Florida Keys July 4th
I had a couple of days off from work after working 70 hour weeks for the last month. I decided to head down to the Florida Keys and get in some relaxation time and some diving. I did not manage to get anyone to go with me as a dive buddy, as my sister Shirley was busy with her husband (imagine that) and my friend Nancy wanted to spend time with her boyfriend (what's up with that?) and my husband couldn't get time off to come in from Texas. So, I went anyway by myself, determined to dive and have a quiet time. I left Tampa at 10AM on Wednesday, July 4th, knowing the traffic would be light going into the Keys (everyone would have headed there on Wednesday and I knew I would avoid the horrible traffic jams on US1 thru the Homestead to Key Largo area.) I made the drive in 6 hours in pouring down rain through the Alligator Alley portion of I-75. Due to the rain, I was not able to see any 'gators on the drive down, but I knew the area on either side of the freeway is full of them. I arrived in Key Largo and found my hotel, after stopping off at Diver's Direct to purchase an optional cable for my camera strobe (the other one broke during my last trip to Roatan.) I checked into the hotel (Bayside Resort) and found a place to purchase dinner (a Japanese restaurant located on the hotel grounds.) Food was acceptable, nothing I would recommend, but not bad either. I called the Dive Shop (Silent World) and confirmed my dives for the following day, 2 morning and 2 afternoon dives.
All dives were in less than 35 feet of water and the viz on the reefs was between 25 and 40 feet on a good day and less than 20 when I dove the Christ of the Abyss site. Of course, the dive shop was talking up the viz as being well over 50 feet, which I knew meant it was less. As I had no dive buddy, I ended up having to tag along with others, usually with someone else who was interested in photography and did not mind a 4th in their group or a 3rd. This worked well for all but one dive, and since that pair was more interested in seeing how fast and far they could go, rather than slowly cruising the reef, I turned back and joined the dive instructor who was doing certification dives for two students. Really glad I made the choice to do that, since I got to see and interesting thing on that dive. In all I did 10 dives in 3 days and thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiet of the evenings. The hotel was not the greatest, and lacked the old Keys charm - but it was clean and neat, which since I spent all non-diving time, napping and reading, was pretty important.
The dives:
July 5th -
Dive 1 - N Grecian Rocks, the reef here was rather beat up, probably been over dived. There was no current to speak of, and that made the dive quiet and peaceful. I was over-weighted when I went into the water, at 18 pounds, I gave two back to the boat captain and continued my dive. Still horribly over-weighted, which made the dive a bit of hard work. Saw the usual reef fish, Grey, French and Queen Angelfish, Blue Chromis, Midnight, Blue and Stoplight Parrotfish, Yellowtail snappers and Grunts everywhere. Depth - max 25 fsw, bottom time - 1 hour.
Dive 2 - N.N.Dry Rocks - very nice reef, not nearly as battered. Lots of purple sea fans everywhere. Colour of this reef was predominantly Lavender, with all the fans and soft corals tending to be of that colour, and of course there were lots of them, everywhere you looked. All the usual reef fish were present. Depth - max 25 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour 5 minutes. Dropped weight to 16 pounds, but still too heavy
No lunch, the dock was well away from any restaurant, and the boat was due to leave in about 30 minutes, so there was no time to drive anywhere to get any thing to eat.
Dive 3 - Elbow Reef - reef very battered and broken up. Not nearly as "fishy" as the previous 2 reefs were. This dive was rather a let down. Max depth - 25 fsw, bottom time - 1 hour 5 minutes. Dropped weight to 14 pounds, but still was too heavy.
Dive 4 - Mike's Wreck - The reef portion of the dive was very sparse and boring, not many fish. This is the dive where I was paired up with a husband and wife team who decided rushing around the reef was the way to go. As a result I turned back to join the Dive Instructor, with whom I had discussed this possibility before the dive.) I found them within 1 minute on the wreck After joining the DI and her students, we dove the wreck part of the reef. The wreck structure is still clearly visible. While on that wreck, I spotted 8 or more LARGE Scrawled Filefish, which you usually only see one or two, never this many at once. The filefish would not move off if you approached them. There were also many midnight parrotfish with the filefish. They were all eating from the sides of the wreck, and whatever it was must have been tasty, since they were not willing to leave when approached by divers. I truly enjoyed this dive. Max depth - 30 fsw, bottom time - 1 hour 5 minutes. Weight at 14 pounds. Still felt heavy, talked with the DI and she recommended I drop to 12 pounds in the morning.
July 6th -
Dive 1 - N.N.Dry Rocks - The same as yesterday, very nice reef, not nearly as battered. Lots of purple sea fans everywhere. Found a large green moray eel on this dive. I came across many Angelfish, Grey's and Queen's. All the other usual reef fish were present. Depth - max 25 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour. Dropped weight to 12 pounds, and felt like I had trouble dropping to depth, decided to add 1 pound on the next dive.
Dive 2 - No Name Reef - very sparse reef, not much to see. However, poking around and looking for stuff is half the fun of diving, so I did that for most of the dive. Felt over-weighted on this dive, so decided to go back to the 12 pounds on the next dive. Also, decided to change to 63's on next dive, since the 80's are so large and I am only breathing between 1300 and 1500 PSI on each dive. Depth - max 30 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour 5 minutes..
Again no lunch - boat is leaving soon.
Dive 3 - Key Largo Dry Rocks. This is the reef on which the Christ of the Abyss statue is located. Went immediately to the statue and took pictures. Viz was horrible much less than 20 feet - probably closer to 15. On return to the reef from the statue, I passed over a huge Hogfish which had a scallop shell in its mouth, trying to eat the creature. I watched, since this was something I had not seen before. The hogfish was at least 2 foot long and was in the pale colour phase. This was just way too cool! Max depth - 25 fsw, bottom time - 1 hour and carrying 12 pounds. Dove 63's this dive and felt really much better - tank not whacking my knees!
Dive 4 - Horseshoe Reef - reef named for the way it is structured. Not much colour on this reef. This is the first time I saw Blue Angelfish on any reef. Very beautiful. Max depth- 35 fsw, bottom time - l hour.
July 7th -
Dive 1 - Carysfort Light - very nice dive, no current, with a little surge. There was lots of damage done to the reef due to coral bleaching. Water is at 86 F, and I would expect that more bleaching will occur. Saw 2 large green moray eels and 2 small goldentail eels while on this reef. Also, found Pederson Cleaning shrimp on a corkscrew anemone. Fun dive Depth - max 25 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour and 5 minutes..
Dive 2 -South Carysfort Reef - small amount of current and very little surge. Lots of coral damage due to coral bleaching. Found a white spotted filefish in the orange phase, way cool. This was my last dive of the trip.. Depth - max 30 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour.
My conclusion - while the reefs in Key Largo are fine, they are not as good as was my experience in Marathon, further to the south. On the other hand, I only saw a small part of the reef system in the Largo area. I will be returning to Key Largo at Labor Day and plan to dive for a whole week, with the same Dive Operator, I found Captain Bob to be extremely personable, knowledgeable and helpful. Kim the DI was a very likeable young lady who had had the chance to work with the Discovery Channel when they were filming the "Dirty Jobs: episode for Shark Week that was filmed in the Keys. I truly enjoyed the diving, it was peaceful and relaxing and as always you just never know what you will see or find.
The drive back to Tampa was fairly uneventful and took 5.5 hours. No rain! I saw many, many alligators in the waters on the side of the highway, referred to as Alligator Alley (I-75 where it goes from Naples to Miami.)
I had a couple of days off from work after working 70 hour weeks for the last month. I decided to head down to the Florida Keys and get in some relaxation time and some diving. I did not manage to get anyone to go with me as a dive buddy, as my sister Shirley was busy with her husband (imagine that) and my friend Nancy wanted to spend time with her boyfriend (what's up with that?) and my husband couldn't get time off to come in from Texas. So, I went anyway by myself, determined to dive and have a quiet time. I left Tampa at 10AM on Wednesday, July 4th, knowing the traffic would be light going into the Keys (everyone would have headed there on Wednesday and I knew I would avoid the horrible traffic jams on US1 thru the Homestead to Key Largo area.) I made the drive in 6 hours in pouring down rain through the Alligator Alley portion of I-75. Due to the rain, I was not able to see any 'gators on the drive down, but I knew the area on either side of the freeway is full of them. I arrived in Key Largo and found my hotel, after stopping off at Diver's Direct to purchase an optional cable for my camera strobe (the other one broke during my last trip to Roatan.) I checked into the hotel (Bayside Resort) and found a place to purchase dinner (a Japanese restaurant located on the hotel grounds.) Food was acceptable, nothing I would recommend, but not bad either. I called the Dive Shop (Silent World) and confirmed my dives for the following day, 2 morning and 2 afternoon dives.
All dives were in less than 35 feet of water and the viz on the reefs was between 25 and 40 feet on a good day and less than 20 when I dove the Christ of the Abyss site. Of course, the dive shop was talking up the viz as being well over 50 feet, which I knew meant it was less. As I had no dive buddy, I ended up having to tag along with others, usually with someone else who was interested in photography and did not mind a 4th in their group or a 3rd. This worked well for all but one dive, and since that pair was more interested in seeing how fast and far they could go, rather than slowly cruising the reef, I turned back and joined the dive instructor who was doing certification dives for two students. Really glad I made the choice to do that, since I got to see and interesting thing on that dive. In all I did 10 dives in 3 days and thoroughly enjoyed the peace and quiet of the evenings. The hotel was not the greatest, and lacked the old Keys charm - but it was clean and neat, which since I spent all non-diving time, napping and reading, was pretty important.
The dives:
July 5th -
Dive 1 - N Grecian Rocks, the reef here was rather beat up, probably been over dived. There was no current to speak of, and that made the dive quiet and peaceful. I was over-weighted when I went into the water, at 18 pounds, I gave two back to the boat captain and continued my dive. Still horribly over-weighted, which made the dive a bit of hard work. Saw the usual reef fish, Grey, French and Queen Angelfish, Blue Chromis, Midnight, Blue and Stoplight Parrotfish, Yellowtail snappers and Grunts everywhere. Depth - max 25 fsw, bottom time - 1 hour.
Dive 2 - N.N.Dry Rocks - very nice reef, not nearly as battered. Lots of purple sea fans everywhere. Colour of this reef was predominantly Lavender, with all the fans and soft corals tending to be of that colour, and of course there were lots of them, everywhere you looked. All the usual reef fish were present. Depth - max 25 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour 5 minutes. Dropped weight to 16 pounds, but still too heavy
No lunch, the dock was well away from any restaurant, and the boat was due to leave in about 30 minutes, so there was no time to drive anywhere to get any thing to eat.
Dive 3 - Elbow Reef - reef very battered and broken up. Not nearly as "fishy" as the previous 2 reefs were. This dive was rather a let down. Max depth - 25 fsw, bottom time - 1 hour 5 minutes. Dropped weight to 14 pounds, but still was too heavy.
Dive 4 - Mike's Wreck - The reef portion of the dive was very sparse and boring, not many fish. This is the dive where I was paired up with a husband and wife team who decided rushing around the reef was the way to go. As a result I turned back to join the Dive Instructor, with whom I had discussed this possibility before the dive.) I found them within 1 minute on the wreck After joining the DI and her students, we dove the wreck part of the reef. The wreck structure is still clearly visible. While on that wreck, I spotted 8 or more LARGE Scrawled Filefish, which you usually only see one or two, never this many at once. The filefish would not move off if you approached them. There were also many midnight parrotfish with the filefish. They were all eating from the sides of the wreck, and whatever it was must have been tasty, since they were not willing to leave when approached by divers. I truly enjoyed this dive. Max depth - 30 fsw, bottom time - 1 hour 5 minutes. Weight at 14 pounds. Still felt heavy, talked with the DI and she recommended I drop to 12 pounds in the morning.
July 6th -
Dive 1 - N.N.Dry Rocks - The same as yesterday, very nice reef, not nearly as battered. Lots of purple sea fans everywhere. Found a large green moray eel on this dive. I came across many Angelfish, Grey's and Queen's. All the other usual reef fish were present. Depth - max 25 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour. Dropped weight to 12 pounds, and felt like I had trouble dropping to depth, decided to add 1 pound on the next dive.
Dive 2 - No Name Reef - very sparse reef, not much to see. However, poking around and looking for stuff is half the fun of diving, so I did that for most of the dive. Felt over-weighted on this dive, so decided to go back to the 12 pounds on the next dive. Also, decided to change to 63's on next dive, since the 80's are so large and I am only breathing between 1300 and 1500 PSI on each dive. Depth - max 30 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour 5 minutes..
Again no lunch - boat is leaving soon.
Dive 3 - Key Largo Dry Rocks. This is the reef on which the Christ of the Abyss statue is located. Went immediately to the statue and took pictures. Viz was horrible much less than 20 feet - probably closer to 15. On return to the reef from the statue, I passed over a huge Hogfish which had a scallop shell in its mouth, trying to eat the creature. I watched, since this was something I had not seen before. The hogfish was at least 2 foot long and was in the pale colour phase. This was just way too cool! Max depth - 25 fsw, bottom time - 1 hour and carrying 12 pounds. Dove 63's this dive and felt really much better - tank not whacking my knees!
Dive 4 - Horseshoe Reef - reef named for the way it is structured. Not much colour on this reef. This is the first time I saw Blue Angelfish on any reef. Very beautiful. Max depth- 35 fsw, bottom time - l hour.
July 7th -
Dive 1 - Carysfort Light - very nice dive, no current, with a little surge. There was lots of damage done to the reef due to coral bleaching. Water is at 86 F, and I would expect that more bleaching will occur. Saw 2 large green moray eels and 2 small goldentail eels while on this reef. Also, found Pederson Cleaning shrimp on a corkscrew anemone. Fun dive Depth - max 25 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour and 5 minutes..
Dive 2 -South Carysfort Reef - small amount of current and very little surge. Lots of coral damage due to coral bleaching. Found a white spotted filefish in the orange phase, way cool. This was my last dive of the trip.. Depth - max 30 fsw , bottom time - 1 hour.
My conclusion - while the reefs in Key Largo are fine, they are not as good as was my experience in Marathon, further to the south. On the other hand, I only saw a small part of the reef system in the Largo area. I will be returning to Key Largo at Labor Day and plan to dive for a whole week, with the same Dive Operator, I found Captain Bob to be extremely personable, knowledgeable and helpful. Kim the DI was a very likeable young lady who had had the chance to work with the Discovery Channel when they were filming the "Dirty Jobs: episode for Shark Week that was filmed in the Keys. I truly enjoyed the diving, it was peaceful and relaxing and as always you just never know what you will see or find.
The drive back to Tampa was fairly uneventful and took 5.5 hours. No rain! I saw many, many alligators in the waters on the side of the highway, referred to as Alligator Alley (I-75 where it goes from Naples to Miami.)
