We just returned from a week in Key Largo, and since I chose our accomodations/dive op based on advice from this site, I figure it's only fair to give a brief trip report to help others.
Our group: 4 diving adults. Two of our group did not have AOW or 100' dives within the year, so a guide would have been necessary to dive the Spiegel Grove, Duane, and Bibb. The two AOW in our group hadn't been diving in a couple of years (a 2.5-yr-old and a 16-month-old at home will explain why), so we also preferred to get back into things at a relaxed pace. The two AOW dive BP/W & long-hose, so we are attracted to dive ops used to this setup (although that's quite common nowadays it seems).
Dive Op: We chose to dive with Silent World for a variety of reasons, although it's clear from these forums that we probably couldn't have gone wrong had we selected from about a dozen others. We were extremely happy, and took advantage of the 10-dive package that they offer (one of the few ops in the area that seemed to really give substantial discounts for multi-day diving, which is always nice). The procedure at the dock every morning was organized, efficient, and smooth. Our boat captains (Capt. Loralee for 3 days, Capt. Bob for 2 days) were knowledgeable, friendly, safety-oriented, helpful, and fun to be around, and their crews were similarly top-notch.
Dives: We didn't get into the deep wrecks in Key Largo (will save that for the next trip), but had a great time on the reefs. We were glad to be given hour-long bottom times for every dive (since none of us come anywhere close to 500psi in an hour when we're looking at dives w/ avg depths around 20' or so). Reefs were in pretty good shape, fish life was abundant, and we swam with a couple spotted Eagle Rays and a black-tipped reef shark on the last dive of the week, which was definitely a highlight.
Visibility was routinely 100' or so, except for a couple of dives where it was closer to 50-60'.
For those interested, the dive sites we visited (and average/max depths) were:
- Dry Rocks (Christ of the Abyss statue) - 20'/32'
- North North Dry Rocks - 19'/29'
- Mike's Wreck @ The Elbow - 20'/26'
- South Ledges - 27'/34'
- Grecian Rocks - 20'/31' (this is the only site we repeated, but that was solely because our last dive was on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend and the site we were headed to already had several boats moored up by the time of our 2nd dive. Frankly, though, we could've repeated all of these sites and would've been very happy!)
- Horseshoe Reef - 14'/26'
- City of Washington - 23'/29' (enjoyed the many barracuda & nurse sharks...)
- Fingers - 19'/30'
- Benwood - 31'/48' (very cool given how shallow this wreck is....still intact from deck down, lots of big schools of fish, etc.)
Accomodations: speargirl Becky hooked us up. Since we had a big party (4 divers + our 2 toddlers + a set of grandparents to play with the kids!), we rented the H-9 unit at Kawama Yacht Club from Becky. 4 bedrooms (2 in a converted basement, but that was perfect for my wife, me, and the 2 kids), one full + two 1/2-baths. It was clean, kitchen was handy (although the owners clearly have had a broken dishwasher for quite a long time and aren't bothering to fix it), and the grounds were nice. The pool was right out the back door, and was clean & very warm. The kids loved it. There is a saltwater pond just a bit further out which we didn't get into, but some kids were swimming in it the first day we were there. The beach isn't really anything to write home about, but it's a nice little area. We had no qualms with the grounds.
Unfortunately, there was a sewer problem.... There was a blockage in a pipe downstream of the condo, and apparently all of the H units and J units were in the same fix. Raw sewage bubbled up from the lowest points of the homes - in our case, it was into the lower-level bathroom. We called Becky right away, thinking at that point that it was only our unit, and she was very responsive and got a plumber out quite quickly to investigate. When it was determined that this was a much bigger problem, someone else apparently tookover. We just sealed up that area (luckily there was a door that allowed us to do so), and didn't use it for the rest of the week. A bit of an inconvenience, but certainly didn't impact the quality of our stay significantly, and this is the sort of thing that you just have to roll with the punches and say s*$^ happens. In this case, literally.
Dining: We ate in for all of our lunches, and then went with suggestions by locals for our nights out. Remember, we were traveling with an almost-3-year-old and a 16-mo-old, so we needed kid-friendly. We enjoyed Mrs. Mac's Kitchen, Senor Frijoles (awesome margaritas...), Buzzard's Roost, Hobo's Cafe, and the waterfront dining at Snook's (although the service was sub-par and the food was not stellar by any means).
All in all, a great trip to Key Largo. If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to PM or post here.
Jim
Our group: 4 diving adults. Two of our group did not have AOW or 100' dives within the year, so a guide would have been necessary to dive the Spiegel Grove, Duane, and Bibb. The two AOW in our group hadn't been diving in a couple of years (a 2.5-yr-old and a 16-month-old at home will explain why), so we also preferred to get back into things at a relaxed pace. The two AOW dive BP/W & long-hose, so we are attracted to dive ops used to this setup (although that's quite common nowadays it seems).
Dive Op: We chose to dive with Silent World for a variety of reasons, although it's clear from these forums that we probably couldn't have gone wrong had we selected from about a dozen others. We were extremely happy, and took advantage of the 10-dive package that they offer (one of the few ops in the area that seemed to really give substantial discounts for multi-day diving, which is always nice). The procedure at the dock every morning was organized, efficient, and smooth. Our boat captains (Capt. Loralee for 3 days, Capt. Bob for 2 days) were knowledgeable, friendly, safety-oriented, helpful, and fun to be around, and their crews were similarly top-notch.
Dives: We didn't get into the deep wrecks in Key Largo (will save that for the next trip), but had a great time on the reefs. We were glad to be given hour-long bottom times for every dive (since none of us come anywhere close to 500psi in an hour when we're looking at dives w/ avg depths around 20' or so). Reefs were in pretty good shape, fish life was abundant, and we swam with a couple spotted Eagle Rays and a black-tipped reef shark on the last dive of the week, which was definitely a highlight.
Visibility was routinely 100' or so, except for a couple of dives where it was closer to 50-60'.
For those interested, the dive sites we visited (and average/max depths) were:
- Dry Rocks (Christ of the Abyss statue) - 20'/32'
- North North Dry Rocks - 19'/29'
- Mike's Wreck @ The Elbow - 20'/26'
- South Ledges - 27'/34'
- Grecian Rocks - 20'/31' (this is the only site we repeated, but that was solely because our last dive was on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend and the site we were headed to already had several boats moored up by the time of our 2nd dive. Frankly, though, we could've repeated all of these sites and would've been very happy!)
- Horseshoe Reef - 14'/26'
- City of Washington - 23'/29' (enjoyed the many barracuda & nurse sharks...)
- Fingers - 19'/30'
- Benwood - 31'/48' (very cool given how shallow this wreck is....still intact from deck down, lots of big schools of fish, etc.)
Accomodations: speargirl Becky hooked us up. Since we had a big party (4 divers + our 2 toddlers + a set of grandparents to play with the kids!), we rented the H-9 unit at Kawama Yacht Club from Becky. 4 bedrooms (2 in a converted basement, but that was perfect for my wife, me, and the 2 kids), one full + two 1/2-baths. It was clean, kitchen was handy (although the owners clearly have had a broken dishwasher for quite a long time and aren't bothering to fix it), and the grounds were nice. The pool was right out the back door, and was clean & very warm. The kids loved it. There is a saltwater pond just a bit further out which we didn't get into, but some kids were swimming in it the first day we were there. The beach isn't really anything to write home about, but it's a nice little area. We had no qualms with the grounds.
Unfortunately, there was a sewer problem.... There was a blockage in a pipe downstream of the condo, and apparently all of the H units and J units were in the same fix. Raw sewage bubbled up from the lowest points of the homes - in our case, it was into the lower-level bathroom. We called Becky right away, thinking at that point that it was only our unit, and she was very responsive and got a plumber out quite quickly to investigate. When it was determined that this was a much bigger problem, someone else apparently tookover. We just sealed up that area (luckily there was a door that allowed us to do so), and didn't use it for the rest of the week. A bit of an inconvenience, but certainly didn't impact the quality of our stay significantly, and this is the sort of thing that you just have to roll with the punches and say s*$^ happens. In this case, literally.
Dining: We ate in for all of our lunches, and then went with suggestions by locals for our nights out. Remember, we were traveling with an almost-3-year-old and a 16-mo-old, so we needed kid-friendly. We enjoyed Mrs. Mac's Kitchen, Senor Frijoles (awesome margaritas...), Buzzard's Roost, Hobo's Cafe, and the waterfront dining at Snook's (although the service was sub-par and the food was not stellar by any means).
All in all, a great trip to Key Largo. If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to PM or post here.
Jim
, thanks for the report.
