Well not really but it did take a nibble. I tell people this story and they look at me in disbelief and I don’t know if it is because of the octopus or the actual trip itself.
A friend of mine decided to drive down from Jacksonville Beach in my company car on a Friday morning down to the Keys off Marathon and camp out while
fishing the bridges. We has set up a tent and had our
fishing rods out for a great night of
bridge fishing hoping to catch that tarpon or really anything else that would bite. A pin fish would have probably worked just fine. We thought it would be cool to drink whisky, smoke cigars and fish (which sounds pretty good right about now while I’m on an airplane for work).
Anyway, it was getting late but not too late (11 p.m. or so) when we got a little antsy because the fish were not biting, and we had cheap whiskey, so we made the executive decision to drive to
Key West party there and camp out by the airport. So we pack up our
scuba and fishing gear and went to the car. As we are putting all our
fishing supplies away we notice there is a flat tire on the back passenger side. We didn’t panic because I had a can of fix a flat. And as you know all you ever need in life is fix a flat and duct tape and everything will be just fine. And sure enough we made it to Key West just fine. We drove to a shell station and took off the bad tire and replaced it with the little steroid free donut tire which looks like it should be on one of my bikes. We left the tire on the doorstep with a note and phone number so we could pick up the tire the next day and headed straight to Hogs Breath, Ricks and Sloppy Joes and partied all night.
When we had killed all the brain cells we could possibly destroy the trip took another twist. We decided to go for a night dive. I already know what you’re thinking and yes it was stupid but a whole lot of fun. We took a cab to our car, grabbed the gear, set up camp and headed to a little reef a few hundred yards off the coast by the airport. We swim out a littlie way and found the reef we have been diving on for years just like we remembered. But this time the reef was lit up at night with animals I haven’t seen before and it was like a new reef at night. There were beautiful fish everywhere and no sign of the larger fish we typically see. I was looking up under the ledge when I noticed a few lobster and then a decent size octopus. I have never held an octopus before so I thought I would try to ease him/him out and pet the beautiful creature. My buddy swims over with his light and I coax the sweet critter out. It was beautiful, with green and yellow colors about the size of an orange. It crawled around my hand and we were petting it like a little kitten when all of a sudden it rapidly changed colors to a dark purple all over, wrapped all it’s sticky little paws around my hand and clamped down. The next thing I know I have a sharp pain on my hand and realize this thing is trying to eat me whole. I screamed like a little girl underwater, which is hard to do, (no offense ladies) and shake my hand as if it’s on fire (because it was). I finally get the octopus off my hand and swim to the surface. We head in ad when I get to the shore I noticed this thing had bitten threw my
dive glove with his beak. I didn’t know they could do that or would do that, but it happened. I poured some whiskey on it and threw a couple Band-Aids on for good measure.
The sun was coming up and we were still up and needed breakfast. So we went down to the local pancake shop and had a good meal. We then decided to head downtown again and see if any place was open. We ended up drinking all day and somehow participated in a Captain Tony’s wedding parade, which I still can’t explain. We rented a cheap room from a
free classifieds book because we were tired of sleep on rocks and ended up partying g all night again without sleeping. The next day we woke up late and went to the Shell station to pick up my tire. They were closed on Sunday! I have to go home and be at work the next day so we had to drive 55 MPH all the way from the keys 12 hours with a wimpy donut tire and a bite on my hand from a local octopus. The next day I had to buy a new tire and rim for my company car since I left the other one in the Keys. Oh well we had fun all along the way.
