Florida Holiday – Day 17 - Friday 19th August 2011

Last Day..

We had the re-scheduled snorkelling to go to in the morning so we packed up the last of our things in the morning, checked out from the hotel and made our way over to the harbour.

The weather looked pretty good and there were a few people waiting, bang on time the captain came out and gave us the chat that we didn’t want to hear…we’d heard earlier in the week about jelly fish causing problems with previous excursions and sure enough, the captain told us they were out in force and we could cancel if we wanted to. He couldn’t confirm if there’d be loads or none and it was our choice. Out of 21 people waiting everyone agreed to go for it and see what happened

So we got our snorkelling gear…goggles, breathing tube and flippers and clambered aboard the catamaran that was going to take us out to the reef. Got there in about 45 minutes, other boats were there, just in the middle of nowhere at ‘Coffins Reef’ – sure enough, Purple Jellies were everywhere and floating past the boat. Everyone was wary of getting off and eventually a young German lad went for it and most other people soon followed suit.

I was about 5th into the water and once away from the jellies near us it was clear and no problem at all and Jack followed me and swam round me and then Lewis, Mum and Charlotte came in. Charlotte wasn’t keen, not surprised as it was rough out there and the constant worry of the jellies wasn’t too far away.

It was all worth it though, soon there were yellow fish everywhere and the views were brilliant, managed to get some photos which hopefully will come out okay. Slowly the see started getting rougher and it wasn’t long before we realised a squall was coming in. I was getting used to the breathing gear (it’s not easy) and accepting the odd mouthful (or lungful) of salt water but soon the jellies were closing in again and it was time to get out.

I’d got stung a couple of times but admittedly it wasn’t too bad and with vinegar sprayed on me it was okay. The captains (Freddie & Jason) turned the boat around and got us on the move just as the squall started to catch us up, we outrun it but the view from the back of the boat was impressive as you could see the line of the rain, quite scary but exhilarating all the same

I must admit the diving was brilliant and Jack and I loved it, I’d certainly have liked to have stayed longer and explored further but there wasn’t the time and it was right that we’d cut it short, but I will look to do that again and perhaps still look to do the scuba diving as well. We’ll see.

Anyway, got showered off back at the harbour and then jumped in the car and headed home to Miami, stopping at Florida City for the shopping outlet and got some more clothes. The rain all the way for 90 minutes of driving was like nothing we’ve experienced all holiday, really hard to drive in but we made it to Miami in the end and had the best burger I’ve ever had at an Italian restaurant and then onwards to Miami airport. Managed to run the petrol down to 14 miles in the tank…not bad?

Nothing to report from the airport, pretty boring and then on our flight at 9.00pm – watched two films, Paul and Battle: Los Angeles (Paul was funny, the other was crap really!)

So, arrived in Heathrow at 10.00am (BST) and I only had about 2 hours sleep but met up with Sue and then I drove us home.

No need to go on about settling back into things here in Oxford, just to reiterate again what a brilliant time we had, it really has been a holiday to remember, we’d loved all of it. Quite a bonus in fact this evening as Tash went through the Credit Card statement to find that the exchange rate has been quite favourable to us, so our calculations in restaurants and shops has worked our better that expected. Not by much but enough to be pleasantly surprised.