Florida Keys diving recommendation

[TheRedHead]

What is it with Hungry Pelican? It looks awful. Why do you guys like it so much?

 

[deeper thoughts]

cheap and on the bay

 

[Vtdiver2]

I'm leaving in 36 hours, and heading to the Keys. We are staying at the Hungry Pelican Sat thru Tues and diving with Silent World. Then we are heading down to Marathon and diving with Abyss Divers. Both shops had great packages.
I'll write a trip report when I get back next weekend.
C-Dawg

 

[StSomewhere]

cheap and on the bay

Yup, its the antithesis of the megaresort. Not for everyone, though.

 

[mntdiver]

I'm leaving in 36 hours, and heading to the Keys. We are staying at the Hungry Pelican Sat thru Tues and diving with Silent World. Then we are heading down to Marathon and diving with Abyss Divers. Both shops had great packages.
I'll write a trip report when I get back next weekend.
C-Dawg

Make sure they take you to the Thunderbolt. I lived there for a year and a half, divemastered part-time. I would guess that I have around 80 or 90 dives on the T-bolt. If I were told that I only had one more dive to do in my life, I'd be hanging in the pilot house or on the deck with Bubba. I understand that Bubba's been gone for a while, but others have taken his place. There use to be a good size green moray that would often hang under a steel plate on the port side main deck in front of the pilot house.

We'd like some photos and a report if you get on the wreck. Have fun...

The photos are video snapshots of Bubba in the spring of 2000. He was over seven feet and we were guessing 400+ pounds. Friendly as a neighborhood dog.

 

[tjmills]

I will also chime in here as I just came back for my 4th trip down there in as many years. Key West is a waste of time. If I only had 4 days....all of them would be in Key Largo. I have dove with Conch Republic each time because they have taken good care of me and taken me to the dives I wanted. The others aren't so flexible from what I have seen. Capt Gary is also a member on here. Send him a PM if you want some info.

 

[100days-a-year]

KW is great,a great place to start.You have to pay the $$$ to get more than 20miles away.The Marquesas to Dry Tortugas on a liveaboard are about the same price as anywhere else if you factor in the quality and quantity of diving.5-7 dives a day are easily possible.Kl to me is like the outlet mall of diving .

We'll be there(KL) in August this year mainly so the girls can do pix on the Grove and the boys can spearfish the deeper wrecks.We are actually staying just W in Plantation so we will be legal spearfishing.We'll actually make runs from Marathon all the way up to the southernmost artificials in Dade county.Just have to avoid Pennecamp with spearguns onboard.We like the ala-carte trips VS. packages as we don't like splashing the same reef with 60 other divers.

 

[jyoungfl]

You would be hard pressed to dive everything there is to see in KL in 4 days, But I also agree that Looe Key and Sombrero are really hard to beat for nice reef dives. So many chioces so little time...

 

[daniel f aleman]

The simple way to look at Key diving is that it gets more difficult a you go down. KL is for fun dives, Key West is for the Tech crowd.

 

[edylchtims]

I am a new diver with only 8 dives. My wife (does not dive) and I are going to Key West in April. What is wrong with Key West diving? I saw several responses to this thread which were negative. I only have one day to dive (because of flying) and am curious bout the negatives of Key West .