Project Aware
Weather Underground
The weather started out a little better Tuesday morning at the Florida Sea Base. Monday night we had wind gusts to 34 knots! By morning the wind was down to 20-25 knots and scattered, light showers in the middle Keys.
Click to enlarge.
The Florida Sea Base staff met at 0930 to discuss daily assignments and last minute preparations. We usually have the base looking like a botanical garden for this event. The rain has “dampened” our efforts. The BEST news is that Captain Dennis Wyatt and I are assigned to the same photo boat for the week. I am looking forwarding to some great stories! (Don’t forget that you can purchase his book, “The Balderer Man in the Sea” from Amazon.com/kindle.) And maybe we will get a decent photo or two. (Neither of us are photographers, so we will need a lot of luck to get the lens cap off and the camera turned on.) The fishing guides DESPISE the photo boats anyway. So we will keep our distance and do what we can. Captains Rich Beliveau and Scott Costa are assigned to the other photo boat.
The fishers (we’re not supposed to call them fishermen anymore) and full-time staff of the Florida Sea Base met at the Islamorada Fishing Club for the opening banquet Tuesday night. It was great to see Joanne Kolb and Melissa Stanfill. They are married to Rob, Director of Program, and Tim, Food and Conference Director, respectively, but we rarely get to see them around the base.
Here’s what we are expecting Wednesday, courtesy of the National Weather Service:
Wednesday And Wednesday Night…East to southeast winds near 20 knots. Seas 3 to 5 feet. Nearshore waters rough. Scattered showers.
At this point it’s probably best that we consider the weather impact on the Tarpon Tournament on a day-by-day basis. But overall, it looks like conditions may improve very slightly over the next few days.
We have a staff meeting at 0630 and expect the fishers to start arriving around 0700-0715. The next three days will be VERY long.
Capt. Steve Willis
Professional Scuba Bum™
Aboard S/V Escape