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From Darth Vern . . .
Me my wife Patty and Jim Brown headed for Key Largo Florida for 3 days of diving from March 16-18. And what an amazing time we had. Patty was doing her referal check-outs with Horizon Divers and me and Jim hit as many big wrecks as we could. We started off by picking Jim up at Miami Airport a few hours late since he got stuck in traffic [thanks Jim] and missed his initial flight. We managed to arrive in Key Largo around 1am.
We woke at 7am Friday morning and were ready to dive. Patty started her course work at Horizon and Jim and me were off to Sharkys. We dove the Bibb and the Duane on the morning trip. The Bibb is a coast guard cutter intentially sank in 130' of water about 1/2 hrs boat ride from the canal. The Bibb is lying on its side and is a great intact wreck. We dove 31 minutes at a max depth of 123'. The one thing to know about keys diving is most outfits only rent aluminum 80s, so it cut down on our usual bottom times. Viz was around 40' and water temp was a steady 77 degrees. The second dive was the Duane; another coast guard cutter intentionally sank in 130' of water about 1 mile south of the Bibb. This was an awesome wreck. It sits upright and the deck is about 100' deep and the sea life on it is beautiful. Our dive was 32 minutes with a max depth of 105'. We saw numerous species of fish and a huge green moray eel, which we later found out, resides there. We saw a crab that had to be as big as my head [and that's big].
Our second boat trip of the day took us down the road to Horizon Divers and where Patty had finished her pool work and was eating lunch. We quickly switched our gear to their boat and headed back out the canal to the Spiegel Grove. This is the new artificial reef sunk last year at a cost of over $8 million total. This wreck is also resting in approx 130' of water and is lying on her starboard side. It is over 500' long and has relief to 50'. The SG is simply enormous in the water. We were tied in about midship and me and Jim headed for the bow. You get a real feeling of being small when exploring the vastness of the ship. Things to see everywhere with 50' of viz. As we headed to the sand at the bow, we encountered a stingray about 5' to 6' in diameter lying in the sand with some cobia circling around it [see pics]. We goofed around the 60' to 70' area and then headed back for the mooring line. We reached the boat after 36 minutes with a max depth of 125'. We were then off to the wreck of the Benwood. This is a pretty broken up wreck but has many large pieces lying around with the hull still visible in the sand. Here there were fish a plenty. We saw too many fish to name and another huge moray eels. Eels were everywhere in the waters of Key Largo. Patty did her O/W check-out dives 1 and 2 here. When we got back to the boat after 45 minutes with a max depth of 43', Patty finally realized why diving psyched me up so much for so many years. She was simply excited to get back in the water, she loved it. But we had to wait for tomorrow.
We woke Saturday morning around 7:30am for our 1st trip of the day with Horizon Divers at 9am, out to the premiere reef in Key Largo the Molasses Reef. We dove a section known as "The Ledge" a gradual slope to 90'. Jim and me watch Patty as she started her check-out dive 3, before we "giant strided" into the water [always trying to get the mate wet]. The first thing we encounter was a big Lagerback turtle cruising along at 30'. We passed him and I headed to the ledge where I saw a cool little octopus [see pic]. I am not sure were Jim was, but I got the pic to prove it. We pretty much just swam around for 47 minutes with a max depth of 76' seeking tons of fish and vertebrates. We were then off to the French Reef. This reef is well known for the naturally made swim-thrus in the coral. They were really fun and a good change of pace. We spent 52 minutes and a max depth of 38'. Patty came over and gave me a HI 5 in the water as she had completed her open water referral dives and was a certified diver [once she completed the paper-work of course]. It was fun watching her go from "semi-nervous" of diving to "I can't wait to dive again" in a day. She was finally done and ready for her first dive as a diver and not a student.
She didn't wait long, we literally ran from Horizon to Sharkys to make the boat and we were headed back out the now familiar canal to Pickles Reef. This reef is very shallow our max depth was 29' and the fish life was pretty much as normal as the other reefs. It was a pretty uneventful 47 minute dive. BUT our second dive was back to Molasses Reef and an area known as the "WinchHole" [side note: I did double check, it was winch and not wench]. This area was outstanding. Large coral heads with sandy bottoms in between and a big hole in the coral known as the "window". We passed on the "photo ops" here since we were tired of picture posing. Patty and me struck out to find the winch that was left there many years ago. I was actually swimming looking to find a nurse shark for Patty to see. After about a 1/2 we saw no shark but did find the winch and various wreckage, we were headed back toward the mooring line when Patty hammered me in the leg, pointed and sure enough there was a 3 foot nurse shark swimming away from us. She actually saw a shark on her first certified dives, amazing.
All in all Key Largo is fantastic diving with great boat operators. I would recommend Horizon Divers and Sharkys to anyone wanting to dive there. Their boats are right in the canal leading to the Atlantic and most wrecks and reefs are less than a 1/2 hour boat ride from the canal. MANY CONGRATS to Patty for completing her Open Water course and graciously putting up with my "help," she is a woman of amazing patience. But to tell you the truth I can't wait to get back in my drysuit and sling my pony and do some real quarry diving when I get back to good ole PA!!!!!!!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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