Had a blast hunting lobster down in the keys. Allen Webb, a good friend from work, and I made a quick trip on August 22-25, 2003 to see what we could find.

- we were up for work early on Friday (I was so excited I had trouble sleeping, up at 5am)
- after work, flew out of Atlanta at 8pm
- arrived in Sarasota at 11pm where Kim had prepped the cooler with iced down beer and gourmet delights
- picked up the boat and loaded the scuba gear and speargun
- drove straight to Key West (in at dawn, 6:00am)
- headed out to Looe Key for some pleasure diving

WOW!!! Up for 27 with no sleep; just the right time to be diving, eh?

Now for the funny part...

I puked all day long from sea sickness while Allen was having a blast watching and cracking chum jokes. We were still able to get some fun diving in and pull out 7 lobster from a few honey holes (Allen had marked these from previous trips). Fortunately for me, Allen had the goods to combat sea sickness , strong currents, and drinking too much beer (lots of fruit and water). Additionally, he dropped us on one georgous reef.

Allen's knowledge in these waters was incredible! We ended up getting 10 lobster for the 2 1/2 days of diving, but saw many more too small to keep.

Oh, I forgot to add, we lost: (1) boat dive flag and staff, (2) expensive hat, (3) a scuba tank, (4) shirt, and (5) 2 lobster nets. Pretty good for a well planned trip :)

On a more serious note, I experienced a stuck inflator valve which instantly blew up my BC. I was blasted to the surface WAY too quickly. Fortunately, we were in 30ft of water and I had my deflator pressed and the purge valve pulled to control the ascent. This was definitely something I did not remember from training. I was told that I was very lucky that I had not ruptured my lungs, experienced some sort of embolism, or the bends. Live and learn (whooh!, close one).

Lobster hunting is absolutely addicting, ready to schedule the next trip!!!!!