Then suddenly around 4pm with just about an hour and a half of daylight left, the sky to the north changed from the blue color it had been all day, to a pearl-grey.   There was a clear horizontal line low in the sky, which kept moving closer.  At first I thought it was a rainstorm moving in, and the line was the bottom of the rain cloud.  You could see a color line on the water too, just below the line of pearl gray color.

At this time, we were at the Western Dry Rocks, which has a stick.  The stick became difficult to see as the lines came closer, and I realized it wasn’t rain but fog.  Within minutes the stick was no longer visible and, afraid the snorkelers would soon also disappear, I got everyone in the boat and we all headed home.  It was foggy all the way home, and not until we were very close to Key West could we make out the beach at Fort Zachary State Park.

There was a wedding at the State Park, taking wedding photos, I guess.  And the sunset celebration, which should have been in full swing, looked sparsely attended.  The sunset cruise boats were drifting really slowly around the harbor, staying close in with their sweatshirt-clad passengers.  Bummer sunset!

This past weekend the first Lionfish Derby was held in Key Largo.  There were prizes for the most, the largest and the smallest lionfish brought in.  Over 500 were caught and killed, hopefully helping to rid the area of this toxic and invasive fish.  The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has recently blossomed with lionfish, so more derbies are expected in the following months.

Lionfish are found all over the Caribbean and Bahamas now, where they are also invasive.  Unlike most tropical fish, Lionfish are resistant to cold temperatures.  They eat important baby reef fish, like grouper and snapper.  Of course they also compete with native fish for food.   They also have long spines which are toxic to humans if touched. Spearfishers and anglers are encouraged to kill them whenever they can.

Here’s one that was caught via Hawaiian sling in Key West waters on the reef.

Located on the south side of the island of Key West, Higgs Beach begins around the White Street Pier, winds along the edge to the West Martello Tower then opens up again to Higgs Beach part two, ending at Casa Marina.  At this point, the beach is closed off, and becomes Casa Marina resort’s private area.  After that is some military beach, then Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.

Higgs Beach includes Salute!, a restaurant serving Italian food al fresco facing the beach.  Nice.  There’s a raised platform for morning yoga fans, picnic tables shaded by palm trees, and yes worth mentioning again, free parking right next to the sand.  Not much, but some spots for beach-goers who choose this over Smathers beach.

There’s a second pier, not as large as the one at the end of White Street, that’s fun to walk out onto.  You can look back at the beach or over to West Martello Tower.  One of the pictures below shows that view.

The chickens of Key West have personalities, which can easily be observed in how nervous they are.  The chickens in Old Town are less nervous around people.  They have apparently adapted to cruise ship tourists who try to photograph them or feed them.  You can tell the chickens who don’t live in Old Town are more wary of people, since they probably come into contact with more locals than tourists.

Locals are more likely to hate the chickens, since they have to live around them.  Chickens can be rude and wake you up at any time of night, contrary to popular belief.  The roosters will cock-a-doodle-doo at any time of night, like 3 or 4 am.  If you live next to a chicken, you will come to hate them for this reason.

But not everyone lives next to them, and many locals love them.  This can be seen in the may forms of art dedicated to the Key West chicken.  There used to be a Chicken Lady who had a chicken store in Old Town, but she relocated to the mainland with her chickens.  There are several art galleries on and around Duval that feature chicken oil paintings, wine glasses, etc.  Joy Gallery on Duval has some gorgeous oil paintings of the Key West Chicken.

Capturing the Key West chicken on film can be challenging.  Depending on the personality of the chicken you’re trying to photograph, the chickens can be nervous and flighty.   Photographing a chicken in New Town or say the parking lot of Home Depot where some of these shots were taken, requires bait.  Throw some rice or bread crumbs down and you have a captive subject for a few minutes while the bird pecks away.  He’s still in constant motion, however, so your challenges aren’t over.  Here are a Key West chickens, plus some baby chickens on Duval Street for your enjoyment.

At the southern end of White Street, there’s a long pier that’s good for getting a fresh perspective on Key West.  You can often find people trying their luck at fishing from White Street Pier, but they don’t usually seem to have much luck.  Since the pier is right at the edge of Higgs Beach, it’s a great spot for looking back on the beach.  Kiteboarders love to launch from the end of Higgs Beach, right where the Pier starts.  This also makes it a great spot for watching them jump and fly during windy weather.

On the dunes behind Higgs Beach next to the Pier there are picnic tables, small palm trees, and chickens.  The tables often have “all-day” inhabitants who’ve set up camp on them, but you can sometimes find one that’s free.  As you can tell from some of these pictures, chickens are camera shy.  The trick is to bait them with oatmeal or bread crumbs, then snap a picture.  Chasing them does not work and eventually you feel like you’re harassing the poor things if you follow them too long.

There’s a large open space on the pier, which is nice because Key West is all about tiny tree-lined streets and small cottages and lots to see and do on a small island.  The large open space on the pier is a great place to be if you need a break from coziness and small places.  It’s wide open and unencumbered, you can check the visibility of the inshore waters, watch boats zip by to and from from Stock Island, or just watch the water lapping up on the jagged rocks.

It was really nice day and my girlfriend had the day off, so we took the boat out to the reef to do some snorkeling. We decided to hit the main snorkeling spot since we had only been there once and it was when the water was not really clear. We brought the underwater camera with us. We attached to a mooring buoy as the fury boat was leaving and jumped in.

Sand Key Light House

We had a goal to swim to the tower and check it out but we didn’t make it, The water is shallow for quite awhile and it kind of boring up in there. We snorkel a lot and have snorkeled all over the reef between Key West and the Marquesas Keys. So perhaps stuff that is kind of boring to us would be exciting for someone visiting. Up the shallows its mostly just kind of flat rock with some tangs, surgeon fish and parrot fish scooting about. All the sea life seemed to be in the deeper water around the moorings. Under the moorings there was a huge school of yellow tail snapper, barracuda, mahogany snappers, parrot fish and a bunch of other life.

Surgeon Fish

There was a lot of fish but not a lot of live coral. My girlfriend is all about the live coral and she was kind of disappointed with the area. I am more into viewing the fish and there was a lot of them so I liked it. I would say the area is very good of someone new to snorkeling because in a short distance you can be in really shallow water or deeper water depending on what you are into. Personally I think I found eastern dry rocks more impressive the sand key. Although we only explored a small section of the sanctuary.