homerdoc
Contributor
Our Bonaire trip was cancelled so called an audible and drove down to Florida to get some diving in.
(Day 1) We live in South Carolina and stopping in Gainesville and doing a shake down dive at Devils den was a good idea. Classic, my daughter asked why we were doing it and I said, "need to check out our gear and make sure that its all okay". She said, "yeah, we dont want to look like noobs", I pointed at her mom with her first stage attached upside down, well we messed that up. I recommend doing this to break the trip to the keys up if you have folks that dont like 10+ hours in a car. Devils den/blue grotto/ginnie springs are about the same thing and very close to gainesville. At Devils Den, the angry british lady was actually nice to me, must be the christmas spirit.
(Day 2) Drove down to blue heron bridge - posted that earlier then down to Key Largo Marriot
(Day 3) Stayed at Key Largo Marriott, COVID pretty good, masks required, probably 30% occupancy. Dove with Pirates Cove the first day in the afternoon. They are on site so really convenient. Boat was pretty full, it was a pontoon and took us to Elbow Reef. Dove two sites, City of Washington wreck and Anchor Chain. Both were shallow and vis wasnt great
Saw a cool skate/ray . One thing that amazed me, this is 30ft deep reefs that has a lot of new divers coming and the sea fans were everywhere. I only saw one knocked over.
(Day 4) Dove with Forever Young - these guys were the bomb. Valet diving and went hunting lionfish. Did our first back roll, free descent (to 80'), and open water safety stop. I got 6, my daughter got 2. It was really rough and off shore. They went out of Islamorada. Bonus, a manatee named carl swam up and hung out when we came back.
We have done boat diving in bonaire and PCB, but there was always an anchor line. This was also a drift dive - my wife and daughter enjoyed, this opens Coz up as an option.
I cant say it enough, this was professional well run boat. I will do them again.
Sorry no underwater pics, but I have a rule, I only do max of two new things on a dive and bringing my new camera wasn't in the cards. I worry about task loading.
(Day 5) Dove with Pirates cove again in the am - I recommend the morning, the afternoons have several snorklers, the morning boat had 8 divers total. They served hot chocolate after the first dive which was really nice. It was rather cool, I normally don't dive with a wetsuit, but I put a 2mm shirt on for these dives.
Saw some really neat stuff, and the reefs were crazy with fish. We dove molasses reef (Aquarium and Eagle Ray Pass) Nurse shark, shark that scared the pee out of me (I was looking down), sea turtle that woke up when my light hit him (oops) - Three sharks in total plus the nurse shark. We also saw a grouper get angry with a moray - that was cool.
We were going to stay in Gainesville, but got up early enough to drive straight back Christmas Day.
Would I say it is as good as Bonaire, well probably not, but it was different and cool and at least on the same playing field.
I know for a fact we only saw 1% of Blue Heron Bridge in a 60 minute dive.
Homerdoc.
(Day 1) We live in South Carolina and stopping in Gainesville and doing a shake down dive at Devils den was a good idea. Classic, my daughter asked why we were doing it and I said, "need to check out our gear and make sure that its all okay". She said, "yeah, we dont want to look like noobs", I pointed at her mom with her first stage attached upside down, well we messed that up. I recommend doing this to break the trip to the keys up if you have folks that dont like 10+ hours in a car. Devils den/blue grotto/ginnie springs are about the same thing and very close to gainesville. At Devils Den, the angry british lady was actually nice to me, must be the christmas spirit.
(Day 2) Drove down to blue heron bridge - posted that earlier then down to Key Largo Marriot
(Day 3) Stayed at Key Largo Marriott, COVID pretty good, masks required, probably 30% occupancy. Dove with Pirates Cove the first day in the afternoon. They are on site so really convenient. Boat was pretty full, it was a pontoon and took us to Elbow Reef. Dove two sites, City of Washington wreck and Anchor Chain. Both were shallow and vis wasnt great
Saw a cool skate/ray . One thing that amazed me, this is 30ft deep reefs that has a lot of new divers coming and the sea fans were everywhere. I only saw one knocked over.
(Day 4) Dove with Forever Young - these guys were the bomb. Valet diving and went hunting lionfish. Did our first back roll, free descent (to 80'), and open water safety stop. I got 6, my daughter got 2. It was really rough and off shore. They went out of Islamorada. Bonus, a manatee named carl swam up and hung out when we came back.
We have done boat diving in bonaire and PCB, but there was always an anchor line. This was also a drift dive - my wife and daughter enjoyed, this opens Coz up as an option.
I cant say it enough, this was professional well run boat. I will do them again.
Sorry no underwater pics, but I have a rule, I only do max of two new things on a dive and bringing my new camera wasn't in the cards. I worry about task loading.
(Day 5) Dove with Pirates cove again in the am - I recommend the morning, the afternoons have several snorklers, the morning boat had 8 divers total. They served hot chocolate after the first dive which was really nice. It was rather cool, I normally don't dive with a wetsuit, but I put a 2mm shirt on for these dives.
Saw some really neat stuff, and the reefs were crazy with fish. We dove molasses reef (Aquarium and Eagle Ray Pass) Nurse shark, shark that scared the pee out of me (I was looking down), sea turtle that woke up when my light hit him (oops) - Three sharks in total plus the nurse shark. We also saw a grouper get angry with a moray - that was cool.
We were going to stay in Gainesville, but got up early enough to drive straight back Christmas Day.
Would I say it is as good as Bonaire, well probably not, but it was different and cool and at least on the same playing field.
I know for a fact we only saw 1% of Blue Heron Bridge in a 60 minute dive.
Homerdoc.
