My First Trip to Key Largo

Welp, I'm in the middle of my first trip to Key Largo and thought I'd do some diving since, well, I dive. It was a last minute trip, with about 4 days of planning involved before we made the drive down from St. Louis; stopped a few places on the way. While in route I did a minimal amount of research and booked a dive day (today) with Silent World, and based off their recommendation I booked at The Pelican for three nights. So, fast forward to today, dive day. I was really excited because I’m used to making my dive vacations in Cozumel or booking a few dives in Beaufort, NC; but here was a new opportunity to find a new dive destination in the keys. I opted for a reef dive instead of the Speigel or any other wrecks because to be quite honest, the wrecks off NC just don’t really do it for me. I like coral forests, deep crevices, and lots of crawly critters.

So I dove with Capt Joe today and Mike, who paired me up with another single. The first site was Christ of the Abyss, which was anything but an abyss. We had a falling tide and Christ’s arms were probably at about 10 feet. Other than that, absolutely nothing remarkable about the dive; it was an hour of “maybe I might see something over there??”, paired with my dive buddy who wanted to do circles around the bottom of the boat. Anyways, with a max depth of about 28ft, we quickly were in our second site at Key Largo Dry Rocks North North. Just about the same dive except no religious icons present. Hey! I saw a barracuda. Wait…they’re all over.

So, I can’t say I had a ‘pleasant’ experience, but we all know that dive sites with a new-to-us dive Op are hit and miss. This was a miss, and next time I’ll opt for the Spiegel and maybe a dive Op closer to the center of ‘town’, and hopefully a boat that doesn’t pour black diesel smoke like the AmTracks I rode in back in the Corps.

The bright side, and the good stuff, I’m liking The Pelican and its very ‘mom and pop-ish’ feel, and its private waterfront area. Its quiet, very shaded with palm trees, has a hose outside which was nice for washing down my gear, and its got a grill outside. Close to some great restaurants too. The BEST thing today though, and quite at odds with our diving pastime; I took my girlfriend out with Sun Divers for a snorkel trip. I wish I could remember the reef they took us to. At first, thought it was gonna be a painful cattle herding considering there was a 30-girl high school science class with us, but it turned out pain free and a lot of fun. I saw more critters and bountiful reef than I did on two dives. There were lobster everywhere, a few crabs, live conchs all over the place, a cone jelly, stingray, turtle, hogfish, parrotfish, and a lot others. And the both of us cost less than one dive trip for me. Plus the boat didn’t spew black smoke. Awesome, I’m eating dinner a happy camper tonight and look forward to my next trip and a new Op, with another trip with Sun Divers of course.

Very nice report, shaky6. You're right about the statue; it can be an acceptable dive but after 30 seconds of filling that square you need to explore a little. Too bad you got paired with a boat hugger. And falling (or rising) tides aren't very spectacular in southern FL regardless. No Bay of Fundy that.
You don't really need to do a "deep" wreck to have a good dive in K.L. The Benwood (30-40') is crawling with wildlife, but it is, after all, a wreck. The traditional reef favorite is Molasses; at least it has the most mooring buoys and can be pretty nice. French (IMO) is usually more interesting. For in-your-face balls of fish, Snapper Ledge (~20-25') is the one. HMS Minnow (fast outboard, minimum fumes, 6-pack) frequents it, and for a reason. Ocean Divers (40'+ boats) also has it on their published schedule. Both ops are at MM100 (the "center" of the diving town - about 1 click up the street from the Pelican), seven+ miles south of the Silent World boat, and a much shorter boat ride to Molasses and Snapper. And maybe French also. There are at least eight ops at the MM100 canal, all within a 100-200 yard radius.
One good thing about larger, cattle boats is that if you don't like your insta-buddy you often can reject him and find someone more to your liking.

I'm glad you found the Pelican, it's an old keys style motel. I love it. We need to patronize these mom and pop operations so they don't become condo construction sites

Shaky6,
It's a familar tune with nearly everyone learning an area the hard way the first go-round. In hindsight, perhaps you should have consulted the board before embarking upon your trip. No one knows S Florida and Key's dive sites like Deepstops who was born and raised here. I will see if I can fetch him for more suggestions. I have overheard that one of his favorite Key Largo dive sites is Molasses Deep Reef, 80' in depth.

I have been onboard with Mike who is an outstanding young fellow and is somewhat active on this board.

By the way, what was up with the boat circler? Ha!

Yep sorry about the Christ of the Abyss. Should have warned you that it's pretty bleak.

Silent World is a great operator so too bad you didn't get to do the Speigel Grove with them or the Benwood or City of Washington or something for pete sake other than Christ of the Abyss.

Give the guys like Chris and AJ and Mike and Joe at Silent World another shot on a different site or another good operator I like is Island Ventures with Ann and Darryl.

Ummmm "downtown" Key Largo? lol... that's funny!

Regardless of who you go out with, ask where they are headed and if it's a "definite" or just Captain's choice. Tell them the kind of diving you'd like to do and see what they have to say. Sometimes when you're one of the last to sign up, you end up going where they go... other times it's set by the newbie or greenest diver on the boat...

Lots to enjoy in Key Largo dive wise though.

Food wise, Buzzards Roost near Silent World dock is pretty decent. Then again it's like the diving too... it's either great or so-so

Shaky,

For "macro" reef diving, I think the deeper drop-off sections like Molasses Deep, French Deep, Carysfort Deep are your best chance for large animal encounters. Eagle rays, stingrays, turtles, sharks, you name it, they all patrol the drop-off.

As already stated, the Benwood is typically teeming with fish life but there's a lesser known drop-off option you can add to the Benwood dive
From the bow of the wreck, swim on a heading of 130-135 degrees about 150-200' and you'll hit a drop-off where it drops down to 90'. Start the dive on the drop-off for 20 minutes and you can come back up and spend another hour exploring the Benwood.

My favorite wreck dive in the Upper Keys is the Duane. That wreck has the most growth and you'll more often than not see a bull shark or two circling in the distance.

Where ever you end up diving, take it slow and stop to look at the little things too, they are often the highlight of the dive.

Silent World does all the good dives too, they just didn't go there today

shaky6:

At first, thought it was gonna be a painful cattle herding considering there was a 30-girl high school science class with us

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That doesn't sound at all painful to me.

The next time you find yourself on a dive boat with 30 bikini clad high school girls ready to go diving, if you think you're gonna be in pain then give me a call and I'll take it from there.

idocsteve:

That doesn't sound at all painful to me.

The next time you find yourself on a dive boat with 30 bikini clad high school girls ready to go diving, if you think you're gonna be in pain then give me a call and I'll take it from there.

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Well I'm pretty sure they were all freshmen and most of them were still in braces. I wasn't exactly...excited, and the thought of 10-20 with Bubba nailed that coffin.

Thanks everybody for the feedback. It was a nice trip, all in all, I'll probably go back before too long, my ten year old son will be getting his Junior OW this summer.