About a week ago I was hanging at my friend WT's place and he casually suggested that we should head down to the Keys to do some spearing. I agreed that it would be good to get out of town and into the water. He'd already looked at renting some houses down there, and had found a good one on the water with a dock space in the back. Perfect.

We were slated to leave on January 1, as in the day after New Year's Eve, at 6 am. Needless to say, we didn't put in much partying. I was up at 5 am on Thursday to head over to WT's parents' place and we were all set to go. All ready, that is, except that our notoriously late-for-life friend Brent wouldn't be getting off work until 8 am. Our trip was already off to a great start...

We killed time by going to McDonald's and getting some nasty food and extremely hot coffee. Drinking coffee, digesting our sausage McGriddle breakfasts, we chilled back at WT's place, just waiting for Brontly to be done with work. Finally, we got on the road and made good enough time to stop to buy some groceries and still get out on the water by 3 pm.

A quick afternoon trip out to the reef was just what we needed to get over how boring the day had been to that point. We popped in at a spot that was about 50 feet deep and I shot a nice mangrove snapper. WT did the classic anchor check and came up with a good hogfish. We tried to dive on a wreck that sits in 100 feet of water, but the visibility mid-column was extremely limited. There was just an odd layer of murk starting about 50 feet down so we bailed and just headed in with our two reef fish. At the very least we'd already scored some decent fish and had dinner in the boat.

We went out and watched some college football that night, and had some drinks. Apparently, we all drank a little more than we thought, because we felt like crap the next day! I was surprised with how off I felt, as I really didn't think I'd had that much to drink. Either way, we got out early and put in a full day on the water. The visibility was decidedly worse than the previous day, and the winds had picked up to around 12-15 knots. It was pretty bumpy out there, with limited viz, and all of us feeling a little sick. Still, we shot a couple nice mangs, hogs, cero mackerel, and our friend Spencer shot a large margate. We had plenty of fish, and since none of us was feeling good we decided to head in.

That night, the guys went out hard. I actually ended up passing out early after I got considerably too intoxicated. They got back from Key West at 5 am and I was all the more glad that I hadn't joined them. Getting wasted earlier in the night and passing out actually ended up saving me!

The third day down in the Keys we simply did nothing but hang around and be annoyed that the wind was pumping. A front was approaching, and it was at this point blowing a steady 20 knots. Much too windy and rough to even attempt to go out. The visibility would be even worse - not doable.

We ended up going down to Key West again that night, and had a fun, low key night on Duval Street. After a few rounds of beers, a trip to window shop at Divers Direct, and some pizza, we actually got back around 11 pm. A very tame Key West run, for sure.

For our final day down at Cudjoe, we tried to go out on the Gulf side to find some lobster. We maneuvered through some very shallow patches, and slowly edged north. Eventually, we found an area that had some lobstering promise, so Brent and I got our gear on and trolled off the back of the boat, hoping to spot lobster. We saw absolutely nothing, and after not all that long we just bailed.

Overall, it was a very unsuccessful trip down to the Keys. Still, it was fun and a welcome distraction from Naples life, or the lack thereof. We've had better trips. But, it's really hard to complain about a long weekend down in the Keys with some friends, getting some fish, making a quick Key West visit, and overall not really having any major difficulties along the way!