Help Us Plan Our Dive Roadtrip: Augusta GA to Key Largo?

[Johnoly]

...Blue Grotto may be closed due to flooding?

Blue Grotto was open today (24th) with divers. Water was up but still diveable.

..we may extend our West Palm Beach stay by one extra day....

The weather front moves thru WPB on the afternoon of the 26th so you'll be good for BHB. But on the 27th it's full on 7 - 9 foot waves in WPB which usually will trash the viz at BHB (even our hardcore dive boats won't run in 7's).

I'd stick to your plan and head for the springs with Blue Gotto a 1st choice and then I'd choose Ginnie Springs as a 2nd' choice since it was open today also according to @tmassey

Sounds like you all are having a great trip with LOTS to see !!

 

[tmassey]

Ginnie is open. Wide open. I think there were 30 people *total* in the place at any given time... No crowds!

 

[krukster86]

Christmas Update:

The dive with Amoray Dive Center on Christmas Day ended up happening! We were on their “party boat” with 19 other divers/instructors/guides. We were dropped off at Elbow Reef (Mike’s Wreck and City of Washington wreck). Visibility improved from last time (about 25ft) so that was a pleasant surprise, considering that it was rumored to be cancelled due to weather. We saw some cool unique critters which was awesome: lettuce leaf sea slugs, red/white nudis, flamingo tongues, spotted morays, schools of large barracuda, decorator crabs, blennies of all sorts, blue parrotfish that were larger than those seen elsewhere, and a pair of dolphins that escorted our boat through the canals back to the dock!

After an awesome Christmas present dive, we headed up to West Palm Beach. We are about to head out to Pura Vida Dive Center to rent tanks, weights, and a dive flag for Blue Heron Bridge. Weather the 27/28 continues to look crappy so I am not sure if the boat dives will happen.

Any recommendations for a dive related backup in the area?

 

[The Chairman]

but I believe you can also dive Blue Springs with them.

Negative. They close the Blue Spring State Park near Orange City to diving right around Thanksgiving and won't open until March or April to keep peeps from bothering them. However, even dry, it's worth the trip. If it's cold, you can see 200 manatee in the water there. Simply amazing.

 

[krukster86]

We hit up Pura Vida Divers for some tanks, weights, and a dive flag. They said that they are not planning to cancel any of my upcoming dive trips, but they said one of the days it is looking too rough for their boat to go out. No worries, the captain calls the shots.

We drove out to BHB at around 9:30 to set up a gear station and survey the area. We ended up getting in the water a little after 10:15 AM (high tide at approx 11:00). Right from the get-go we started seeing amazing creatures in the sandy bottom: juvenile angelfish, pufferfish, triggerfish, and spotted drums, beautifully colored sea slugs, arrow crabs, coral shrimp, many types of worms, blennies galore, garden eels, stingray, lizardfish/stargazers, scorpionfish, nudibranch, as well as a host of other life that I have never seen before and don’t know how to categorize. Oh yeah...we also got a pleasant manatee flyby! Those blubbery guys can HAUL ASS! There were some snorkelers trying to chase it and the manatee totally left them in its wake.

We ended up going as far as the little “wreck” by the columns of the bridge before turning back at 900 psi. Total dive time was 120 minutes! This place is a macro paradise! My wife got so mad that I was able to find so many beautiful and minute creatures in seemingly barren wasteland. If we have an opportunity to go again, I’d like to start the dive closer to the columns to see what sort of life shows up there.

 

[krukster86]

Got the call from the shop last night: Dec. 27 morning dive and Blackwater dives cancelled. I guess we will do BHB Part II!

 

[krukster86]

BHB Part II:

We were a little apprehensive about the dive at first as the wind REALLY picked up while we waited for an hour before high tide. However, once we dipped below the water, there was very little current.

This time we decided to make a straight, but slow paced dive to the “wrecks” and piles/columns of BHB.

No manatee, but we still saw some cool stuff: several types of nudis, cowries, some sort of decorator crab (I’m used to seeing 1-2” ones, this one was almost 8” wide!), tons of juv. Drums, banded coral shrimp, two types of stingrays, comb jelly and moon jellyfish, toadfish, flounder, and a sharp nose eel on the hunt for buried snacks. It was rumored that there was an octopus at one of the wrecks yesterday, but it must have relocated overnight. Swimming under the bridge was pretty neat! The dark gloomy water was very atmospheric and we saw a lot of huge fish that were unfazed by approaching divers.

Dive Time was about 2 hours long. Got the call later that Palm Beach boat trip was also cancelled for the 28th, so we will have a chance to wash and dry our gear for the trip to Ocala area for Florida cavern/spring diving! (Also it will be nice to not have to drive 2-3 hours in damp smelly clothes!).

Next update will be after diving Blue Grotto!

 

[krukster86]

Drove out to Ocala suburbs to our AirBNB. We had a pretty nice time out in downtown Ocala. We grabbed a drink at Brick City while waiting for a table at Harry’s Seafood (the Andouille Crusted Grouper is PHENOMENAL!). We definitely planned to go to Brick City for dinner another night after seeing their BBQ menu.

Anyway back to diving. It was a muggy/rainy morning and didn’t change much on the drive to Blue Grotto. I wanted to get there early in the morning to ensure the best viz. The layout was easy enough to figure out but we were a bit confused as all of the shelters to set up gear except one were marked “reserved”. We parked by it and set up gear for diving.

The deck area seemed to be a bit flooded (2 feet underwater) but the water was crystal clear. With gloves and a hood, the 73 F water wasn’t chilly at all. Immediately after descending to the practice platform, we came across the resident soft shell turtles Virgil and Turbo, who were super cute and friendly. We descended slowly following the guideline towards Peace Rock, however as we started to get close, we looked back and could not see the light from the surface, despite the claims of the introduction video. We decided to head back to the area by the “diving bell” and swim around. Luckily there was no one else in the water so we did not cause a traffic jam. We were able to see gnarly tree fragments, coral fossils, and very cool looking craggy rocks that slowly collected bubbles. The diving bell was pretty neat to enter and do goofy videos/photos. After a while, we started to get bored and headed back to the training platforms and were greeted by Virgil and Turbo again. We thumbed the dive at around 50 minutes. A pretty neat experience, but I think it’s a “one and done” type of dive for us.

Tomorrow, we head to Bird’s Underwater in Crystal River to snorkel with manatees!

 

[krukster86]

Last entry into the thread!

We had an 11:00 AM reservation with Bird’s Underwater in Crystal River to snorkel with manatees. We had a bit of bad timing with the reservation, as the week between Christmas and New Years is extremely popular for tourists in the area and the area had very warm temperatures for the season. Therefore, we were cautioned that we may not see a manatee. Luckily, we managed to spot one in the shallows in somewhat murky visibility. Getting in the water next to one really gives you a sense of scale of the size of these guys. They are MASSIVE! I only managed to get any good shots of the manatee when it came up for air. I hate to say it, but we got a much better encounter when we were surprised by one during our BHB Dive a few days earlier! Also I learned that if you do encounter one, you are supposed to stop the dive and get out of the water, and the 10-20 snorkelers that we’re chasing it were breaking the law!

Currently driving back to Augusta with the wife. Thank you so much for all the valuable advice, recommendations, and tips! I hope this information is going to help someone out in the future.

 

[krukster86]

Lessons Learned:

• Definitely overpacked for the trip. I only ended up wearing two pairs of shorts and a handful of t-shirts for the trip. Our Air BNBs and the Key Largo hotel had extra towels, so we didn't need to bring any.
• Bring cash for Florida toll roads
• Have a boat coat handy for your wife after colder dives, you are not going to get it back!
• In milky viz conditions, you need to pay closer attention to navigation! You may not be able to see the boat even in the shallow reef!
  
• A hood is definitely recommended for Florida diving this time of year! Side effect: tank bangers are useless as you won't hear it!
  
• Expect dives to get cancelled due to winter storms. Having a backup dive option like BHB is a good contingency.
• Snorkeling with manatees should be done in cold weather and on non-holiday weeks
• If you aren't a big fan of clear spring diving, just a single tank should be enough. No need to also plan for diving at any other locations, as it will probably just be more of the same.