Sometimes, boys gotta be boys. And that means he-man boy-time in the man cave of your choice.

Since my buddy Silk just picked up a shiny new 40’ Sea Ray down in Sanibel Island, FL – have man cave, will travel! No more of that 60-70 degree weather in San Diego, time for some 70-80 in southwestern Florida.

Despite knowing that the Gulf of Mexico was bound to be churned up more than usual, I figured a weekend of diving was in order since Silk just got his open water certification from a local PADI dive shop in Bonita Springs. A quick Bing search showed exactly what I expected – a few wrecks and manmade reefs with minor marine life, about par for the Gulf. We had 20’ when diving the ‘School Bus’ site, and only 5’ when diving Edison Reef – but we still got him some bottom time.

Nothing gets Silk’s blood pumping like pulling into Cayo Costa’s tricky harbor entrance in the dark, at low tide. Nothing like learning to trust your charts and navigator! The only thing more exciting than the nighttime navigation shenanigans was the 7’ blue shark that came up to check us out while we were doing our three minute safety stop at 15’ depth after coming up from a dive. Luckily he was just curious and swam off once he saw that we didn’t look very tasty, as my emergency plan was to cut Silk on the arm and swim like hell!

Silky Smooth IV

What else does a guy named Silk name his boats, but Silky Smooth?

Heading Home

Empty tanks, the Stars and Stripes, and a gorgeous sunset over the Gulf as we hightail it back to Cayo Costa for the night

Zero Viz

This shot shows just how bad the visibility was at Edison Reef

Starfish!

Silk hasn’t learned that you’re supposed to put the starfish on your mask for the photo yet.