:dazzler1: And lived to tell the tale. The main purpose of our trip was to take the Boy Scouts sailing. I was able to have one day's diving thrown in. Our crew of 19 was augmented by an additonal member who met us there.
We picked up two sailboats in Miami on Saturday afternoon and headed to Key West at first light Sunday morning. Winds were 10 to 15 knots (apparently half of what they had been for the previous month). 30 hours later we were moored at Sand Key, off Key West, snorkling. We tied up at Key West's marina that afternoon and spent a few hours around town, watching the sun go down and doing the tourist thing.
The next day we sailed to Bahia Honda State Park. The winds had been falling off since the start of our trip and were mostly calm for our second day. We used the motor a lot. More snorkling at Pellican Shoals along the way.
Wednesday morning our shuttle picked up 10 of our crew and headed to Captain Hook's dive center. Myself and the other certified diver dove two tanks that morning and the rest started the PADI Discover Scuba course. After a hurried lunch, we went out with the class and did two more dives.
The dives were shallow (24' max) and it was my partner's first dives after receiveing his C-card. For his first dives in saltwater it worked out great for him...and me, too. Fishlife was abundant. Eventhough yellow grunts aren't very exciting, it is still cool to be in the middle of several hundred of them. Saw a spotted moray, decent sized black groupers at a cleaning station, one really nice sized queen angel and a nurse shark, amongst others. Viz was 30 to maybe 50 feet.
All in all a good day's diving under very stress free conditions. My buddy and I were joined by a Divemaster and one other diver in the morning and were the only certified diver in the PM. Our shipmates in the Discover Scuba class filled the rest of the boat, so once we got away from them, we had a really relaxing, uncrowded experience.
The winds were CALM and we had little current to deal with.
The next day the winds picked up to 15 knots gusting to 25 and stayed that way for the rest of our trip back to Miami.
The weather was great! No rain, clear to partly cloudy skys, highs of 80 and lows around 70 all week. It was calm when we wanted to dive, and windy when we wanted to sail!
Captain Hooks' dive center personel were great. The class was well supervised, with 3 divemasters/instructors in the water. They arranged transportation to and from the dive center, and were helpful in every way. Their boat is bigger than some and could get crowded, but it did not work out that way for us.
Oh yes, I ate Key Lime pie at least once every day!
KYDan
We picked up two sailboats in Miami on Saturday afternoon and headed to Key West at first light Sunday morning. Winds were 10 to 15 knots (apparently half of what they had been for the previous month). 30 hours later we were moored at Sand Key, off Key West, snorkling. We tied up at Key West's marina that afternoon and spent a few hours around town, watching the sun go down and doing the tourist thing.
The next day we sailed to Bahia Honda State Park. The winds had been falling off since the start of our trip and were mostly calm for our second day. We used the motor a lot. More snorkling at Pellican Shoals along the way.
Wednesday morning our shuttle picked up 10 of our crew and headed to Captain Hook's dive center. Myself and the other certified diver dove two tanks that morning and the rest started the PADI Discover Scuba course. After a hurried lunch, we went out with the class and did two more dives.
The dives were shallow (24' max) and it was my partner's first dives after receiveing his C-card. For his first dives in saltwater it worked out great for him...and me, too. Fishlife was abundant. Eventhough yellow grunts aren't very exciting, it is still cool to be in the middle of several hundred of them. Saw a spotted moray, decent sized black groupers at a cleaning station, one really nice sized queen angel and a nurse shark, amongst others. Viz was 30 to maybe 50 feet.
All in all a good day's diving under very stress free conditions. My buddy and I were joined by a Divemaster and one other diver in the morning and were the only certified diver in the PM. Our shipmates in the Discover Scuba class filled the rest of the boat, so once we got away from them, we had a really relaxing, uncrowded experience.
The winds were CALM and we had little current to deal with.
The next day the winds picked up to 15 knots gusting to 25 and stayed that way for the rest of our trip back to Miami.
The weather was great! No rain, clear to partly cloudy skys, highs of 80 and lows around 70 all week. It was calm when we wanted to dive, and windy when we wanted to sail!
Captain Hooks' dive center personel were great. The class was well supervised, with 3 divemasters/instructors in the water. They arranged transportation to and from the dive center, and were helpful in every way. Their boat is bigger than some and could get crowded, but it did not work out that way for us.
Oh yes, I ate Key Lime pie at least once every day!
KYDan
Also their version of the honey bun (light fried yeast bread lumps the size of a small biscuit you dip in honey) were straight from heaven. Our tour leader said he ate there once 20 years ago and then searched for it for the next ten years before finding it agin. It was worth the effort.
