Snorkeling at Crashboat After the "Tropical" Depression

They call Tropical Depressions depressions for a reason. The last few days have been kind of depressing due to a lack of sun! The clouds have been pretty spectacular but there has been a lot of Sahara Dust in the air and just a gloomy grey sort of look to things. Today was a different story! Sun at last...a nice sunrise out my window, a ball of fire rising in the sky and not a cloud in sight (yeah, it was just after 6 am). I decided to head to the beach around 9:30 while there was sun. I wanted to try out my new Pentax WG-II camera. This is one of the rough and tough ones you can take an atmosphere underwater and into wet, muddy, and rugged (caves) situations. These cameras don't do a spectacular job but are compact and work fairly well considering where you can take them. My last one got ruined on the last caving trip and this is the replacement. Of course they change the designs and such but oh, well. I headed to Crashboat hoping for dry sand and clear water. I sat out for 10 minutes before I got hot and headed for the pilings. I snorkeled out in the 80 something degree water. It felt really nice.

This time of year is always off and on. There are always lots of juvenile fish but visibility changes day to day depending on rain (erosion sends mud onto the reefs), dust (gets suspended in the water), and swell (can make currents and churn things up). It was pretty clear today. I could see the bottom at Crashboat and make out eels and fish on the bottom wreckage. There was a nice school of little blue juvenile fish in a mob near the surface...sunlight was streaming through the pilings...I spent a couple hours in and out of the water enjoying the beauty. I stopped and took in the gorgeous view and had great feelings of enjoyment...this is why I love Puerto Rico!

Then I looked down over the railing...this is why I hate Puerto Rico. I guess you just can't look down? So the Tropical Depression may be gone but...