Scuba Boat Or Snorkel Boat?

[jay515]

Damn, I have a lot of questions but my trip is in May so...

I have always gone out in SCUBA boats. Usually had a good experience and nobody minded. But went on one in Looe Key and honestly the water was too deep to see anything that well. OTOH, many of the snorkel boats seem like they are cattle boats filled with tons of newbies who will just scare the fish away. (I'm not talking re: the infamous party boats.)

I do some other snorkeling as well-- shallow water, kayaks, etc. But that doesn't get you to the reef, at least not where I've been.

Anybody do a good snorkel operation in the Keys?

 

[AdivingBel]

You didn't say who you had been out with before in the area, so sorry if this is repetitive.

Middle/Lower Keys:

Looe Key Reef Resort, Big Pine Key - big Corinthian boat. If you go on the weekends there are usually more snokelers than divers so they'll generally stick to the shallower sites. They'll also cook you a hot dog between snorkels and a marg on the way back to the dock. I guess you ended up on the west end of Looe Key with the deeper dive sites? Even those it's hard to get much deeper than 30 ft. without a shovel. If you work in toward the spur (back of the hand) portion of the reef it gets shallower pretty fast. I do know one boat in the area with more rules than a catholic girl's school and they get bent if snorkelers stray very far from the boat. Maybe you hooked up with them.

Between Big Pine and Marathon - Bahia Honda state park runs snorkel boats.

Might try Captain Hooks in Marathon on their Jolly Roger (another big Corinthian). Their afternoon boat is mostly snorkelers. There are lots of pretty, shallow, patch reefs out from Marathon that make nice snorkel sites. Have fun.

 

[jay515]

Thanks. I believe that I went on wreck "dive" in Looe Key, not that I went to the wreck, but it's where the boat went. I think mostly it was 50 ft, obviously fairly useless, unless you are one heck of a freediver, which I don't do.

 

[mrfixitchapman]

Use The Google. From recent experience, (like the end of March), the boats in Key Largo will frequently run trips to shallow reefs. Pennekamp has a boat that runs a snorkel trip at least every day. I had a dozen members of The Holdam Family on Dive Ventures boat for a snorkel trip. Key Dives, located at Bud 'n Mary's Marina has a snorkel boat that goes to Alligator and Sombrero. If you call around you can find an operation that makes snorkel trips and shallow, well-lighted sites instead of watching scuba divers in deep water. Also, remember that in The Keys if you don't find a dive boat that you like you can find another one a few minutes' drive up or down US1.

DC

 

[jay515]

Yes, I can find things via google. but was curious what people thought here.