Florida Keys

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Inspector#2

Contributor
Messages
313
Reaction score
2
Location
Living in Boise, Idaho.
# of dives
500 - 999
My wife and I just returned from the Keys. A quick list of good and bad.

Kelly's Dive Center in Key largo was fantastic. Good rooms and great dive boats and operators.

Tropica Vista in Islamorada was lacking in the rooms but more than made up for it with their dive operation. Capt. Jim is very knowledgeable and a great tour guide.

Parmer's resort has some great ammenaties but the rooms have very thin walls. Wasn't able to dive with them due to weather.

Abyss dive center in Tavernier had a room/dive package with the Holiday Inn. Rooms were outstanding and the diving was fantastic.

On two occasions my wife and I were the only people on the 42' dive boats. This happened with the Tropica Vista and also with Abyss. They excelled in personal service!

Stay away from the SeaFarer in Largo. The rooms weren't very good and the Capt. would not go out. Weather was great and we went out on another boat that day so I think he was waiting for a full boat.

Food fare: Whale Harbor all you can eat seafood outstanding.
Perry's was OK. Little Italy has fantasic steaks and pasta, and if you like Greek food the Gyro King in Largo is by far the best.

Weather was mediocre but the crowds were light. Kind of a give and take with late January.

Dave
 
Dave,
Interesting report on the hotels and dive operators. I'd also like to hear about the dive sites you dove, and what you saw. How was the visability and water temp? How many dives did you log, in how many days?
Dive the Planet,
Natasha
:sunny:
 
Not often someone reports on the hotels in Florida. Looking foward to more.

 
OK I found the logbook. Now keep in mind these were our first ocean dives (50+ inland no vis dives). First dive was on the Benwood. It's an old cargo ship that went down in WWII in about 45 feet. Lots of life, large school of 'cuda, 1 reef shark, butterflys, blue parrotfish etc. Temp 71, vis. 50+ feet. Lots of fun easy dive. Only one dive that day-wife got cold, she needed 7-9mm to stay comfortable.
Next day we dove Betty's reef out of Islamorada at 44' max depth. The reef looked haggared on the flats but down in some coral channels it improved greatly and we saw a leatherback turtle, lots of small rays (never did see an eagle ray the whole trip), trunkfish, stoplight parrotfish, and lots of angelfish. Temp 71 vis. 45. Second dive was at a shallow 25' on Horseshoe reef. A lot of nurse sharks, sting rays, and the normal group of smaller reef inhabitants. 68 degrees and 45' vis.
Third day again Islamorada started at David reef 25', 68 degrees, 45' vis. Long reef overhangs into a sand bottom. It has a couple of statues of Budda, one is supporting a large brain coral which is home to a rather large and protected rock lobster. Again lots of nurse sharks, 'cudas that swim in schools of 10-15 with you while you dive. Largest about 5 1/2 feet. Also a large green moray eel with a bad disposition. He seemed very territorial and agitated by our presence ie. quick movements in and out of it's hole. Second dive was on Hen and Chickens reef which was a rather shallow 20', 66 degrees and only 35' vis. Another long 15' reef wall hanging onto a sand bottom. Other than the Buddahs and the eel it was exactly like Davis reef. Tropica Vista hotel and Upper Keys Dive Center owned the boat and Capt. Jim was the tour guide. This was probably the best boat outfit and the funnest dives we had while in Florida.
On to the next day at Marathon and Abyss Dive Center which is another great outfit. First dive Sombrero reef (25') which is a dovetail reef formation with a lot of 10' wide channels in the coral over a sand bottom. Tons of conch by the way on most of the sand bottoms with at few flounder. Again lots of nurse sharks, cudas, puffer fish, rays, and moon jellys. 69 degrees, 45' vis. Second dive was on the same reef about 300 meters South. We had a very seasick snorkler (Hi Marylou!) so it was a quick 30 minute dive.
Afer this the weather went bad and the seas rose to 6-8' swells, 10' vis. so I won't even mention the last two dives with Kelly's and Aquanuts. I had fun with the huge surge jetting me down these narrow channels but my better half didn't enjoy it much. 9 dives in 6 days. Couldn't find anybody who wanted to do a wreck which was a little disappointing, oh well.

Dave


 
Good report Dave. I really enjoyed and sounds like you did too.
Thanks!
:sunny:
 
Thanks for the report.

I signed on with Tropic Vista for 3/27 - 30/2001. I had a buddy just back from there and they had the same experience. Sounds like motel is a place to hang towels but boat and capt are very good.

Regards,
 
stay away from sea farer
i found there ad on the internet, it looked like a very nice place, with there own dive boat, that only takes out there guests. i was told that there boat always went out no mater how many people were on it. when we got there the whole story changed, when they were already paid for the week.
1. there wasent a capten
2. there isnt any sign of any dive equpment, or a comppressor
3. there wasent a capten fo the fishing boat
4. the boats that were for the guists to use were broken and sunk in the sand
5. the rooms wouldnt lock
6. when we tryed to check out early they wouldnt refound anything.
7. the owner, and his daughter were some of the most dishonst people i have ever meet
this is a padi dive resort so dont be fooled like i was
 
I started our trip diving in Key Largo. The weather was OK but we had high winds and rough seas. We dove with a old friends place...Ocean Divers at Marina Del Mar. The Hotel was great...Large rooms with everything you need and 2 great resturants and bars. The staff at Ocean Divers was very helpful and know the reefs well. The first day we took out the older boat but it is equiped for about 25 divers and we only had 15 divers so it was nice. We went out to the Christ reef and it was great, although several people were feeding the fish off the side of the boat. Fish life was abundant and the vis was around 40 feet with a 70 deg water temp and about 78 deg on the boat. They had fresh water rense tanks for our cameras and showeres on the rear. No snacks except oranges and water. We made only 2 tanks that day because the 4-6 foot seas. The next day we started later because we stayed at the bar too long...great drinks and food. We took the second boat called the SANTANA a 46 foot Newton dive special. The staff decided to run us to 3 reef. 1) Molasses Reef, 2) Hole in wall 3) Waggon Wheel We had great bottom time because the Max depth was 34 feet. The surge was pretty bad but once we got going an had all this great stuff to film we forgot about it. Two huge green eels came out to play an allowed us to interack totally. We saw 2 nurse sharks and lots of stone fish. the parrot fish were really huge and we were able to get whithin inches of them and the Angel fish. The Baricudas were a reall trip, lingering around behind all the divers who had too much flashy dangling things hanging off there BC. To us this trip was really great, being able to stay on a dive for 45 min because of shallow water is great pluss being shallow the color was not lost. Great Dives and a good operation and a great hotel call ocean divers at..(305) 451-1113
The next stop was our main goal to dive with the TV show people from EXTREME ENCOUNTERS. We met at a resturant in Big Pine Key called K D's steak & seafood (really great) and Mehgan Heaney, Manny Puig, and Mark are great people. We decided to not go out far because the weather was getting bad so we went out of Looe Key marine sanctuary. This was perfect for us....we shot 3 hours of film watching the team do what they do best....Freedive and talk to the camera. That's another story! The fish life was overwhelming and although the weather was cloudy and rough our film turned out great. We did not make early reservations so we had to settle for a Motel in Big Pine, called Big Pine Motel...I was shocked it was OK and very clean. We spent 2 days on land with the team and went on to Key West....not impressed there unless I was going again just to party and sight see, not diving because 2 operators we meet were real jerks... Our new friends said that is why they use operators in the Big Pine area. We will be returning in 2 months to dive the 210 foot upright ADOLPHUS BUSH Sr freighter, the tower is 40 foot from the surface and 115 feet on the bottom. Well this was a great trip and be sure to watch the EXTREME ENCOUNTERS on Animal Planet to see alot of the Keys up close and personal. I'll be in Maui next month and I will report that operation because I'll be there 10 days. check out the Extreme Teams web site at http://www.freediver.com and if you want good info on the lower keys the Chamber of commerce will help. Call them at 1800-872-3722
 
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