It was 1974 and my good friend Heinz Richter had brought over about 130 fellow country men from Germany to vacation in Ft. Lauderdale. Ossie Pulyer was a German diving instructor leading a group of SCUBA divers on the tour. I took about four divers out to Cuda Reef off Dania Beach, FL along with Ossie and a student. I had rented SCUBA gear for the lot at Surf Sun And Fun on A1A just south of Sunrise the day before. The dive went well, with everyone on board except for Ossie and his student. The seas were running about 2 to 4 ft. swells with ok visibility, it was October after all.
I went up on the bow to checkout the anchor and the last two in the water. Both divers were on the surface. the student's eyes were large as saucers and growing by the second. Oh boy, he's panicking, no obvious reason why either but what the hell. So I dove in the water went around behind the guy and popped his harness buckles. I was pulling his tank away when it stopped, What?! I rented the damn thing as was responsible for returning it. Ossie was hanging on to one of the straps, as that realization started to sink in, along came another. An intense burning pain starting at the base of my left leg, working higher. I yelled at Ossie to let go, he didn't but it was about too late at that point anyway, had waited too long to move. Pretty soon it was over my back, hurt like a mother! Let go of the strap and hauled into the boat myself. Most of my left leg and all over my back had been hit by Portuguese Man-O-War tentacles. Must have had a nice sized float too, long, thick tentacles. Had some heavy 1/4 inch welts developing and lots of livid Portuguese marks.
From:
http://nationalgeographic.com/
Shortly convulsions, severe cramping set in along real intense pain, confusion and shock. Went below looking for something to ease the sensation panicking a bit myself, couldn't find much, poured a beer on it. Well it least it didn't smell too good after, Bud and it did feel better for about 20 seconds. Didn't know about peeing on it and didn't think to bring Adolphs Meat Tenderizer either.
Everyone was onboard, I was more than ready to head in. I was the only one that knew how to run the boat, whoops. So driving hard at full speed I would steer through torrents of boat traffic running out of the Port on a busy Sunday afternoon.
The port inlet on a quieter day
http://www.cruisetimetables.com/
When the thicker parts passed, I would fall back in the seat and let someone else do the driving. It was hard to concentrate after all and short stints were about all that I could manage with the convulsions and cramping. Made it to Lauderdale Marina eventually, docked without smashing the hull in. Mike Driver, the dock master was a friend and helped me out with a quick trip to Holy Cross Hospital. Long story short, ten grains of morphine and all was right with the world again, more or less. My dad came over and took the boat back to the dock and I was released the next day. Been hit by Portuguese tons of times, most around here have, that was the worse dosing up to that point and since. Wouldn't like to have been on a beach free dive to the outer second reef when something like that happened. Long swim in and without flotation, might not make it.
Lauderdale Marina from around that time
From:
http://www.lauderdalemarina.com/
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