Interim Trip Update:
We left Augusta at 4:30 AM and made it to Key Largo at 4:30 PM (with a stop at Versailles in Miami for a late lunch!). The next day, we dove Carysfort Lighthouse (double dip) in the morning with Silent World Dive Center. Visibility was so-so due to some extremely bad weather conditions a few days before. However, we were happy to be able to dive anyway. Lots of lobsters, eels, barracuda, puffers, angelfish, parrotfish, hermit crabs, grunts, and trunkfish. Even in 3.5mm full suits with fin socks and boots, we felt a bit chilly by the second dive. For the afternoon session, Silent World didn’t have enough divers for a boat to go out, so we were transferred to Horizon Divers next door, who gladly took us in as foster divers hehe! We dove Elbow Reef and The Fingers. We saw a green sea turtle, mantis shrimp, trumpetfish, green moray eels, and a nurse shark. Water was still a bit chilly. I will admit my navigation suffered due to the so-so visibility at Elbow Reef and my wife and I had to pop up to triangulate where the boat was, as it was difficult to see the mooring line, let alone the next coral head.
The next day, we decided to bring along our diving gloves and hoods to dive the USS Spiegel Grove, as it is deeper than the reef dives. This ended up being a brilliant decision, as I barely felt cold at all! There was pretty strong current all the way down to the superstructure of the wreck, and visibility was around 15-20 feet, so you don’t really see the wreck till it almost hits you in the face. We decided to play it safe and just do loops around the superstructure so that we wouldn’t get lost. We saw a massive school of HUGE barracuda that we were able to swim through, a lot of big Queen angelfish, a Goliath grouper, and a few blue parrotfish (which unlike the reef based ones, these were not afraid of our approach!). We started ascending at 1100 psi to play it safe. The second dive was literally a repeat of the first, no complaints though! Unfortunately our afternoon dives were cancelled, as other boat captains on the radio were reporting poor visibility.
For Christmas, we are being transferred over to Amoray Dive Resort to join their morning dive trip. 3 foot waves are forecasted but we are still good to go, as we have been diving in tougher conditions.
I really do appreciate the collaborative effort of the dive shops here in Key Largo to mix and match us around to ensure that we are able to dive to the extent possible.
I overheard someone mention that Blue Grotto may be closed due to flooding? If anyone has any news about that, let us know, then maybe we may extend our West Palm Beach stay by one extra day. If anyone is planning to go diving at Blue Heron Bridge December 26, we are diving between 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM.