Dry Tortugas, Marquesas Key or Key West?

[ReefHound]

I'll be on the Spree in September for a 4 day Coral Spawn II trip. It seems to be a bit cheaper per day than the other ones mentioned, it's a 100' liveaboard.

 

[Drvngcrzy]

OK. So, it sounds like I should forget about Marquesas and Tortugas unless it is just to snorkel or be a tourist.

Did anyone have any suggestions for a hotel?

I may still try to do some deep sea fishing and either dive locally or go to Looe Key. I would like to try spear fishing, but I know my g/f is not interested in that.

 

[Jupiter31]

You can do both Looe Key and Local diving in Key West - Looe Key is about 30 miles north; very doable as as a day trip..

But you will not be able to spear fish at Looe Key as its a sanctuary.

 

[OceanObsessed]

I would pass on Key West diving and shoot for the Marquesas or Tortugas if you can find a charter.

 

[nw_diver]

We when to Key West last summer and the diving in Key Largo earlier in the trip was better. We dove with Bonsai Diving (they also have a bonsai store in Duval St.). An interesting dive operation, the DM was the Captain's 13 year old son. They both dove with us on the Cayman Salvager. A neat wreck with that is easily penetrable. While the captain led us around his son collected fish hooks and lewers that were snagged on the wreck. The second dive was pretty lame at 9' Stake. The fish counts were not good here as it wasn't in the marine sanctuary.

The trip to Fort Jefferson was great but the snorkeling was just okay. Most of the fish hang around the wall probably because people feed them. I would head to Key Largo and dive there if at all possible. I have heard that Innerspace is a good operation on Big Pine Key which takes divers to Looe Key and the Adolphus Busch wreck.

 

[mg492@aol.com]

The Seaplane is out of business. The only two ways are the cat and freedom II. You have the right links.

I am going to the Drys memorial weekend. Do you have any good spearfishing site coodinates you are willing to share.

Mike

 

[mike_s]

The Seaplane is out of business.

when did this happen?

they were in business this past September....

I saw their planes landing/taking off at the fort.

 

[Orlando Eric]

Nope, I've done an enourmous amount of spearfishing in the Tortugas area, and sharks have never been a problem. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of sharks, other than Nurse Sharks of course, that I've seen in that area.

He'd count the number of times on two hands but a shark ate one hand and he can only count with one hand now.

.... One gentle reminder if you want to go the "guesthouse" or B&B route vs a chain hotel - many of these cater to a male cliental - if this could be an issue with you, ASK!
....

Fags, Queers, and Queens in Key West!?! That would be like seeing rednecks in Ga, or hippies in California, Cowboys in Texas, Jerks in New York, or .. or .. hot latin women on South Beach in Miami---

I stayed at the Key West Harbor Inn. Several people have gotten married and had their honeymoons there (which is what I was doing at the time) Steve and Alexis (two bears) ran the place and were great. The got us all the local hook ups and away from the cruise ship tourist traps. Everything was decorated great. They got up at the crack of dawn and had the breakfast set with sandalwood incense burning all over the outdoor paths. It was a great time of relaxing. I do not think the place would be the same if a couple straight guys ran it... just saying

 

[mg492@aol.com]

I called the key west visitor guide a few weeks ago looking for different options for people coming out to visit us while over in the Drys. They told me the seaplane was out of business but I didn't ask when

 

[StreetDoctor]

I was in your situation last november. We stayed in key west for a week with a large group of friends. My girlfriend and I were the only divers. We drove up to key largo for 2 afternoon reef dives in islamorada with Conch Republic Divers (GREAT operation BTW). The drive back to key west was horrible, I was sticking my head out the window to stay awake lol. The next day we decided to dive again and went with capt. corner in key west and it was also good. Not as good as islamorada but definitely not worth the drive. We actually seen a decent sized reef shark with capt. corner. I believe most of the people here say key west is bad because they live in florida lol. I'm from chicago and I loved it.