Back from the Keys

[juls64]

Had a great time. Stayed at Ocean Pointe Suites and dove with Conch Republic Divers in Tavernier. I highly recommend both. Did 10 dives over 5 days. Tried to do a couple of night dives as well, but weather didn't cooperate. Did mostly shallow reef dives, but got 2 dives on the Spiegle Grove and 1 on the Eagle. Excellent conditions, little current, good vis.

Spent the last couple of days as a surface interval in Key West.

Drove from Key West to Miami this morning, then flew to Chicago. I am tired!
I may post more specifics later on.

Julie

[steve2281]

Sounds like a good trip and a good time. Glad it went well.

[nauifins73]

Sound like you and your family had a great time. Get some rest and fill us in.

[juls64]

Here's a report-

We travelled as part of a group from our LDS. A trip put together by Sea Lions Underwater Travel (S.L.U.T Travel). (I am not making this up!)

We flew from Chicago to Miami. 9:15 am flight was cancelled so we had to wait til 12:50pm to leave. It was a bummer. Had to wait for luggage at Miami for over 40 minutes. Rented a mini-van for our family of 4 and finally got to Ocean Pointe Suites in Tavernier. A nice 2 bedroom condo with kitchen and sitting/living area. Little balconies off Master Suite and living area. Good bang for the buck. Clean, newish, quiet. A bare-bones Continental breakfast was included.

Day 1 we checked in at Conch Republic Divers, a short hop down US1 from the condo. Brenda and Gary run a top-notch operation and I highly recommend them to anyone. They have 2 boats and a full service dive shop. They have racks where we could leave gear to dry and they are rolled in and locked up at night. Our group filled 2 boats. Room for 24 on big boat and 12 on small boat. Due to side trips, sickness, etc. I don't think the boats were ever full. The big boat was to do wrecks, the small boat reefs. We had some people there to do open water check-outs as well. Day one, both boats did 2 shallow reefs to get orientated, weighted, etc. The reefs are nice. Compared to Cozumel, the water is a little more turbid, the fish aren't quite as big (except puffer fish, some are huge!) The water is a little rougher. At times a lot rougher. The reefs are still great and the fish and sea life just as abundent as Coz. We saw fish, turtles, a shark, small rays. It was great.

Day 2 - My daughter went sight-seeing and son and hubby went on the big boat to do wrecks. (They did the Duane, The Eagle twice, the Spiegle Grove. I don't remember which days they did what.) I went on the small boat and worked. Divemastered for some of the OW students that had some problems on day 1. Didn't see much, but had a new certified diver by the end of the day.

Day 3 - My daughter and I did Pickles Reef and another I can't remember the name. Both were awesome. Saw a big nurse shark swimming around, barracuda, tons of rays. It was a great day and my daughter was really beginning to enjoy it and get comfortable.

Day 4 - Daughter went sightseeing and I joined hubby and son on wreck boat. We went to the Spiegel Grove. They had really taken a beating on the Duane and Eagle on previous days with strong currents, but today was perfect. We tied off on the bow and current was almost nil. It was about 55 to 60 feet to the top of the wreck and about 130ish to the sand. Vis was great and the 510 foot wreck was amazing. When we came up, someone asked if we could do the 2nd dive here as well. They moved the boat to the stern and we had another great dive. I was amazed at the amount of growth and how pretty and colorful it was. Angel fish, sea fans, all kinds of great things at over 100 feet. In the afternoon duaghter and I went with a friend to Theater by the Sea. We did the swim with stingrays program. It was interesting and a better value for the buck than I expected. It could also be called the swim with parrot fish since they were massively abundant.

Day 5 - Whole family went on the big boat. Dove the Eagle. It is 90 to the top of the wreck, so its a ways down there. Again we had the great fortune of ideal conditions. The Eagle is in 2 pieces and was very interesting. While I enjoyed it, I spent a lot of the diving keeping an eye on my daughter. She is a good diver, but this was her deepest dive yet and I'm a bit of a worrier. She did fine and really loved it.
The second dive we did a deeper reef and just enjoyed ourselves as this was the last dive of the trip. Had a little excitement as there was a small fire onboard when the starter stuck or something like that and something overheated. It was handled easily and fixed where no tow was required or anything. The crew handled things so we had no worries.

We checked out Friday morning and drove to Key West. It was a nice drive. Checked 5 places before finding one with vacancies. Nothing like the condo we had, but it worked for the night. Saw all of Duval Street many times over. A lot of the store owners/employees start partying themselves in the evening. In a couple of stores, the people were mean drunks, yelling at customers and being quite belligerent. It was entertaining. Saw the he/shes. Ate at Kelly's which was wonderful. It was an interesting place.
Checked out Sat. am and headed home.

Besides the fact that it rained most every day (except in Key West were it was just plain hot), we got in all our planned dives. Tried to do night dives twice, but those were a no-go. It was a great trip.