as Eddie. Well... not on our boat. Our neighbor Lorna... great cooky ol lady... loves to chat...!! I love chatting with her...and she has so many stories to tell...if you ever get a chance to meet her..ask her about her flute collection...
anyway... where I'm going with this is .. I came outside for a cigarette.. Eddie had been teaching me stuff for my Divemaster Exams and we had been working on it all day..so we were pretty tired.. so.. i just wanted to take a lil break and just chill.... well the minute I go outside Lorna sees me and comes outside to.... i knew she wanted something...and so she asks for a favor..... her tv wasn't working properly and she asked if Eddie had any tools and if he could adjust her satelite dish. I found it quite funny... for one.. if i had of asked him to do that... he would have laughed..and would tell me to do it myself... (since it involved climbing a pole..and eddie hates heights) but.. he had to do the neighborly thing..and help Lorna out. He would have looked like an ass if he said no... right? anyway... I was amused...and her are a few pics of him on top of the post.
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11/07/2006, work
just wanted to update you all that our floor is FINISHED!!! It looks great! I will have pictures to follow! We cleaned the whole boat and did a major reorganization. Now we are working on sanding the rest of the hardwood on the cabin and try to get all of that done soon.. but then again you all know how long it took to finish the floors...!! LOl
ok.. well I'm working at a Dive shop..and I need to get back to work!
love, me
by the way this picture has nothing to do with this blog... but I added it until I have the pictures of the floor. Isn't it a GREAT PIC... photographer is Stephen Frink based in Key Largo
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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10/24/2006, Neptune 3000 Stove/Oven/Grill
Ok.. maybe not all of you out there would be as excited as we were when we found our "new" (atleast to us) propane oven/stove/grill. In England, I was told by Eddie, they call it a Hob.. or something.. anyway... we have been very excited about our new purchase. Thanks to our friends Hal and Jennifer on Mari Hal o Jen.. who gave us the heads up about where to purchase it! (thank you)..
ok..so since we have added this new addition to our galley.. we have created lots of wonderful meals.. Eddie loves to cook as well as I..and the one thing we hadn't done was use the oven. I have been craving my Mom's Lasagna (that is just one of hundreds of wonderful recipes that she has... SHE IS AN AWESOME COOK !!) So we went to the Winn Dixie and got everything that I needed! Ok..well except for spinach.. i still haven't seen it on the shelves here yet...
alright..so I finally made my yummy lasagna... and here are the pics... ok.. maybe this is a lil much.. but I am that girl.. who always has her camera ready.... the lasagna came out perfectly...well not quite as good as Mom's.. it never is... but yummy nonetheless!!!
Mom send me some recipes... Birock sounds good... I'm ready to make that next!!!
Happy Eating!!
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10/22/2006, Atlantic
Aren't sunsets just beautiful? This is my favorite time of the day!
Just wanted to add that.........:) thats all!
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10/17/2006, Tavernier
More info and the link to the Aquarius website
What a great day this has been! Last night after having dinner with a few friends Owen, Anja and Tom, we went to our local hangout Sharkey's and hung out with some other friends, Jen and Tad. Both work at dive shops and Jen had asked if Eddie, myself, and our friend Anja wanted to dive the Aquarius this morning. Of course we said YES, since it is not a place that most are allowed to dive! (More info about that on the above website) We didn't get all the particulars... or maybe she DID tell us what we were in for,( we just had finished a few margaritas, which for me, makes my memory a bit foggy! ) but all I remember is that we were to be at the dive shop before 8am, and we made it just in time! Still half asleep but no hangover....( we left Sharkey's earlier than usual! lol)
Well when got there, there were about 8 of us..and we were informed that the dive trip was to be filmed at the Aquarius and the Christ Statue and a few other dive spots. This was a film being made by a local photographer Frazier Nivens (he has done films for Discovery and the like) as an advertisement for a few choice dive shops around Tavernier. It will be played at DEMA (Dive Equipment and Marketing Convention) in November. They needed a few divers and we were asked! I thought it was pretty cool...and we had a blast!
For anyone who is not aware of what the AQUARIUS is, she is an underwater ocean laboratory in the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary. She is a few miles off the coast and is at a depth of approx 60 feet. Scientist go and live inside Aquarius on 10 day missions to study and explore our coastal oceans. (I took most of that off the website, you too should check it out, very interesting:) )
Anyway.. the photographer had permission granted for us to go and video this awesome underwater laboratory. ( There are buoys and markers stating to not get within 1000 feet of the Aquarius to warn off boaters and divers in the area) We were told, of course, not to touch anything, to not turn the valves, and not to go on top of the platform, etc. BUT for me, it was just amazing enough to swim around and look at all of the beautiful coral, sponge, fish and sea life that is living on and around her! There are two enormous grouper that live underneath the Aquarius..and when you get to close, as we sort of did...they bark at you..and its very loud! (Yes, I call it barking, lol, and they are very territorial and a lil intimidating as well!) There is also one very large barracuda and many small ones patroling the area! He came very close to me on several occasions and we had a staring contest for what seemed like a minute before he darted a few feet away and ate a lil blue fish!! Atleast he didn't take a bite out of me for being on his turf!!.. :) I also saw an eel..and a southern stingray very close by! It was just amazing! I did peek inside a couple of the windows and saw someones' shampoo bottle and the shower they use! No one is living in it at this time, but I do believe there is another mission coming up very soon!
All in all it was a great day... we starred in an underwater mini film, and were allowed to venture to a place that not many local divers can say they have been before! I am so honored that we were allowed to go and I want to thank Jen and Dawn and Frazier for giving us this opportunity! It was wonderful!!!
oh..and we were asked again to help finish the mini film tomorrow.... in Marathon... we are going to dive the THUNDERBOLT...a wreck dive...which I have never dove on either!!!
So.... to be continued...tomorrow.!!!
"Photo courtesy NOAA and UNC Wilmington.”
"Aquarius images are copyright © 2006, University of North Carolina Wilmington. All rightsreserved.
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10/07/2006, The Canal
Eddie and I have been working on this floor, for I don't know how long..and anyway.. my new project is the dining/kitchen table.. I've sanded it down and its looking really good! It will hopefully match the floor almost perfectly! anyway.. as I was walking back to the boat to get the varnish to finish MY project.. I saw this HUGE creature swimming around our boat! At first I thought it was a giant shark... lol.. but then I realized it was a Manatee! It was my first time to actualy get up close!! He was soooo cute!! A giant sea puppy!!So of course I get all the neighbors out of their boats to come and see!! There was a water hose hanging over the side of the dock..and that was what attracted him. Manatee's drink fresh water...and unfortunately they can get hit by other boats if they come into the canal. I was told that day by the lady accross the canal to not get him any water... but he already did...and he hung around us for atleast 30 min. I pet him and he played a little and I took lots of pictures!! He then had enough and swam off to the ocean!! It was so Cool!!!
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10/01/2006, Molasses
Well..for those of you who don't know, I just started diving in June of this year! My family has been diving for MANY years..and I was the only one who didn't get certified! I was the black sheep on every dive trip we went on together as a family.I'd either snorkel or lay out on the boat while my parents and lil sister were down below! I had bad ears and could never equalize..and I'm sure I was also scared of "JAWS"! Anyway.. when I met Eddie we had talked about me getting certified because he had been diving for years and wanted to get into it again! I was definetly up for it... since I LOVE the water as much as he does! (This by the way was a year and a half ago... before we bought the boat and before he became a scuba instructor! ) Now that I am certified I am loving every moment of the underwater world... even on the days that aren't so great! My parents think that this has been the best idea I have had so far!!.. GO FIGURE!!!.... :)
Anyway, my friend let me borrow his underwater camera recently. Unfortunately for me I don't have my own underwater camera or the housing for the cameras that I do have...( At the present time I am only a land photographer LOL ... my next step is to learn underwater photography after I become an instructor too!)
So here are a few pics of me from that dive...and the very first pic I took was of Eddie..and some fish.. They are not award winning... but still exciting to me..since they were my first!!!
(Ok Mom, there are nothing like the pics you have from your gazillion trips to Cozumel, Japan..etc... but it is a start!! ( I LOVE YOU))
Micha
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09/25/2006, Home
I just wanted to put this up of my girl Georgia! She recently came to Key Largo to get away from a life and a marriage that wasn't healthy!
She started as an intern where Eddie works..and Georgia and I hit it off right away!! We like say that we are sisters and I love her dearly!
She is such an inspiration and such a strong woman! She has gone through many struggles over the years...and one of those was a weight issue... she lost OVER 100 lbs..and she looks fabulous!! She has raised four amazing children and unfortunately stayed in a marriage that was keeping her down longer than she should have, for the sake of her children.
Lucky for me and all of her new found friends down here, she finally decided that she had had ENOUGH and moved to Key Largo !
It is now HER TIME! and I feel that she deserves every bit of happiness that comes her way! She has such an amazing smile and a contagious laugh.. there is something about her that makes you want to be near her!! She is a beautiful woman inside and out, she is a lively soul....and I'm honored to be her friend!!
I Love you Georgia... come back from your cruise soon!!! Remember... its all about you now!!!
Your other Mermaid..... Moi!!
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09/17/2006, Atlantic
We invited some friends over to go sailing with us... Molly and Simon! We had a great day...along with the fact it was almost my birthday... and so we were out celebrating a little early! (If you know me, then I try and make everyday my birthday in the month of September!! ) another excuse to have fun!! Anyway.. here are some pictures from that little adventure. Also the pics from that evening at Sharkey's! It was Drew's "official" birthday this day, and we decided to celebrate together!!
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08/31/2006, Marina
Well, we got all prepared for nothing, but not that it wasn't a good idea anyway. Being prepared for a potential Tropical Storm or Hurricane in Florida is most certainly the way to go, regardless of the outcome. These storms have a mind of there own, no matter what every news channel, or weather websites want you to believe. Of course we don't have tv, which I feel is better for me. Last year, in Houston, we watched the weather channel all day, and night, and prepared for Rita. Of course this was after Katrina so everyone was just a little on edge to say the least. If anyone of you had watched the news when Rita was coming to hit, they said it was going to be a possible Cat 3 or 4 and that meant for us Houstonians, we needed to evacuate. Well, 4 million people evacuated the city and I stayed home. Lots of my friends with children were all stuck on the freeways for up to 24 hours! I, of course, watched the news the whole time, and was scared out of my wit! I'd been through Hurricanes before, but the news people really terrified me! Needless to say, the worst that happened that night was a branch from a tree outside my window fell... and it was a branch 5 in long!! Nothing happened to us, except for the bad hangover we had the morning after!
So with that all being said, now I'm living on a boat, in the keys, and where I should have been scared as I was last year (in the comfort of my brick home) I was not. No tv people telling me I'm going to die and that I need to head for the highway. We were just cautious and we were well aware of what could happen, and to prepare for the worst, which we did.
Now the HORRIBLE thing that DID happen near us (2 boats down) was that our dear friend George (we call him Mayor of the Marina..he has been here a long time) was that he had not replace his u bend on his exhaust, and didn't have his automatic bilge turned on. Some how, during all of the rain between 11 pm and 2am, his boat filled with water, and started to sink and went FAST. He woke up to the bow of his boat going down first, and the glasses on his cabinets crashing to the floor... !
Somewhere at around 4am, Eddie and I awoke, we just couldn't sleep, and went outside to have a cigarette. We saw George's boat completely underwater except for his fly bridge!! Now George is probably in his late 70's and I was horrifed that something happened to him but luckily he was fine! We sat with him from 4 am til 11am and waited until the Sea Tow guys finally lifted his boat! The CBS news crew was here all night, and it was kinda sad that they were reporting on his misfortune since nothing else had happened in the area! The ONLY good thing about it was that his family actually saw him on tv and rushed down to take care of him, since they weren't able to reach him by phone. His phone was down in the boat, of course!
Anyway, we are very thankful and greatful that Ernesto wasn't the Hurricane that was expected. No damage just a learning experience. And we are especially greatful that George was ok, and doing fine! We all promised to help him with whatever needs to be done..(A LOT OF WORK!) but we are just happy to have him smiling again! He kept his spirits high...even when his boat was under..and I know that us being with him through it all..helped him to keep his silly sense of humor!!
Here is a pic I took of him... when he was trying to make the most of it, and some pics of his boat when they finally got it to come up...oh ..and you can see the news guy in the background. I wanted to push him overboard with the boat!!
We love you George!!!
also here is a link to the cbs news video...they made it sound like it the storm cauesed the problem...it just happened to be the same day.... idiots...drama!
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=22190@wfor.dayport.com
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08/28/2006, Florida Keys
Well we are getting prepared for the next adventure on our boat... but one adventure I'm not looking forward to. They are saying that the tropical storm/hurricane... or whatever he is at this point is on his way towards us tomorrow evening at around 8pm. His name is ERNESTO! Hummm.... we will surely see what damage Ernesto has instore for all of us down here in Paradise. I was in Houston last year when Katrina and Rita hit...and we all know how that went. I'm actually not scared...of course, it's still a beautiful day, but I'm a little aprehensive and not sure if I should stay or take my dogs to my friend Georgia's. Eddie, of course, does not want to leave his boat.. so I think I should stick through it with him. We have tied up more lines... we are going to get more provisions, water, and of course alcohol.. to settle our nerves... :) I'm also going to take all of my camera gear.. and possibly the dogs to Georgia's house. Lucky for us.. we have people that really care about us all around. People have been stopping by all day asking if we want to stay with them, just in case.
So I guess we will just have to see what Ernesto has in store for all of us down here, hopefully he isn't that mad before he stops by.... hoping he is a bit more calm than he has been....:)
MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL!!!!
Micha
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08/27/2006, Marina
Just thinking how beautiful it is outside. I just finished my run with the dogs, and a little yoga...and time to take a shower and either study more... or help Eddie finish the floor. Its looking great! More pics to come later.... of course!
Can't wait to go sailing again.... I wish he would hurry up!! :)
Maybe a sunset sail is in our future this evening.....:)
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