After my time had finished with Cristina in the Bahamas, I had a short lay over in Florida before I headed back to a different island in the Bahamas for my next trip. I was staying in Fort Lauderdale with Jeff and Missy Trotta, who very kindly hosted me in their home for an entire week. During my stay here the diving gods were not in our favour, with strong winds every day. So Jeff and Missy found a bunch of other interesting activities instead.
Jeff drove me up to Wakodahatchee and Green Cay Nature Preserves, where we spotted some amazing wildlife, including herons, egrets, crows and even some alligators! Another morning we travelled down to Miami and met with the shark guru himself Samuel Gruber (more commonly known as ‘Doc’), and had some amazing dumplings! I sat next to Doc for lunch and picked his brain about some of his incredible research into sharks throughout his career. That afternoon Jeff and Missy drove me down to the Everglades National Park, where we decided to go on a sunset boat cruise through the mangroves, and watched the flocks of birds flying around the small islands.
On my last day with Jeff and Missy before I headed to Bimini, the ocean had finally calmed down enough for us to head out diving! Jeff took me to up Jupiter Dive Centre, where we met Elena (2014 EU Scholar) and Daniel. We headed out for our 2 dives, and they were both amazing. Jeff really wanted me to see a goliath grouper, and we spotted about 8 on our first dive. You can see why they are aptly named ‘goliaths’ as they are absolutely huge. Jeff informed me the ones that we seen were only babies! We also spotted a sleeping Tawny Nurse shark, some moray eels and lots of schooling fish. We came across another 3 groupers at the very beginning of our second dive, but they quickly went into hiding in a small cave. As we swam along we found a resting loggerhead turtle, an adult lemon shark and tons of fish.
At the end of the day, Jeff and Missy treated me to an incredible evening at one of their favourite local restaurants, Valentino. We sat right at the bench that connected to the kitchen, and I was introduced to the owner and head chef, Giovanni. The food was absolutely incredible, and Giovanni was fascinated with sharks and asked a bunch of questions and wanted to see some images. He was most fascinated by my photo of a leafy sea dragon though, and even borrowed my phone to show the rest of the chefs in the kitchen. I was well fed, and ready for my flight to Bimini in the morning!
