Snorkeling A Local Reef

This time of year the water in the Gulf calms down and becomes very clear and a beautiful blue/green color. Yesterday was a perfect day for snorkeling. The sun was bright, no wind or waves. So after having breakfast friends I grabbed my snorkel gear and headed to a small reef near their home. This reef is about 200 yards off the beach...it's not huge but plenty to see.

This is not my photograph...I Googled and found it. I don't have an underwater camera. BUT...other than the big fish, this is exactly what the reef looks like underwater. Big chunks of red coral that stand 4-5 feet off the bottom. Lots of little fish and minnows swimming in schools. And Medium sized fish of all kinds...stripped ones, silvery ones, yellow, blue and some spotted ones. At one point my buddy and I stopped swimming and stood on the coral to talk for a minute...when I put my mask back on and looked underwater my feet were surrounded by fish. The most unusual was some kind of a devil looking fish...and some puffer fish that were trying to camouflage and blend in with the rocks. Another surprise was how many starfish there were all over the reef.

Since I don't have pix of any of the fish I saw...here is a chart of "Fish of The Gulf Of Mexico". Look at most of the smaller fish in the bottom half of this chart...other than the eel and the rays, most of them were on that reef. Amazing!!

Gone Fishing!

Buenos Dias...today I had a great opportunity to go fishing off-shore in the Gulf of Mexico. As we left the harbor we floated past the Yucalpeten Bridge that connects Progreso with Chelem & Chuburna to the east.

 We went out to the end of the 7 kilometer long pier that extends from Progreso. At the end of the pier is a container port and freight harbor that supplies much of the Yucatan Peninsula. The pier also has a harbor that can accommodate 2-3 cruise ships at once. 

The first catch of the day...a very nice barracuda! We were trolling along the pier and I was lucky enough to be standing next to the pole when this bad-boy hit. Nice fish...beautiful, but a nasty mouthful of teeth!

Here I am with the barracuda. The water today was very calm and a brilliant blue-green.

This is a Spanish Mackerel...good sized fish! Beautiful spots and colors...he just looks fast!

This doesn't look like much other than a bouy...but directly below us is a 400ft ship called the Loraine that was sunk as a man-made reef. It is located 12 miles off shore and is a favorite fishing spot for many captains. Since the Gulf was so calm we decided to take the 8 mile run from the end of the pier to find it. There was too much floating grass in the water for us to fish...but we did find the wreck on sonar!

The View from the cockpit...looking back at the Progreso pier/harbor from maybe 10 miles out in the Gulf

Coming back into the harbor. Beautiful water and perfect skies...a great day!

These are condos located in the harbor area

 The Yucalpeten harbor is home to a huge fleet of fishing boats. The fishing industry is the largest employer in this area.

 Back home again...Thanks to Captain Don!!