After a brief return to Minnesota for Thanksgiving, I returned to the Keys hoping for some more diving. Finally the winds abated and provided a window before the next front. Dave and I headed to Molasses our favorite spot. Water was a bit choppy, so it took awhile to get out there. Upon arrival we saw no other boats in the area, a bit of a warning sign. Sure enough, we were greeted with a very strong current from the SW. We decided to move further NE on the reef line to French Reef. This is where the commercial dive boats had decided to go also. French does not have the coral or fish as Molasses Reef does. But it does have nice structure and some caverns and swim throughs. We also did have our first sighting of a Sting Ray on a reef since we returned to diving after last fall’s Hurricane Irma. Probably because the shore side of French had lots of sand - conducive for feeding for the Ray’s. Visibility was OK and water temp had declined to 76-77 degrees so it was time for a 3 mil wetsuit. For our 2nd dive we stopped at White Bank Dry Rock - very shallow patch reef. Visibility was poor, but I did get some close-ups of Cup Coral.
VIDEO Link to YouTube video