Trip Report Key Largo, w/o May 19th

[Chrisk919]

I wanted a little warm-up before Bonaire to check my trim/weights with after swapping out my steel backplate with aluminum, so I did a last-minute 5 day diving trip last week with Horizon Divers. Everyone with Horizon was great and I'd definitely go back to them again.

The only downside to the trip is apparently the buoy's have been blown off/lost from the Bibb and Duane 2-3 weeks ago so we never got a chance to dive those, but the Spiegel Grove is so big diving it a few times never gets old.

Viz: 35-40 feet most days. 1-2 foot seas at worst, glassy on Friday 5/24
Current on the Spiegel Grove was either minimal or non-existent the 4 times I dove it.

It's been a little while since I dove the Keys, so some of the bleaching was a bit of a shock at first (for reference my last Upper Keys dive was Dry Rocks and Little Grecian in 1994).

Dives included:
City of Washington @ The Elbow x 2
Hannah M Bell @ The Elbow
Undersea Highway @ The Elbow
Spiegel Grove x 4
Horseshoe Reef
Minnow Caves

Still getting used to photography underwater, and I realize I need to 'get closer' most of the time... but here are a few photos taken.

 

[Jonah Kowall]

Nice report, did Horizon actually go out to the Duane or just tell you the balls were gone? They often just say they are gone because it's a far drive for them and the dives are more advanced and typically have more current. This means people who cannot deal with current dives will not make it down, and they will not hot drop typical clients at Horizon.

When I want to go to the Duane and Bibb I drive farther south to Conch Republic Divers who have a shorter drive and will hot drop experienced folks. Love those wrecks!

 

[Chrisk919]

Nice report, did Horizon actually go out to the Duane or just tell you the balls were gone? They often just say they are gone because it's a far drive for them and the dives are more advanced and typically have more current. This means people who cannot deal with current dives will not make it down, and they will not hot drop typical clients at Horizon.

When I want to go to the Duane and Bibb I drive farther south to Conch Republic Divers who have a shorter drive and will hot drop experienced folks. Love those wrecks!

They told me the balls were gone... but they were discussing that with one of the independent tech instructors (looked like he was teaching AN/DP to a student) on the boat who appears to know them well, so I don't think it was just a line to avoid diving them...

But granted one set of dives was on one of their small boats with more "experienced" folks (of which I'm not sure I count myself yet, lol) and one was on their larger boat with everyone including a Grandma/Grandpa pair, a fairly new Father/Daughter pair, and an AOW student who had just recently completed his OW, doing his final qualifying dive. The captain definitely waited a bit and talked with other boats for space on a decent ball on the superstructure rather than the bow/stern balls for that dive... and you could tell it was concern about the current (of which, luckily there was none) and the newer divers.