MgicTwnger
December 18th, 2005, 05:04 PM
The wife and I just got back from a week in Tavernier, which is just south of Key Largo. I'm still unpacking, so I'll keep it short.
Accomidations: Island Bay Resort. "Resort" is a little pretentious for this collection of ten stucco cabins on a strip of land extending from the highway to their small beach. The cabin was very nicely decorated, comfy, and had a kitchenette. The couple who own it are super nice, and the guy is a dive instructor. Dive lockers are included in the very reasonable price. In a word: perfect!
Weather: High 70's- low 80's, very little rain, a good deal of wind. Water temp was high 70's, top to bottom.
Dive Op: Conch Republic Divers. Two good size boats, good captains and DM's. They cater to advanced rec and tech divers at rates comperable to or better than the local cattle boats. Some of divers had doubles, drysuits, and/or rebreathers. I was using their AL 100's on the deeper wrecks. I can recommend these guys without reservation. The only downside was lack of divers, which caused them to send me to another op for a couple of days. The other op was just about as good, so no problem there.
The Diving: Fair to excellent. The reefs seemed to be in pretty poor shape with a lot of bleaching and sand cover. Some had a lot of life, others had hardly any. Strong currents and windy conditions for most of the week brought about some "barking at sharks".
The highlight of my week was the first day. As I was getting on the boat who do I see but our buddy Netmage (Tim). He moved to Pompano a couple of months ago and was down to Tavernier for a weekend of diving! Our last dive togeather was on the Enterprise back in July. He has dove the Spiegel a bunch of times and gave me the tour of the interior that couldn't be beat.
We also did the Duane that day. I dove both ships again later in the week, as well as the Eagle and the Bibb, but the current and windy conditions made for rough dives.
Accomidations: Island Bay Resort. "Resort" is a little pretentious for this collection of ten stucco cabins on a strip of land extending from the highway to their small beach. The cabin was very nicely decorated, comfy, and had a kitchenette. The couple who own it are super nice, and the guy is a dive instructor. Dive lockers are included in the very reasonable price. In a word: perfect!
Weather: High 70's- low 80's, very little rain, a good deal of wind. Water temp was high 70's, top to bottom.
Dive Op: Conch Republic Divers. Two good size boats, good captains and DM's. They cater to advanced rec and tech divers at rates comperable to or better than the local cattle boats. Some of divers had doubles, drysuits, and/or rebreathers. I was using their AL 100's on the deeper wrecks. I can recommend these guys without reservation. The only downside was lack of divers, which caused them to send me to another op for a couple of days. The other op was just about as good, so no problem there.
The Diving: Fair to excellent. The reefs seemed to be in pretty poor shape with a lot of bleaching and sand cover. Some had a lot of life, others had hardly any. Strong currents and windy conditions for most of the week brought about some "barking at sharks".
The highlight of my week was the first day. As I was getting on the boat who do I see but our buddy Netmage (Tim). He moved to Pompano a couple of months ago and was down to Tavernier for a weekend of diving! Our last dive togeather was on the Enterprise back in July. He has dove the Spiegel a bunch of times and gave me the tour of the interior that couldn't be beat.
We also did the Duane that day. I dove both ships again later in the week, as well as the Eagle and the Bibb, but the current and windy conditions made for rough dives.