Florida Keys

Author: Chuck S

What can I say, I'm a damn engineer and this trip report came out way too long, but I hope some of you enjoy reading it. I also have a copy of the itinerary for our trip in Word format. The itinerary has phone numbers for all of the operators used on this trip along with rates and other info.

The best to all in '99 - - Chuck

FLORIDA KEYS TRIP REPORT December 11-19, 1998 Chuck S and Roger P

A great week of diving in the Florida Keys. This was the first trip for my friend Roger and me to the Keys. We decided to split our week up and spend time in Key Largo, Marathon and finally Key West to find out what diving is like in the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys. The week we chose was more out of convenience for us, and as we discovered, was not particularly the best time of year especially in regards to visibility. Viz was down compared to what Roger and I had expected due to the nearly constant presence of winds, but was still more than acceptable and averaged about 30 to 35 feet. Waves were also present much of the time, which caused us to lose one day of diving. The waves along with lack of interested divers also prevented us from getting in any night dives. However, all in all it was a great trip for the two of us. The boats were not at all crowded and was a trip we both look forward to repeating. Now that two of us ‘Cheeseheads' are familiar with the territory - watch out!! This would be a great trip to make with a group of family and friends.

Friday, 12/11: Depart Madison, WI travel to Miami via Detroit on NWA. Arrive in Miami at approximately midnight. Pick up rental car - we got a free upgrade to the ultimate road trip car, a big honkin' Grand Marquis (what a boat)!! Travel down the road to Florida City, found a cheap hotel room and crashed for the night.

Saturday, 12/12: Woke up and after breakfast, traveled the rest of the way to Key Largo. Checked into an efficiency room at Ed and Ellen's. A nice place with very reasonable rates just off Hwy 1 across the road from the Pink Plaza which has a Walgreens, Dixie Divers and pretty decent Mexican restaurant (South of the Border). Went down the road to the dock where Scuba-Do has a slip (next to Ocean Divers off Caribbean St.). Informed by Capt. Marc that there would be no diving that day. Easterly winds were kicking up 8 to 10 footers. Very few boats were going out. Not the best way to start a diving vacation, but this gave Roger and I a chance to rest up after our late night of travel.

Sunday, 12/13: The wind was still blowing, but had shifted a bit. Seas had calmed and were in the 4 to 5 feet range, with an occasional 6. Capt. Marc gave the ok to go out diving depending on what Roger and I decided to do. Well, we decided to DIVE!!

Dive 1: French Reef, Christmas Tree Max depth=34', bottom time = 50", viz = 30'.

Dive 2: North French Reef Max depth=30', bottom time = 35", viz = 30'.

On these first two dives we saw a large number of fish especially large barracudas and also quite a few lobsters.

Monday, 12/14: Winds were finally beginning to let up and seas had settled out at 1 to 2's. Today we were to go out to the USCG "Duane"!! Roger and I were both excited about the opportunity to dive this wreck. It was definitely one of our objectives heading into this trip. However, we really had no idea of what was to be in store for us. There was a noticeable 1-2 kt surface current. Capt. Marc set up the boat just up current from the mooring buoy and prepared Roger and I for our giant stride and decent to the mooring line. Roger (who just became an Instructor) and I are both experienced divers, but neither of us had ever done a negative decent with current and with the intent of swimming like hell to get to the down line. As I said at the time, "Aunt Em - we're not in Devil's L. anymore!!". Capt. Marc was very patient with Roger and I as we made two unsuccessful attempts to reach the mooring line. We'd also smoked 400 psi out of our tanks on these two attempts. Well, in spite of being rookies at this type of a dive, our third attempt at what we referred to as ‘Navy Seal diving' was successful. We both reached the down line, caught our breath and began our decent. We towed ourselves down, literally hand-over-hand down the descent line as our bodies were pushed out nearly horizontal by the strong current.

Dive 1: The Duane. 107 max depth for 20 minutes, viz = 40 feet.

As the outline of the wreck became visible at about a depth of 60', a layer consisting of a school of large barracudas "parted" for us as we made our descent. Because we had consumed some of our air during our first two attempts at the buoy we were not able to make it all the way to the wreck's bow. All in all, this wasn't such a bad thing. After completion of our descent, we began our tour of the wreck at the stern and worked forward. We proceeded under the protective cover from the stern towards the bow in the "shadow" of the Duane's superstructure. Moving to the bow from the bridge would have been a pretty difficult maneuver. Also, by this time our tanks had dropped to about 1,000 to 1,200 psi - time for an easy drift back to the down line. By this time, I'd grown pretty accustomed to the current. And, as the down line came into view - I made damn sure I had a good bead on it, so I would not miss it!! Both Roger and I grabbed hold of the line and departed the deck of the Duane.

This is definitely the most challenging dive I have ever done, but one I am glad to have done and one I would like to do again. It is just amazing what a 1 to 2 kt current is like. During our safety stop Roger and I were hanging on to the descent line in a near horizontal position as the current pushed against our bodies.

Dive 2: Molasses Reef, Winch Hole. Max depth=35', bottom time = 60", viz = 30'. A great dive with fantastic coral structure. Several nice swim throughs and canyons amongst the very developed spur and groove reef formations. We found one coral formation to be the home of two green morays, ‘Bogie' and ‘Slim'. Roger was greeted by what turned out to be a very friendly Bogie who began swimming circles around Roger and surprisingly filled up his entire view finder with his green body! I enjoyed the show from about 5 feet away, the watched as Bogie slipped away into a crack in the coral reef. We also saw a school of Atlantic spadefish, several nursesharks and a "stray" Indo-asian batfish (suspected to have been let loose from someone's aquarium).

Except for the disappointment of losing a day of diving on our first day, we were both very happy with both the diving and in Key Largo and our dive hosts from Scuba-Do. Capt's Stafford and Marc were great to dive with and we were very satisfied. On our two days of diving with Scuba-Do, Roger were the only people on the boat - it was like having a private charter. We were very appreciative of the fact that Marc took us out with only two people on board. Also, while in Key Largo we made it to the Fish House for dinner one night, a great place.

Roger and I ended our time in Key Largo by purchasing Scuba-Do t-shirts - the one with the buxomness mermaid, sans seashell pasties :-) . It was now time to head down the road to Marathon for the next stop on our road trip/diving vacation. After about an hour drive down US 1, we checked into the Marathon Holiday Inn and the Abyss Dive Center to confirm the next day's diving, meet Capt. Bill and Heidi and fill out our waivers.

Tuesday, 12/16: Today we actually had to share the boat with a pair of couples who were from all places - Minnesota. Together all six of us made for a good group of divers under the direction of Capt. Chris.

Dive 1: Herman's Hole Max depth=34', bottom time = 50", viz = 30'. We explored quite a bit of this reef which had a large number of cracks to ledges for us to carefully check out for nurse sharks, green morays and lobster.

Dive 2: 20 Barge 25 feet for 60 minutes, viz = 25 ft. A nice relaxing dive on a sunken cargo container barge. The barge is about 50 feet in length with most of the sides and deck rusted or fallen away, but is the home to one of most dense concentrations of marine life I'd ever seen: plenty of grunts, jacks and sargent majors a nurse shark and at least one green moray.

Wednesday, 12/17: Capt. Bill was our boat driver and DM for today as it was once again only Roger and I on the boat.

Dive 1: The Gap Max depth= 75', bottom time = 30", viz = 20'. Swam out across a gradually sloping sandy bottom to the edge of a 25' feet high reef wall.

Dive 2: Yellow Reef Max depth= 25', bottom time = 60", viz = 25'. A nice shallow reef with only a slight current. Roger and I took our time and managed to see quite a lot of marine life on this dive: 2 to 3 nurse sharks, 2 green morays and lobsters.

Once again, the dives and our dive operator hosts proved to be worthy of their reputation. Both Roger and I would definitely hook up with Capt. Bill and Heidi for more diving on future trips to the Keys. Our next step was to once again load up the boat . . . errrrr, I mean car and head south to Key Weird.

After about 1-1/2 hours we made our arrival checked into our lodging and confirmed our next two days of diving with Southpoint Divers. That night we managed to check out Duval St. and the surrounding area. For Roger and I, both of us being from Madison, WI, Key West and Duval Street didn't seem too weird at all to us. In fact, it the atmosphere kind of reminded us of our own State Street in Madison, only with more energy and of course warmer!!

Thursday, 12/17:

Dive 1: Cayman Salvager Master Max depth= 85', bottom time = 30", viz = 25'. An intact wreck (w/o superstructure). Slight current, lots of fish - damselfish, Atlantic spadefish.

Dive 2: Ball and Chain Reef Max depth= 26', bottom time = 50", viz = 25 to 30'. Relaxing reef/ledge type of dive. Began by swimming a slight current towards the now abandoned USA-Cuba telephone cable. Drifted back towards the boat and saw yellowtail damsel fish, lobster, crab and 2 octopi.

I'll take a break from descriptions of the diving to interject a brief note, and I don't mean to be preachy . . . . But I am always amazed at how many people stride off the back end of the boat then begin a mad rush to see how much territory they can cover and how far they can get from the boat. Funny, when comparing notes with these types of divers I find out how little they managed to actually see during all that rushing around in spite of the fact that I managed to go a fraction of the distance they went. The way I look at it, most boat Captains will do their best to park near the nicer part of the reef they intend for you to dive, so you'll get the most enjoyment out of the dive. So, when folks rush off to parts unknown - - this just leaves more room near the boat for me to take my time and enjoy!! I just love being the first one in and last one out with plenty of air to spare.

Friday, 12/18:

Dive 1: Joe's Tug Max depth=67', bottom time = 30", viz = 30'.

An interesting "semi-wreck" as the tug had been split in half by hurricane Georges. Very interesting as it is the home to lots of rather large ‘cudas. We also saw a large, white spotted drum fish. I also managed to find the "hidden treasure" on this dive. Actually, the treasure consisted of a plastic soda bottle filled with sand, with a Southpoint Divers sticker on it. However, this pop bottle was redeemable for a t-shirt back at the store on Duval Street!! Like I really needed an excuse to go back over to Duval Street!

Dive 2: #1 Buoy Reef Max depth= 26', bottom time = 50", viz = 30 to 40' Much improved visibility made today's diving a great improvement over yesterday. Very impressive reef structure with lots of ‘mounds' of coral to swim around and explore. More nurse sharks. I even managed to spot a scorpion fish and two spider crabs!

The diving in Key West was very good and enjoyable. Our two days here along with the other four days of diving in the Keys made for a great mid-winter break before heading back north for the belated arrival of winter back in Wisconsin. Memorable events included the Duane. However, we found that just by employing good buoyancy skills and taking one's time that much can be seen and enjoyed even on relatively shallow reef dives. During the week, I most definitely had my "reef-eyes" on and constantly delighted in spotting marine life for Roger to take pictures of.

I am now back home in Wisconsin trying to stay warm, but enjoying the beginning of the Christmas weekend. Even though it's cold outside it's good to home and enjoying the warmth of being with family - my wife Vicki, son Geoff, daughter Rachelle, son-in-law Dave and a cast of ‘thousands'. We plan to have a house full this weekend complete with romping dogs and pretty mellow cat who is the most calm of all of us. But, we'll have fun. Oh yeah, I can also begin the final countdown to February's trip to Belize!! Less than two months to go!!

I'll finish by once again thanking our hosts and operators in Florida for making the trip so fun, enjoyable and memorable. Also thanks to my dive bud and friend Roger who is such a competent diver and great friend - I always learn something when I dive with Roger. I know he'll make an excellent Instructor. Thanks to folks on the RSD and Diverlink message boards for the great tips and recommendations for the trip. And . . . of course thanks most of all to my wife Vicki who let me take off for this trip and even helped me out by giving me my plane ticket for what turned out to be a fantastic trip and vacation!!