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I am jealous Ex. The Cayman Islands have some of the best scuba diving I have ever seen. If you get to Grand Cayman Island be sure to snorkel or dive on Sting Ray City. It will be the highlight of your life.Tom 1987-04.jpgTom 1987-03.jpg
Sorry for the lousy photography, I didn't take them. It looks dangerous but it is not.
they are like big puppy dogs, except for the Crocodile Hunter.
 
I love to dive but like most of my hobbies I never got very advanced.

Two scary things come to mind - A moray eel sticking it's head out of a wall we were exploring created a brown bulge in the back of my wetsuit - LOL...

The second one was a wreck dive of a liberty ship in SC - The visibility was like 10-15 feet and I saw a squad of silver slashes out of the corner of my eye. It took a couple of revolutions but I figured out they were barracuda and they were wicked fast.

My inexperienced dive partner started to panic but I was able to calm her down. Again crappy photo and crappy viz.

Sure wished I'd had a spear gun when I saw the boy in the third photo...

Having lived in Asia for 30 years I get a little bored with reef dives. I love to wreck dive. Never made it to Truk Lagoon but really wanted to. There are a couple of non-technical dives but it gets technical fast and I was never that good at diving.

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Well I was very good at diving. Expert actually. I spent most of the 80s on the Ventura County Sheriffs Underwater Search and Rescue team and being in the assistant instructors program at Ventura College. I can tell stories all day long.

The first barracuda I saw was in about 30 feet of water off the shore of Belize. I was photographing something on the bottom and I looked up and about ten feet away was a barracuda he was at my eye level and staring at me with his big black eye. He was perpendicular to me and I started to get closer since you can't photograph anything ten feet away with my Nikonos setup. Then I looked around and noticed there were many more barracudas all at my eye level and all perpendicular to me. A circle of 'cudas. They looked so cool and they were just watching me.

A year later I went on a dive off Little Cayman on the dive boat Cayman Aggressor II, a scuba diving exclusive boat. When we got to Little Cayman on the first dive there was a king barracuda waiting at the ladder for us. He was about 4 feet long and right there. I got all excited and took a few shots of him then went on my dive. I got back to get on the boat and the same guy was still there. We hauled anchor and moved about one mile down the coast and when we got in the water the same barracuda was there. Then we pulled up the anchor and moved to another spot and the barracuda was still there. So after the first dive the dive master wanted know if anyone wanted to go watch or photograph a barracuda. Yep the same barracuda. He was well trained, he knew the boat and the dive master. Did this every week.

So the dive master took a goody bag with some chum in it and had us all in a circle at about 25 feet. There were a dozen people in the circle. He was inside the circle and he had the barracuda following a piece of chum and he would lead the guy around the circle and when he passed in front of a diver with a camera he would let the chum go right in front of your camera so the guy would snap it up right in front of you, maybe one or two feet away. I had a video of the dive but I cannot find it. In this video the barracuda actually nipped at my snorkel. I felt it and cracked up laughing, which you should not do underwater.

Another dive he fed a morey eel named Fred. He had us gather in front of his hole and held up a piece of chum but didn't give it to him right away he led him out of his hole until all six feet of Fred was out of the hole straight up towards the surface. Made for a fantastic photo opportunity because it was rare to see anything more than a foot or so sticking out of a hole. When the dive was over I had to ask the guy why he was named Fred. He also had a name for the barracuda and a name of a VW sized grouper he took us to see. "He was named after the first one that the fish bit".
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Yep, I was actually a badge carrying sheriff.
 
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Insurance companies are leaving Florida at an alarming rate. I have friends that have lost their homeowners insurance because of it Others have faced HUGE rate increases because their roof is over 10 yrs old, which is ridiculous. Your Insurance and taxes are fantastic. I won't call you a liar like I've been called here but mylaees than 1/3 acre with a 4/2 home, 2 attached garages valued today by Redfin at about $330,00 which is about $50,000-$70,000 low. Yours 5 acres with new Manufactured HAS to be more than that. I mean land is out of sight. Do you have hurricane Ins? You better! My taxes are over $2000 a yr and Insurance about the same. that's $4,000. about $350 per month...and I have shopped around...a lot! Water,trash, reclaimed water etc $150 monthly. Electric $150 for a month total about $650. So yeah if I sole I could own the deeded R/V lot, with our new 36' 5th and be setting on $50 a month elec MAX and $75 per month HOA. Total $125. So yeah it would be a BIG saving. Oh I forgot approx $200 monthly maintenance here, maybe $50 on the other way. So there's another $150 monthly savings. $800 a month is a lot of money to me.
Ooops, I forgot the $700 monthly house payment
 
Cameodon said:
I won't call you a liar like I've been called here but mylaees than 1/3 acre with a 4/2 home, 2 attached garages valued today by Redfin at about $330,00 which is about $50,000-$70,000 low. Yours 5 acres with new Manufactured HAS to be more than that. I mean land is out of sight. Do you have hurricane Ins?
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Glad you aren't calling me a liar - LOL

I got lucky on the land as I only paid $5k/acre. I looked at land from $7k/acre up to $12k/acre. I am on high ground (for Florida) at like 1200 feet so I am not in a flood plane. I am also far enough inland that hurricane risk is very low and finally the insured value of the home is only $100k which is about what I paid for it.

To be fair the tax basis is currently on the empty land and I expect they might reassess at some point.

I am an open book on pretty much everything. Here's my payment summary and you'll notice the escrow is a bit low and will likely get adjusted next year. It's a 25 year loan but I am paying extra principal to get it done in 7.

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I live on a primo RV park in central Florida and it costs me $7000 a year for the site, electricity, trash, water and yard mowing. My RV I bought used for $4200 five years ago. I am 25 miles from the mouse and 40 miles from Kennedy. I get a perfect view of every launch.

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My Fifth Wheel RV

63 new items · Album by Tom Seiler
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SeilerBird said:
I live on a primo RV park in central Florida and it costs me $7000 a year for the site, electricity, trash, water and yard mowing. My RV I bought used for $4200 five years ago. I am 25 miles from the mouse and 40 miles from Kennedy. I get a perfect view of every launch.

goo.gl

My Fifth Wheel RV

63 new items · Album by Tom Seiler
goo.gl goo.gl
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Sounds nice. Again to each their own. I’m maybe 70 miles from Disney, haven’t been there in 25 yrs and don’t care if I never go again. Kennedy, Spacex? They shake my house! That’s almost $700 a month, to say nothing about cast and upkeep on the RV. I see why you say you don’t save money living in rv. Just $400 more I have my home, taxes, insurance included.
 
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Ex-Calif said:
Glad you aren't calling me a liar - LOL

I got lucky on the land as I only paid $5k/acre. I looked at land from $7k/acre up to $12k/acre. I am on high ground (for Florida) at like 1200 feet so I am not in a flood plane. I am also far enough inland that hurricane risk is very low and finally the insured value of the home is only $100k which is about what I paid for it.

To be fair the tax basis is currently on the empty land and I expect they might reassess at some point.

I am an open book on pretty much everything. Here's my payment summary and you'll notice the escrow is a bit low and will likely get adjusted next year. It's a 25 year loan but I am paying extra principal to get it done in 7.

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Good luck on the “too far inland hurricane theory”!
 
Ex-Calif said:
I am on high ground (for Florida) at like 1200 feet so
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There is no way you are that high in Florida.

When I was living and working in Florida, Our RADAR installation was considered one of the highest at 245 ft above sea level. Highest peak in all of Florida is at 345 ft.
 
Pedro Dog said:
There is no way you are that high in Florida.

When I was living and working in Florida, Our RADAR installation was considered one of the highest at 245 ft above sea level. Highest peak in all of Florida is at 345 ft.
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You are right. I had a brain fart. Its like 275 per the gps elevation.
 
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