grassyknoll
Contributor
I'm half way through my first visit to the keys and thought I would give a quick post for anyone else who is considering a visit.
I am here with my wife (non-diver) and two daughters on of which is old enough and certified to dive; therefore it is not solely a dive vacation and I have only two days of diving booked (hoping to sneak in a third). We are staying at the Ocean Pointe condos in Taverneir. The condos are fine, clean and well appointed and a great value for the money. We dove yesterday with Conch Republic Divers. Conch Republic has been a great outfit, very accomodating and flexibile I would definitley reccomend them to anyone. Since my daughter is newly junior OW certed, I elected to have a DM join us on her first two real ocean dives. Brenda at Conch Republic was great, she set us up with one of their DM's-Brett who turned out to also be a great guide, his familiarity with the sites helped us find sea life we wouldn't have otherwise saw. As I mentioned, these were my daughters' first true ocean dives so we kept things shallow.
First Site-Hens and Chickens
This was a great little reef in about 20-30 fsw. Seas were running 1-2' with little to no current. water temp was logged at 81f. Visibility was about 50-60'. Hens and Chickens was a decent little reef with larger coral formations that you could swim down in and around in some spots. There were quite a bit of the usual reef fish and several lobsters were found doing their lobster thing. The notable part of this dive came towards the end when we were swimming over the reefs at about 10'. I am side by side with my daughter with Brent leading when all of a sudden my daughter is pulling on my arm and pointing excitedly, when I turn to look in the direction she is pointing I am suddnely face to face with what appear to be two 3-4' sharks. These were swimming paralel only a foot or so away from me. They gave me a bit of a start and I finned back from them a bit, once back a bit I could tell they were not sharks but rather some sort of large fish (later I was told they are fish called coby or cobia?). These fish were obnoxious! They followed us circling at about 3-5' feet for 15 minutes or so, it was pretty cool though as it allowed me to try out my new camera.
Second Site-Amy's Reef
This site was only about a 20 minute boat ride from the first. By the time we got to this site the sun was up higher allowing for better light penetration and the site had better visibility, somewhere around 70-08'. Water temp and surface conditions were the same but what a differerent site! We were told that there would likely be nurse sharks and this site did not dissapoint. We must have seen 5-6 different sharks from 3-6', we also saw a small Spotted Moray and large Green Moray Eel as well as a small turtle (Hawksbill?). There were also all the usual reef fish and all in all this site gets a defininte thumbs-up!
So far, I am sold on the diving in Key Largo and we are already planning our next trip back. We have another set of dives with Conch Republic on Saturday and can't wait to get back in the water.
I know posts this post would be worthless without pictures so I am attaching a few (first time, so be kind if they don't attach correctly).
I am here with my wife (non-diver) and two daughters on of which is old enough and certified to dive; therefore it is not solely a dive vacation and I have only two days of diving booked (hoping to sneak in a third). We are staying at the Ocean Pointe condos in Taverneir. The condos are fine, clean and well appointed and a great value for the money. We dove yesterday with Conch Republic Divers. Conch Republic has been a great outfit, very accomodating and flexibile I would definitley reccomend them to anyone. Since my daughter is newly junior OW certed, I elected to have a DM join us on her first two real ocean dives. Brenda at Conch Republic was great, she set us up with one of their DM's-Brett who turned out to also be a great guide, his familiarity with the sites helped us find sea life we wouldn't have otherwise saw. As I mentioned, these were my daughters' first true ocean dives so we kept things shallow.
First Site-Hens and Chickens
This was a great little reef in about 20-30 fsw. Seas were running 1-2' with little to no current. water temp was logged at 81f. Visibility was about 50-60'. Hens and Chickens was a decent little reef with larger coral formations that you could swim down in and around in some spots. There were quite a bit of the usual reef fish and several lobsters were found doing their lobster thing. The notable part of this dive came towards the end when we were swimming over the reefs at about 10'. I am side by side with my daughter with Brent leading when all of a sudden my daughter is pulling on my arm and pointing excitedly, when I turn to look in the direction she is pointing I am suddnely face to face with what appear to be two 3-4' sharks. These were swimming paralel only a foot or so away from me. They gave me a bit of a start and I finned back from them a bit, once back a bit I could tell they were not sharks but rather some sort of large fish (later I was told they are fish called coby or cobia?). These fish were obnoxious! They followed us circling at about 3-5' feet for 15 minutes or so, it was pretty cool though as it allowed me to try out my new camera.
Second Site-Amy's Reef
This site was only about a 20 minute boat ride from the first. By the time we got to this site the sun was up higher allowing for better light penetration and the site had better visibility, somewhere around 70-08'. Water temp and surface conditions were the same but what a differerent site! We were told that there would likely be nurse sharks and this site did not dissapoint. We must have seen 5-6 different sharks from 3-6', we also saw a small Spotted Moray and large Green Moray Eel as well as a small turtle (Hawksbill?). There were also all the usual reef fish and all in all this site gets a defininte thumbs-up!
So far, I am sold on the diving in Key Largo and we are already planning our next trip back. We have another set of dives with Conch Republic on Saturday and can't wait to get back in the water.
I know posts this post would be worthless without pictures so I am attaching a few (first time, so be kind if they don't attach correctly).