Trip Report, Key Largo

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AZ_Zoner

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Scuba Instructor
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Location
Valley of the Sun, AZ.
# of dives
I posted this on the Florida Conch divers forum but thought I'd cross post it here too.

This was great little trip, and was cheap too.

Destination: Key Largo
Hotel: Ramada Limited
Dive Op: DiversCity

This trip was for four guys (from Arizona) to get together and dive wrecks, have a few beers and take a short break from the work world. Not a full blow vacation type trip but just a quick 4 days of diving.

Key Largo was a place we’d have never been to and since it had cheap, $234 on America West and direct flights from Phoenix to Miami, it looked good to us.

The Ramada Limited worked out well for us too. Large rooms with two queen beds, refridgerator and a small balcony. Also has a nice pool area, but we never used it. It was 129.00 for Friday and Saturday and 110.00 for Sunday thru Tuesday. There are also many little restaurants in the area. Hobo’s for lunch, great clam chowder and cheeseburgers, and fish sandwiches. The Fish House for great seafood, and the Waffle House for breakfast.

We used DiversCity for the diving. Small shop but nice people, Barbara (DM/First Mate) and Kip (Captain). They will mix anything you want. Be we used 32% most of the dives. And you will need it if you’re diving a couple of days or more. Their dive boat is nicely set up with easy in and out access. They will load all your gear and swap tanks if you want. After dives they have a nice fresh water dip tanks and hose to clean up equipment and hangers and places to hang up BCD’s, Wet suits and Regs. You can leave your equipment there as they will take it in at the end of the day and put it back out the next day. Good dive operation! 5 two-tank trips was $250.00. Nitrox was 6.00 per tank.

The diving:

Water Temp on all dives was around 87 Oceanic degress. We wore shorties and skins.

1st day was kinda so so. Davis Reef and Davis Ledge. Pretty much flat reefs. Davis reef was 75’ ave. depth with 50’ vis. Good fish life but small. A few lobster but I think they new mini season was in a few days. Davis ledge was at the most 30’ vis about the same. The reef was just a ledge that ran about 8 to 10’ high. I guess if you were a novice it would be a good first day of diving. And here is the down side of the DiversCity. They were finishing dive certs this day.

2nd day. Started on the Eagle Wreck. Nice dive. Good easy penetration. We hit about 108’. Vis was still in the 50’ range. Easy hallways to go down with plenty of cabins and rooms to check out. We found a couple of stairwells that took us down a few decks but always seem to be able to see quick access out. Pretty good vis inside the ship. Next dive was a drift dive on the flats. No name on the reef. 3rd dive that day was at Crocker Reef. This one had a very mild current. Lots of fishing boats around and I believe they may have been chumming a bit. With in 10 seconds of entering the water we ran into two 6 to 8 foot Nurse sharks. And we continued to count sharks on the whole dive. At least a dozen. Also came a cross a couple of very large green morays, a spotted moray, and a few lobsters. Nice dive. We also decided to give the fishermen a few thrills too and yanked on a few of their lines. And I picked up a really nice Shamano Sahara fishing reel off the bottom. It’s now on Ebay.

3rd day. Started on the Spiegel Grove. A fair amount of current which required us to pull down the stern mooring line to the ship. We dropped to the screws which took us to about 125 ‘. Bottoms at about 130 or so. Once in side the ships area the current was not too noticeable (on this dive). Found some nice hallways and were able to see many cabins and rooms. I’m not sure but it there seemed to be ropes that you can follow that guide you through some areas. Again. As on the Eagle, there were quite a few easy access openings through out the upper decks.
2nd dive that day was on the Duane. What a rush. Same current that require you to climb down the bow mooring line. Once there, you’re over whelmed with Barracuda, Big Barracuda. Tour the pilothouse and a few cabins back. Checked out the stack and the mast that had several dozen large barracuda hanging around it. You need to be careful on this wreck when entering the opening to the ship. Did I mention that there are large barracuda on the ship? Well, look a bit before just cruising in, unless you like seeing teeth and are good at going into reverse real quick. Very fun dive. The deck seems to be around 108’ Vis was up and pushing 60 to 70’.
Last dive of the day was back to the Duane and a night dive. Current was up even more and required more effort to get down. All the while shining your light at the Barracuda as you made the decent to the bow. Once there, didn’t wee them again. High current on the deck though. Had to hold on to some structure to keep from being blown off. Checked out the pilothouse to get out of the current came a cross a hugh spider crab. Came around the starboard side and found a large sea turtle sleeping under a ladder. Headed further back and ran into another large sea turtle on the deck. The colors that came out on the railing and pretty much all over the ship were incredible. Great dive. I’m glad they had fore and aft mooring lines and usually a line amidships. I can’t imagine doing the dives with out them.

4th day. Back to the Spiegel Grove for a little more exploring but with more current. If you don’t like current, the wrecks aren’t for you. Another great dive with the exception of a cattle boat (Amy Slate’s) tied onto the bow mooring line and decided to send a small herd of divers down the line into the current. This is the line that every other dive boat was using for their divers to come up on. On my way up I saw so many scared to death novice divers trying to pull them selves down the line. The current was pretty tough as it was, let alone passing multiple divers on the mooring line.
Last dive was going to be on the Benwood, but guess who’s cattle boat showed up. So we headed on east to French Reef. Nice easy dive with a very mild current. Nothing spectacular but nice small fish life and two Eagle rays. Maybe 7 to 8’ wingspan.

That’s it. Over all for what we were looking for it was a great trip! And would most likely do it again with the same operations.

Craig
 
Cool report, I was at Key Largo the first part of June. I did not do the Spiegel Grove, I had my 2 children with me and one of my daughters friends. I would have gone down with my daughter and her friend, but my son does not have a lot of dive experience. So we did 8 dives, max to 60 feet. I like Key Largo over Cozumel. I took my daughter and also did Cozumel, Key Largo, Costa Rica, and the Channel Island.
 
Enjoyed the trip report - I was at the Duane a few weeks ago, and the current was unbelievable! I turned around to check on my buddy, and when I turned back I almost bumped head first into one of the Barracudas you were talking about. He seemed to be sitting there daring me to do it!
 

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