diving around Fort Myers Florida?

[platvis]

hi

anyone who can give me some idea whether it is interesting to dive around this place; we plan to go sailing from FM to the Key West and back (+- 1 week at the end of december) and will stay around FM for a few more days. Is it worth taking our divegear with us?

thanks

Karel

 

[Dr. Jay]

platvis once bubbled...
Is it worth taking our divegear with us?

Yep!

 

[platvis]

I suppose diving is pretty expensive in FL?

 

[Dr. Jay]

I can't comment too much for the Ft. Myers area, but Keys diving is absolutely excellent. You'd be missing more than half the keys if you didn't go underwater.

As far as dive operations go, typically they charge around $45-$50 for a 2-tank dive. But if you guys have your own boat, all the better. You can go diving all day to wherever you want. If you have an onboard GPS, check out Ned Deloach's Diving Guide to Underwater Florida. It's full of GPS coordinates and dive sites in general that are well-worth checking out.

It would be good to have your own gear, cuz gear rental is normally billed by the day, and for a full setup you're looking at close to (if not over) $50 per day.

I'm betting that during the winter months the water temps in the Gulf will be in the lower 60's (F), so plan accordingly. I'm sure someone with more Ft. Myers experience will be along shortly to help you out.

 

[platvis]

we have a boat but no compressor. No problem to get tanks and airfillings on the islands?

 

[gkwaldee]

Ft Myers is my home town, and I can think of no place that would provide "great" diving..........save it for the keys

tiny bubbles

 

[ReefGuy]

There's a liveaboard that goes out of Ft. Myers (ultimate Getaway, I think).

Other than that, a lot of people dive Venice Beach (see Florida Conch Divers section for lots of venice posts) which is about an hour north. Chancy on the vis, good chance of finding lots of cool sharks' teeth. There's also a dive boat going out of Venice (Florida West Scuba, I think), costs about $65 for a 2 tanker.

As has been mentioned above, Ft. Myers is 3 1/2 hours from Key Largo. Absolutely worth the trip. Spend a weekend there.

Also, you're about 2 1/2 hours from W. Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale, which features some very nice drift diving, and some good beach diving in Lauderdale by the Sea.

Bring your gear. Take your pick.

 

[itsrob]

I used to live in ft myers, and worked on the ultimate getaway (which is the livaboard that does 3 day trips to the tortugas and back). The diving in ft myers is not great, but of course the tortugas are. There are a few decent spots though:

Captiva blue hole 25 miles- sits at about 70ft, the hole drops to about 160ft. Whale sharks seen here, sometimes big rays, and other neat stuff.

The Fantastico 30 miles- shipwreck in about 40ft of water (<- cant remember for sure on the depth). Big groupers, and big snappers. Bullsharks commonly seen here.

Hopper cars 23 miles- set of 5 or so train cars, very neat. Popular spearfishing location among locals, quite commonly visited by bullsharks.

Edison Reef 9 miles- Bridge rubble, not great, but close to shore (in comparison)

Thats about it. Theres a few other spots, but these are the good ones. Because of the location, Goliath Grouper are seen just about everywhere. Vis is usually between 15-35ft. 35 on good days.

Also, stop by the visitors center, they will give you a map with gps numbers for all of the locations listed.

P.S. I now live in key largo, if your coming to the area, msg me and Ill help you here. Maybe we can dive

 

[Dr. Jay]

platvis once bubbled...
we have a boat but no compressor. No problem to get tanks and airfillings on the islands?

If you're asking about the Keys, then the answer will probably be no as far as air fills go.

There's a lot of Marina's that do dive trips and have compressors there on site. If not, there's a dive shop on just about every main section of the Keys that will do air fills. Check online and you should find a whole bunch of places to stop and get your tanks filled.

 

[platvis]

thanks for the info; I'll check the net about the dive shops in the Keys