10 replies to this topic

[Blublood]

Hi Folks,

Just arrived back from four days of diving in Key Largo on a trip set up by our own Wreck Wench. Most of the people who were looking at going ended up not doing so but hard core as we are Dandy Don and myself made the trip and I can tell you right up front it was a great time indeed with plenty of great diving and other excitement. Where to start.

I arrived at the airport in Miami and called Don on his cell phone. I grabbed my gear (tons of it) and headed for the pickup location. Don had arrived a little earlier and went to get our car. Well, when don showed up I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Don had rented a Sebring convertible. Now I can say a convertible is a lot of fun but these cars a very small and Don had even more gear than me! Somehow we got everything in (although we couldn’t see anything!) and took off in the rain and wind (weather was pretty bad) and headed for the Florida Keys.

The next morning the weather looked as though it was not going to cooperate and not many dive operators were heading out in the 6-8 foot seas. We were supposed to be diving the Spiegel Grove that morning with Aqua-Nuts but they cancelled that trip and instead said they would go to Molasses Reef. Well, we decided to get wet and go along. At the reef the vis was down to about 10 feet with a very heavy surge. We jumped in and proceeded to explore to the south instead of the north. Not a good way to start the day. We ended up down current from the boat and had a heck of a swim back. Surge was very heavy. Not a very pleasant dive overall. We then got back on the boat and proceeded to get a bit seasick...I haven’t been sea sick in a long, long time. No chumming but neither Don or I were up for the second dive.

The good part of the dive was that I saw a pod of dolphins who swam right by us. The folks there said that happens very rarely and I was very lucky. I was so stoked about the dolphins that I went to Dolphins plus that afternoon and took a class on dolphins and then went swimming with them in their tanks there! Just awesome!

Day Two saw us head out to the wreck USS Duane LSD with Tavernier Dive Center. Weather was still pretty bad and swell was up around 8 feet. Pretty rough. This was my first wreck dive and my first dive in these types of conditions. They had a tag line attached to the buoy line. We had to stride off the fantail and grab the tag and get out to the buoy line. Well, I proceeded to get both the buoy and tag lines wrapped around my first stage and tank! Every time the waves came …BOOM…. the buoy hit me in the back of the head! It is pretty funny now but a bit of a predicament at the time. The next diver off got me untangled after a while and we proceeded with the dive. It was a great dive and a great wreck but being as I am not the best on air consumption and I had used almost 1000 pounds stuck on the line we were not down long (about 110-120’) when I was getting to the point where I needed to think about when to start my ascent. I pointed this out to Don who proceeded to hand off his octo and we swam around together for another 10-12 minutes I went back to my own air for another 10 minutes or so and we made our ascent. Now that’s a buddy! Overall a great dive and a very good learning experience for me.

The second dive of the day was the Duane again. Great dive and pretty seamless but somehow I lost a weight pouch. Haven’t figured out how but I actually lost another one on the last dive of the trip. A definite problem with my BC’s weight system. Visibility was 40-50 feet.


After diving day two we lowered the top and headed south to Marathon Key where they were having the annual Marathon seafood festival. Food was great! I had Conch fritters for the first time….were talking good stuff here. Don feasted on Lobster and the $1 beers and band made the trip a great success!

On Day three we awoke to a beautiful morning of sunshine and very light winds. We threw our gear in the convertible and motored down to Tavernier’s and proceeded to get out tanks and get boarded. That’s when I noticed I had left one piece of gear behind….My regulator hanging on the shower!!!!!! About twenty miles down and back I made it back in about 45 minutes while my buddy Don stalled the Skipper….Like a said….What a guy! We headed out on seas with very light chop and overall beautiful conditions. We proceeded to have great dives on The Eagle and The Bibb. The Eagle is a freighter that was split in half by a hurricane so it looks pretty eerie when you approach it as it is opened like a can of beans and split in half right down the middle. The Bibb is another LSD and actually the sister ship of the Duane. I understand The Bibb is not often dove as it lies on its side in about 130 ft of water. I enjoyed it immensely. We had such a good time we decided to go out on the afternoon run and dove the Duane twice more. The Duane was my favorite of all the wrecks as it sits straight up so the deck is only at about 95 feet. Beautiful, simply beautiful.

Day four and our last day of diving we found an operator who would take us out to dive the Spiegel Grove. The Grove is the newest of the artificial reef wrecks in the Florida Keys and as I understand it had some problems when being sunk and didn’t end up sitting up right but on her side as well. Our dive operator was Scuba-Do. A very nice smaller boat with a great couple that ran the dive. Sun was shinning and the water was almost flat. Doesn’t get any better than this. We had two absolutely wonderful dives on the Grove without any thing really spectacular to report except for that HUGE Grouper we saw! That thing must have been 20 feet long! Well, at least eight. But it had a mouth big enough to fit my head, and maybe shoulders, in!

After our last dive we headed for the Carrib Club for a cold one and to start waiting out our no-fly time before we headed home. We did go scouting out the town for the first time during our trip that evening. But I assure you nothing we found in Key Largo on a Monday night could even compare to the four days of diving we had just finished up.

I would recommend the wrecks and reefs of Key Largo to anyone who is looking for a really nice stateside tropical type dive. Water temperatures were in the mid 70’s the whole time and the air in the upper 70’s. Very nice. We stayed at Kelly’s on the Bay. Very nice homey type place with very nice people running the operation. I also really liked Tavernier’s and skipper Scottie and Scuba-Do and Skipper Tony and First Mate Lori.

Also, don’t bring any bananas on board as it is a local custom and regarded as a bad omen. It seems that the old Banana Boats used to sink on the reefs like mad when other ships would make it threw….So leave the bananas in your room.


Happy Diving,

Gar

[WisconsinGal]

Great Report!

Thanks for sharing

I haven't had the opportunity to dive the Speigel yet, but definitely on my list.

I enjoyed Molasses Reef when I was there. Hope to get back to Fla for more diving this year.

[Walter]

Great report Gar! Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you guys had as good time. Those are great wrecks! The Eagle is my personal favorite.

Walter

[coppermaus]

Hey Gar,

Great report. Thanks for sharing!

that HUGE Grouper we saw! That thing must have been 20 feet long! Well, at least eight. But it had a mouth big enough to fit my head, and maybe shoulders, in!

I know that grouper - he must weigh like 2000 lbs! OK, maybe not, but he's hyooge, I'll attest.

[Dejah]

Hey Gar,

Thanks for the great report, sounds like you guys had a good time minus the swells and bad weather.. I'll definately have to try and make the next FL trip, but right now I'm working on going to Bonaire.

Deb

[zendiver]

Great trip report Gar...thanks for sharing and I am glad that you and Don had a great time.

Looking forward to diving with you both soon.

-ZD

[DandyDon]

DON: You've already got that loaded?! Wow - you're prompt. I come back from a trip, don't get started on a report for a couple of days, then post a long one. You did good...

Hi Folks,

Just arrived back from four days of diving in Key Largo on a trip set up by our own Wreck Wench. Most of the people who were looking at going ended up not doing so but hard core as we are Dandy Don and myself made the trip and I can tell you right up front it was a great time indeed with plenty of great diving and other excitement. Where to start. 

DON: We were going to arrive at about the same time, different airlines - but same part of the airport, so I thought we'd meet there, until I got his Voice Mail about being delayed in Houston. Playing phone tag, I left him one saying: "No problem, I'll get the car and pick you up when you get there." I even drove thru MIA airport once for practice, then left for city streets, reentering the bustling airport when I got his arrival call. Trying to be a good Dive Bud from the start...

 
I arrived at the airport in Miami and called Don on his cell phone. I grabbed my gear (tons of it) and headed for the pickup location. Don had arrived a little earlier and went to get our car. Well, when don showed up I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Don had rented a Sebring convertible. Now I can say a convertible is a lot of fun but these cars a very small and Don had even more gear than me! Somehow we got everything in (although we couldn’t see anything!) and took off in the rain and wind (weather was pretty bad) and headed for the Florida Keys.

DON: Convertibles are just not what they used to be, and this things was tiny, but - after giving the cute gal clerk my best DandyDon ballpoint & matching calculator, delivered with DD charm - I got it for the same price as a mid-size. Told Gar that if we couldn't close the roof, then we'd go back and get regular full-size, but he threw his big bag in the back seat next to mine. I then picked it up, pulled my crushed hat out, straightened it back up, and the roof closed. If we could get to the Key and unload, this would be fun. As the days went, though, I reminded him: "I got the car, emptied the ashtray everyday, drove & navigated both - when are you going to get the girls??"

I knew that Gar would be arriving as a Multi-Card Newbie with little ocean experience, but he had a good attitude, and we did well, all in all.

The next morning the weather looked as though it was not going to cooperate and not many dive operators were heading out in the 6-8 foot seas. We were supposed to be diving the Spiegel Grove that morning with Aqua-Nuts but they cancelled that trip and instead said they would go to Molasses Reef. Well, we decided to get wet and go along. At the reef the vis was down to about 10 feet with a very heavy surge. We jumped in and proceeded to explore to the south instead of the north. Not a good way to start the day. We ended up down current from the boat and had a heck of a swim back. Surge was very heavy. Not a very pleasant dive overall. We then got back on the boat and proceeded to get a bit seasick...I haven’t been sea sick in a long, long time. No chumming but neither Don or I were up for the second dive.

DON: I expected Gar to have problems and incur "learning experiences," but I goofed on the first dive, too. Didn't respect the surge and poor viz enough to shoot a compass heading, and we did indeed end up off to the east on our spot check. We then shot headings back, but mine allowed for surge, while his was aimed at the tag line? We got seperated, but while I did a search for his body, he just kept going, then had to swim into the surge to the boat. My search finally loacted him there, but at least I didn't have to swim against the ocean - which is much stronger. A good "dues paid" dive to prepare, but neither of us were interested in the second paid-for dive. I can no longer say that I don't get sea sick. That behind us, though, the following days many would gripe about were candy to us.

Day Two saw us head out to the wreck USS Duane LSD with Tavernier Dive Center. Weather was still pretty bad and swell was up around 8 feet. Pretty rough. This was my first wreck dive and my first dive in these types of conditions. They had a tag line attached to the buoy line. We had to stride off the fantail and grab the tag and get out to the buoy line. Well, I proceeded to get both the buoy and tag lines wrapped around my first stage and tank! Every time the waves came …BOOM…. the buoy hit me in the back of the head! It is pretty funny now but a bit of a predicament at the time. The next diver off got me untangled after a while and we proceeded with the dive. It was a great dive and a great wreck but being as I am not the best on air consumption and I had used almost 1000 pounds stuck on the line we were not down long (about 110-120’) when I was getting to the point where I needed to think about when to start my ascent. I pointed this out to Don who proceeded to hand off his octo and we swam around together for another 10-12 minutes I went back to my own air for another 10 minutes or so and we made our ascent. Now that’s a buddy! Overall a great dive and a very good learning experience for me.

The second dive of the day was the Duane again. Great dive and pretty seamless but somehow I lost a weight pouch. Haven’t figured out how but I actually lost another one on the last dive of the trip. A definite problem with my BC’s weight system. Visibility was 40-50 feet.

DON: I told Gar to look for various fishes, like Goliath Groupers (aka Jewfish) as big as boar hogs, and he asked me what a boar hog was? City boy. Found several, including the really big one, along with rays, and eels, and such - oh my! One six foot Southern Stingray flew up 30 feet from the sand to the deck I was cruising and landed right in front of me, wondering where the food was? HUGE Morrays. Giant Cudas with fishing lines hanging from their jaws. Etc!

I board a boat with all sorts of gear, thinking I'd like to leave half of it in the room, but I was glad that I had a spare weight belt for Gar, first aid for another diver, spare straps & lights. Gonna' have to get a wheel barow to board.

After diving day two we lowered the top and headed south to Marathon Key where they were having the annual Marathon seafood festival. Food was great! I had Conch fritters for the first time….were talking good stuff here. Don feasted on Lobster and the $1 beers and band made the trip a great success!

On Day three we awoke to a beautiful morning of sunshine and very light winds. We threw our gear in the convertible and motored down to Tavernier’s and proceeded to get out tanks and get boarded. That’s when I noticed I had left one piece of gear behind….My regulator hanging on the shower!!!!!! About twenty miles down and back I made it back in about 45 minutes while my buddy Don stalled the Skipper….Like a said….What a guy! We headed out on seas with very light chop and overall beautiful conditions. We proceeded to have great dives on The Eagle and The Bibb. The Eagle is a freighter that was split in half by a hurricane so it looks pretty eerie when you approach it as it is opened like a can of beans and split in half right down the middle. The Bibb is another LSD and actually the sister ship of the Duane. I understand The Bibb is not often dove as it lies on its side in about 130 ft of water. I enjoyed it immensely. We had such a good time we decided to go out on the afternoon run and dove the Duane twice more. The Duane was my favorite of all the wrecks as it sits straight up so the deck is only at about 95 feet. Beautiful, simply beautiful.

DON: I thought about letting Gar rent a reg, or maybe just suck air straight from the bottle very carefully but rejected those ideas quickly. Bluffing all the way, I said "GO!" and stalled. Took him 45 minutes, but I just kept talking to everyone in hopes of preventing a revolt! Like he said, the diving was super, but we did back to back 32% EANx tanks, so Gar didn't reset for the shallow reef, and his computer locked up 48 hours! Now what? Pull the battery to reset? Do without. He chose to work tables, and stay above me for the next two dives. Gotta' know the puter well, and turn the default off!! Lot's of fishhooks on the Bibb's down line, but a cool wreck. Has a bad rep for all the accidents and fatalities it's had, but we kept it safe and challenging at the same time.

I had all of the Key Largo operators in my cell phones book and called everyone looking for anyone to go to the Grove - although I did want to avoid a few - and I had long wanted to try Scuba-Do, after meeting pretty Laurie a couple of years back, so I was happy when they were open and agreeable. We were set for a big finish...!!

Day four and our last day of diving we found an operator who would take us out to dive the Spiegel Grove. The Grove is the newest of the artificial reef wrecks in the Florida Keys and as I understand it had some problems when being sunk and didn’t end up sitting up right but on her side as well. Our dive operator was Scuba-Do. A very nice smaller boat with a great couple that ran the dive. Sun was shinning and the water was almost flat. Doesn’t get any better than this. We had two absolutely wonderful dives on the Grove without any thing really spectacular to report except for that HUGE Grouper we saw! That thing must have been 20 feet long! Well, at least eight. But it had a mouth big enough to fit my head, and maybe shoulders, in!

DON: There were only 3 of us, counting the North Carolina fellow who'd driven in when the wind died some, but Tony & Laurie were super with us. Cheaper rates, very cheap Nitrox, cheap rental on an Oceanice puter for Gar which I reset to No Default, and one of the nicest boat I've ever boarded. We had a fun morning, and good dives. Lots of fishes and other animals. Made one turn and came into a complete wall of bait fish, and around another corner - two cute little S.Majors taking turns protecting an egg nest. Put my hand on metal a foot away, and one of them came over to bite me a few times.

After we'd completed the first dive, Tony and Laurie seemed more comfortable having us aboard. They didn't know us, and I guess they didn't want us to embarrass them by drowning or something. They were really nice about us staying on the same mooring ball and dropping in for back to back Nitrox dives on the same wreck, but when Gar & ascended, the NC diver didn't follow. Onboard, I explained: "When a diver wears 'Tech' patches on his wet suit, don't suggest anything." He was a nice enough fellow though. Did see 3 idiots trying to dive without the benefit of a mooring line, no one left on board, but they weren't asking for help when we left, and there were closer boats, so we headed in.

After our last dive we headed for the Carrib Club for a cold one and to start waiting out our no-fly time before we headed home. We did go scouting out the town for the first time during our trip that evening. But I assure you nothing we found in Key Largo on a Monday night could even compare to the four days of diving we had just finished up.

I would recommend the wrecks and reefs of Key Largo to anyone who is looking for a really nice stateside tropical type dive. Water temperatures were in the mid 70’s the whole time and the air in the upper 70’s. Very nice. We stayed at Kelly’s on the Bay. Very nice homey type place with very nice people running the operation. I also really liked Tavernier’s and skipper Scottie and Scuba-Do and Skipper Tony and First Mate Lori.

DON: Yeah, they had in-room phones and maid service, but I used my own and only let the maid in every thrid day. Saved moving gear out of the way. Convenient to Hobos Cafe and super burgers. Gar bought macaroni & cheese and some other TV dinners the first day, but we kept trying different restaurants, so he never got to his frdige food. Additional maid tips.

Also, don’t bring any bananas on board as it is a local custom and regarded as a bad omen. It seems that the old Banana Boats used to sink on the reefs like mad when other ships would make it threw….So leave the bananas in your room.

DON: Too bad no one else joined us for the weekend, but we'll give you another chance sometime...

don

[Bubble2Bubble]

Great Trip Report
I felt like I was there you guys
Gar your like Fox News
Don good spin on the Story

Hats off to both of You

[nikk]

Great trip report Gar, Thanks for sharing! Don, loved your asides!

[WreckWench]

Hey guys....I'm glad you had a great trip! -ww

[DandyDon]

Hay, Gar - You gonna' post the pictures? It would have been nice if I hand't punched the wrong button on my new camera and erased all of mine.

And tell them about all the pasta...