June 7th – June 11th
This was my first trip to the Keys, I booked this trip back in February and by late March it was questionable whether it would end up cancelled. Fortunately, timing worked out and Monroe County (FL Keys) re-opened for tourist on June 1st. The only impact was that I’d initially booked a direct flight with United but that flight changed to route me through Chicago which was to say the least less than ideal since it was the opposite direction and more than doubled the travel time. I was able to get a credit for the base ticket valid for 24 months and refund on seat upgrades. I then re-booked with Delta, my preferred airline for a much more convenient route through ATL into FLL (Fort Lauderdale).
I decided to fly into FLL vs Miami based on opinions on this forum as well as other places that in general the Miami airport can be a cluster.
I’ll probably stick with FLL in the future, it worked out well. Getting from terminal 2 to the rental car pick-up was a short walk; I opted not to wait around for the shuttle. The drive from FLL to my resort, Atlantic Bay Resort, was around 2 hours and 15 minutes. There was a slow down right at US 1 due to what looked like a broken down car that probably added 15-20 minutes travel time. Overall, not a bad drive, I took the turnpike, not scenic but that didn’t bother me.
In general this was very stress free travel, Delta is blocking out middle seats and forcing alternating seating effectively nearly halving the capacity of the flights. The airports (IAD and ATL) were much less crowded too. Masks are required once you enter the airports for the most part and on the Delta flights unless you were actively eating or drinking your mask needed to be over your mouth and nose. On the return flight we were near take-off and returned to the gate to de-plane a passenger. I don’t know precisely the cause other than we were told the passenger was not complying with flight attendant instruction, not sure if it was mask related.
I rented a car with budget, it was a quick pick-up and quick drop-off. More expensive than I expected though, I’m not sure if that’s just FLL/south FL or I should have shopped around, it ended up running $500 for an intermediate when I anticipated more along the $350 range. I’ll do more shopping around next time to make sure I’m not overpaying for a rental car.
I stayed at the Atlantic Bay Resort in Tavernier, a 3-5 minute drive to the diver operator which was very convenient. I selected ABR based upon suggestions from a couple dive buddies who have done many trips to the keys. I selected an efficiency which was more than adequate, not overly fancy but clean and nice with a full fridge, microwave and set of dishes and utensils. The resort has bikes, paddle boards and kayaks that you can use for free. Plenty of chairs, umbrellas and a couple cabanas to enjoy the gulf side views. There was a pool, dock, boat launch and pier. They are doing only limited housekeeping currently which must be scheduled. I didn’t get any housekeeping done as it really wasn’t necessary.
They were also allowing only 1 guest in the office at once with a mask. Overall, the stay at ABR was great and I would definitely stay there for future trips.
Now the important stuff!
I selected to dive with Conch Republic based upon feedback here and elsewhere. My options were down to basically 3 and I went with CRD due to the reputation for being geared more toward independent minded divers and a large (46’) boat. Another op that was highly recommended has smaller six pack boats and now that I get 1 dive trip a year I didn’t want to risk getting blown out due to small boats. The forecast wasn’t looking great a week out but the weather ended up being excellent all 3 dive days. All the folks at CRD were great and I will definitely use them in the future. They are definitely geared toward independent divers, they are efficient at getting the boat loaded and headed out. If you need help they will assist, otherwise they let you handle your gear. They were only filling the boat to half capacity so there was plenty of room on board.
The divesites:
Day 1 the sites were Dante and Victory. These were ok sites but not the most memorable of the trip. The visibility was a little low at Dante and both sites were around 70’ max dive depth. Thus, neither was ideal for underwater photography which was my focus however they were still ok dives and a good chance for me to knock off the dust diving wise as it’d been just over a year since my last dive.
Day 2 the sites were Pickles and Snapper Ledge. Pickles was awesome. There was some current but if you stayed in the channels in the reef you could mostly avoid it. This site was filled with nurse shark, assorted fish (big schools) and some nice reef topology with ledges. Snapper ledge was similar, the reef topology wasn’t quite as interesting but the fish life was abundant. The visibility was improved and both sites are shallow which was nice for shooting wide angle.
Day 3 the sites were Crocker and Davis Reef. Crocker was also excellent. The best part of Crocker was at a particularly ledge along the reef many nurse shark and large green moray would check out divers and continue to swim in and out of the reef. It was quite exhilarating; there were occasions where my camera doubled as a bumper. There were several nurse shark that looked to be close to 8 feet and a few of the moray were pretty massive too. Aside from the big guys, the schools of fish and general amount of fish life at these sites was impressive. Davis was good as well, some current again but not too high. At all of these sites I found the trumpet fish to be much more cooperative than from all my other diving. This was nice since I’ve never felt I’ve gotten good pics of trumpet fish before and I got a chance to remedy that.
Overall, my opinion on the diving was that it was excellent! The abundance of fish life greatly surpassed my dive experiences in Grand Cayman. The visibility was definitely not as good though, however it was good enough while I was there for taking some decent wide angle photos. The water temperature was 84, I wore a shorty which worked well. There were no reef shark sightings on my dives but uncountable amounts of nurse sharks. Also, no turtles were spotted but a good amount of moray and a few stingray. Tons of parrot fish, trumpet fish, angelfish, grunt, grouper hogfish and butterfly fish.
Non-diving:
I ate at Mrs Macs, Fish House and Hobos, and liked all three. My favorite was Mrs Macs (shrimp basket) and the key lime pie was very good. The blackened grouper sandwich at Fish House was very good too. My topside leisure activities consisted mostly of lounging and reading but I checked out a few “beaches” too. It’s possible there are some actual beaches in the Keys but I couldn’t find them. I think that’s the biggest limitation on whether the Keys would become a family destination vs just a solo dive trip for me. I had to stop by divers direct for a few goodies of course but missed the dive history museum, next time I suppose.
And of course the pictures:
Key Largo 2020
