Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion Group

[Holy handgrenade]

It will certainly have some effect. The big reef will likely have some mild impact. The bigger damage, IMHO, will be the shallow patch reefs that we snorkel. Big waves and big tides in areas around shallow water near small islands will move stuff around.

We were just there a few weeks ago and things were looking pretty good in terms of the recovery from Irma 5 years ago. That was as bad as it could get in the Middle Keys (which is where we like to snorkel). Hurricane Ian will shake things up a bit, but I doubt it will have any big, long term effects.

BTW, below is the noon forecast for Ian. Our house is just above the gap between the '7' and the '9'. Ian will pass by less than 20 mile off shore. Wind gusts here are expected to be over 115mph, but the storm surge, far less predictable, is our biggest concern.

Hope you both are staying safe down there. Im in Apollo beach and we are just getting some wind gusts and rain.

Im staying at a resort in duck key starting October 9th. Hoping to go snorkeling to all the places you recommended to me. Hopefully i can see lots of wildlife and collect some cool stuff

 

[snorklr]

Ron hope you're ok...my buddy in Bonita Springs had a rediculous surge

 

[danieyella]

Checking in, hoping you & yours are safe

 

[fishybizzness]

Hope everything is ok with you Ron. I know the area you are in around Sanibel took a beating. Praying for a quick recovery for you guys and gals down there!

 

[Ron Reefman]

To everybody who has asked or wondered how we are:
Elaine & I are 100% OK personally, even our house is 99.9% OK. Our cars, especially my Miata and the Zodiac are 100% OK. Our yard on the other hand... we lost 13 big palm trees and 3 other trees (not palms) are now trunks waiting to start growing again.

Hurricane Ian was passing by just, and I mean just, to our west. We lost power at noon with 75mph winds from the east (the upper right of the hurricane. Then it switched to coming from the south at 100mph plus! That lasted a couple of hours and then the wind started to die down and the sky started to get brighter.

I assumed Ian had passed by. Boy was I wrong... but at the time I didn't know it. Ian took a jog to the east and we were just inside the eye wall. Winds were down around 50mph and although we didn't see blue sky, it was much brighter outside. This lasted for another 2 to 3 hours and I thought we were just about done. Again, way wrong.

In the later afternoon the wind started to pick up again. I had no idea why. It got worse and worse, and eventually shifted to coming from the west. This was the southern end of Ian and we were about to go through the eye wall again. But Ian had ramped up power after sitting all afternoon over warm water. Now winds were really howling. We later heard several reports that winds from the west were clocked at 140 to 145mph. And it was pushing in a storm surge. We are 2 1/2 miles from the Caloosahatchee River and the Gulf of Mexico. As it was getting close to sunset (not that I could tell) it was getting dark outside. But we had a river flowing down our street. It had to have been about 3' deep as it came up our yard to within 10 feet of our garage door.

About 9:00pm we could tell the wind was really backing off and we went to bed. The next morning we went out to confirm the damage as our only view outside all day was through a small side lite window next to our front door. The power pole at the back of our yard had broken off 2 feet from the ground and fallen between the 2 houses behind ours. There were lots more broken poles within a 1 block radius of our house.

We got power back after 12 days and that's when they lifted the boil water notice. Cable and internet is still a week away. But our local Library opened this morning and we are there.

These are our house the day after:



These are all very close by:



These boats were not up in these yards for safe keeping. These got loose from their docks and floated up there on the storm surge.

 

[fishybizzness]

Good to hear that you're ok!

 

[danieyella]

So glad to hear you guys are okay!

 

[tripdad]

Glad to hear your ok. Hope you can get damage repaired quickly. Keep staying safe.

 

[snorklr]

glad you stayed high and dry and the roof remained intact...

 

[cpschult]

Oh wow! I'm glad you made it through the storm okay!

We are looking at coming down at the end of March- looking online it appears that things have re-opened, does anyone know if that's the case?

Thanks!
Chris

 

[vetteguy53081]

To everybody who has asked or wondered how we are:
Elaine & I are 100% OK personally, even our house is 99.9% OK. Our cars, especially my Miata and the Zodiac are 100% OK. Our yard on the other hand... we lost 13 big palm trees and 3 other trees (not palms) are now trunks waiting to start growing again.

Hurricane Ian was passing by just, and I mean just, to our west. We lost power at noon with 75mph winds from the east (the upper right of the hurricane. Then it switched to coming from the south at 100mph plus! That lasted a couple of hours and then the wind started to die down and the sky started to get brighter.

I assumed Ian had passed by. Boy was I wrong... but at the time I didn't know it. Ian took a jog to the east and we were just inside the eye wall. Winds were down around 50mph and although we didn't see blue sky, it was much brighter outside. This lasted for another 2 to 3 hours and I thought we were just about done. Again, way wrong.

In the later afternoon the wind started to pick up again. I had no idea why. It got worse and worse, and eventually shifted to coming from the west. This was the southern end of Ian and we were about to go through the eye wall again. But Ian had ramped up power after sitting all afternoon over warm water. Now winds were really howling. We later heard several reports that winds from the west were clocked at 140 to 145mph. And it was pushing in a storm surge. We are 2 1/2 miles from the Caloosahatchee River and the Gulf of Mexico. As it was getting close to sunset (not that I could tell) it was getting dark outside. But we had a river flowing down our street. It had to have been about 3' deep as it came up our yard to within 10 feet of our garage door.

About 9:00pm we could tell the wind was really backing off and we went to bed. The next morning we went out to confirm the damage as our only view outside all day was through a small side lite window next to our front door. The power pole at the back of our yard had broken off 2 feet from the ground and fallen between the 2 houses behind ours. There were lots more broken poles within a 1 block radius of our house.

We got power back after 12 days and that's when they lifted the boil water notice. Cable and internet is still a week away. But our local Library opened this morning and we are there.

These are our house the day after:



These are all very close by:



These boats were not up in these yards for safe keeping. These got loose from their docks and floated up there on the storm surge.

My house suffered similar but yours looks worse. Are you too on a waiting list and facing materials shortages for repair. My main issue was water and loose tiles

 

[Ron Reefman]

My house suffered similar but yours looks worse. Are you too on a waiting list and facing materials shortages for repair. My main issue was water and loose tiles

Where in Florida is your house? I'm in SW Cape Coral and we were just inside the eye wall of Ian.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Where in Florida is your house? I'm in SW Cape Coral and we were just inside the eye wall of Ian.

Doral, 18 miles east of Miami Beach. Not so much wind but Water

 

[snorklr]

just saw on my buddy' daughters fbook that they finally got their shingles today...they werent the color they ordered and the order was short...so they probably got somebody elses order...

 

[vetteguy53081]

just saw on my buddy' daughters fbook that they finally got their shingles today...they werent the color they ordered and the order was short...so they probably got somebody elses order...

Great to hear,
my damage was roof - same issues, may not be able to match color
three broken winows (double pane)
Lots of water- Was according to water line left on wall, almost 4 inches

 

[cpoynter]

I can’t believe it took me this long to find this thread. I’ve been collecting in The Keys since 2021 and Ive brought everything home to Chicago with no casualties. I’ve brought back fish, urchins, anemones, gorgonians, macro algae, tunicates, bivalves, emerald crabs, and snails. Lately though, I’ve been interested in shrimp. Specifically spotted cleaner shrimp and pederson’s cleaner shrimp which both live on anemones in The Keys. I’d like to find the Sun anemone shrimp, and was happy to find a place on this thread where Sun anemones can be found. I’m headed back this spring and will be surely do some snorkeling and collecting. I haven’t found any ricordea yet, but am hoping to add it to the list. #Ronreefman the information you’ve shared is great, and your photos are amazing. I’ve collected at the horseshoe, and hope to try the other spots you’ve mentioned. I’ve

 

[cpschult]

Went for a walk this morning with my youngest. Just flipping rocks over!

 

[cpschult]

More pictures from this afternoon. This hermit was pretty big lol . No idea what the worms were, but gross!

 

[cpschult]

After seeing signs of lobster I went and bought a lobster license (on top of my fishing license). Caught between 10-15 with my 5yo. I’ll try to get some pictures tomorrow, with high tide coming in I wanted to make sure I had a hand free in case my son had issues. None of them were legal size so they all went back. I’ve been really impressed snorkling around with all the life I’ve seen down here in the northern keys. I even saw a 3.5-4’ shark! I was able to show a few other people who were snorkling as well. It is legit heart stopping coming around a rock face to face with a shark!!

 

[cpschult]

oh, can anyone find the urchin lol