After spending an exhausting 3 weeks traipsing around Disney World and other theme parks in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, we headed down to the Florida Keys, some 400 miles away, for the final week of our break to relax and do some diving.
We stayed in what was described on the Internet as a 'double trailer home', in Key Largo (mile marker 105.5). It turned out not to be a caravan but a luxurious large 2 double bedroom porta cabin style building, with car port, mesh sided conservatory with our own boat dock at the rear backing onto Blackwater Sound.
Just around the corner, on Highway 1 - the main road through the Keys, we signed up with American Diving for 10 hard boat dives (5 days @ 2 tank dives per day). There are many diving operators in the area, but American Diving was the closest to home. Prices were similar in all case. Diving would be on the Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary - often referred to as the John Pennekamp sanctuary.
So much for the 'relaxing' week. Up at 6am and had to be at the dock 5 miles away, to board the boat at 7.30 am for 8am sailing. (Still I suppose that is better than some Club weekend dives). The boat was a 40-foot craft powered by two Caterpillar engines, capable of holding 34 divers and was still roomy.
The dive sites were between 30 and 50 minutes away. As in many similar areas around the world, at the dive sites mooring buoys had been fixed to the reef to avoid the use of anchors. Before each dive, we kitted up (so nice not having to wear a dry suit - the ease of movement was great!) and listened for the traditional briefing.
Most of the reefs are reasonably shallow 20 to 50 feet. Dive times on a standard tank were around 45 to 60 minutes. Water temperature was 84 degrees, with a shortie wet suit more than adequate. The viz on the reefs was, I thought, disappointing -just 40 to 50 feet. You could seldom see the bottom of the boat when on the reef.
The reefs generally showed signed of bleaching and dying in places, which was sad to see. However, the fish were still plentiful in an array of colours with many being recognised from the plastic fish guide card being carried. There were many large Groupers on some dives and seeing them at 'cleaning stations' still amuses me.
The main reefs dived were: French reef; Molasses Reef; Sand Island; Grecian reef - all were similar and enjoyable. We dived the 'Christ of the Abyss' which is the famous statue of Christ in 25 feet of water. What a lure for the camera brigade! The Dive Master warned us - look but don't touch. Reason - fire coral growing on the statue! The only wreck we dove was the Benwood. A well broken up WWII freighter, teaming with fish and large groups of shoaling fish. Absolutely spectacular, but we could only dive it once on our schedule. Regrettably, we did not have time to do the slightly deeper dives on the two well know wrecks - Bibb and Duane. Very enjoyable overall and worth diving, despite choppy seas on a couple of days and several divers 'feeding the fish'.
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