Looe Key Diving, boat rentals

[SIUegyptiandiver]

Guru, I would agree, from a purely economical standpoint, if all you are going to do is go dive then come back to shore and want to get it all done in 4 hours, a charter is the way to go. From a more easy going, freedom of choice standpoint, however, I completely enjoyed the 9 days we spent with the rental boat. We could come and go as we pleased, when we pleased, and stay as long or as little as we wanted. We did not have to wear snorkel vests to go swimming or snorkel around. If we saw something on the nautical chart we wanted to check out, we went. As a lifelong, experienced boater I was completely comfortable acting as my family's Captain, Divemaster and Cruise Director. I would not recommend doing this if you have little or no boating experience, do not have a boat with electronic navigation equipment that you know how to use or have any hesitation about the safety of such an adventure. As with diving, renting a boat requires one to stay within their comfort and training range and do not ignore common sense when it comes to seas, weather reports, tidal changes, winds, currents and emergency procedures.

All that being said, I would highly recommend Capt David at Quality Boat Rentals in Marathon if you are comfortable in assuming the role of Captain and Divemaster.

Safe Diving

SIUED

 

[SIUegyptiandiver]

Very old thread, I know, but thought I'd add that I am planning a return trip following the same protocol as before. Quality Boat Rentals out of Marathon was awesome and will use them again. For anyone with any serious boating experience, do not be hesitant to take this route, especially if finances are "flexible". Moneysavr was dead-on: it is FAR more economical to charter, but I put a value on freedom of schedule, destination and length of stay at the dive site. If all you want to do is "experience Looe Key" rent a charter and enjoy. We spent hours at our leisure on Looe, dove the A.Busch twice and meandered around in shallow water snorkeling as we chose. On the thrid day we took lunch at American Shoals lighthouse and did a second dive on the Busch.

Do not make the assumption that inland boating experience makes you qualified for this adventure, but any open water boating experience is sufficient to get you around safely to the easily accessed dive sites. With proper experience and planning getting to and from dive sites, having a safe and enjoyable time, and having the freedom of coming and going as you please is definitely worth a couple of hundred bucks in extra gas money.

The buoys at Looe and the Busch are visible from a long distance and my kids had no problem learning to tie off to them properly.