Shore diving in & around Key Largo

[SouthSideScubaSteve]

... It's the swimming area and it was FUN! No, it's not nearly as pristine as the reefs, but there were a few surprises. The cannon (10+) were a nice touch and they are in shallow water near the outside edge.

NetDoc - I've never been to Pennekamp, I take it that "the swimng area" is is cleary marked / easy to find ? If we do try to dive it, how far from shore / deep do you have to get to see anything and how large an area is there that's "dive-able"?

 

[The Chairman]

About twenty feet from shore there is a nice drop off. It's sandy/rocky until that point. You can circumnavigate the small area looking at the fish, lobsters and what have you that like ledges. In between the ledges is lots and lots of SILT. It's deeper than my arm is long. There's still life in there like blue crabs and such, but it's not a typical reef dive. It's a great place to work on buoyancy and anti-silting kicks. The roped off area is probably 200 wide by 120 deep. It gets shallow again just before the outer limit and you should bring a flag if you're going to dive beyond. I had fun, but I don't think Mselenous was too happy with it. If you have spent a lot of time and money getting down here, stick to the boats and diving the reefs that are 3+ miles off shore.

That being said, I understand that the Bay Side has some fun muck diving available. No charters go there, but I am going to explore it a bit on my own. You can get there from any bay side property, but it's a lot of bland until you find the small holes and whatnot. I'm glad that I have a boat to go see.