Executive Summary
Silent World Dive Center - Recommended
Conch Republic Divers - Recommended
Looe Key Reef Resort - Recommended for a day trip
Ocean Pointe Suites - Recommended
86 degF bottom temps, sunny days, and flat seas - Recommended
Diving at low tide - Not recommended.
Introduction
My wife and I made our sixth dive trip to Key Largo in July. This time, we split our diving between Silent World and Conch Republic, both of which we've enjoyed diving with before, plus a day trip down to Looe Key. Mostly just mellow shallow warm water reefs and very old broken-up wrecks, but we did dive the Spiegel Grove for the first time.
Fourteen dives over six days. Three days with Silent World, including the Grove and a night dive on the City of Washington, two days with Conch Republic, and one three-tank trip with Looe Key Reef Resort. It just worked out that we dove the Benwood, which is one of our favorites KL sites, three times.
Bottom temps were almost all 86 degF, except 84 on the Spiegel Grove and one other dive, and 82 on the night dive. My wife's computer always reads slightly lower, she had several more 84s. We judged visibility usually at 40-50 feet. Some discussion with the crew taught us that most of our diving was being done at or near low tide near a full moon, which clouds the water at the dive sites with suspended coastal debris. Something we might want to consider in the timing of our next trip.
The Key Largo trip was sandwiched between visits to my wife's family in Orlando, which I won't discuss here, but we were traveling for three weeks. My non-diving brother-in-law and his wife came down to KL and stayed in our condo for most of the week, snorkeled, kayaked, went to Key West, and chilled out. We dove, ate in, and slept.
We enjoyed visiting our fish friends again, mostly just the usual suspects, very little charismatic megafauna. A few pretty large lobsters and a couple of crabs, a couple of spotted rays, and a few glimpses of nurse sharks. Didn't see any lionfish, large grouper, or eels. But it's all good. One band of blue tang in their "wild bunch" mode. A lot of the sergeant majors were in their egg-guarding blue phase. A small pod of dolphins or porpoises surfing the boat wake for a couple of minutes on one trip.
My wife continues to learn how to use her new Ikelite housing for her Canon S95 that she dove with for the first time in Bonaire last fall. It still hasn't flooded, and anything up from there is just a bonus. We left it home for the Spiegel Grove trip.
Silent World and Conch Republic
Both are quality operators with many good reviews on Scubaboard, including some I've written for past trips. We had a fine time with both, expect to be diving with both again sometime, and would recommend either without hesitation.
Silent World was a smaller boat and a more personal experience, but less organized. They have online pdf schedules of their dive sites, but we learned these should be considered aspirational. When I booked three weeks earlier, I made it clear that we had planned around these. When we showed up, though, the scheduled trip to the Spiegel Grove was going to the Duane/Bibb instead, and we didn't want to dive that. But we shuffled our schedule around a little, Chris the boat captain was very accommodating of requests from the guests, and we managed to dive all the sites we'd planned on, just in a different order/time. Flexibility is the key to happiness. And we certainly enjoyed the diving, the small uncrowded boats, and the atmosphere.
The night dive on the City of Washington was at the full moon, which rose just at sunset when we started the dive. A nice easy dive on a familiar site in a different light, nothing spectacular creature-wise. One big crab caught by our lights out in the open, couldn't decide whether to freeze or hide, tried both. They had a DM in the water, but I think he'd been hired as a guide by one of the other divers, not SOP. Coming back in, the full moon dead astern lighting up our wake in the warm evening air was a pleasant experience. They had some after-dive beers in the cooler in addition to the usual juice packs, but that's not my habit.
We dove air for most of the week, but Nitrox 30 (what SW stocks) for the Spiegel Grove trip. Nitrox is requested at booking. There's an analyzer at the dock. $14 / tank surcharge over the air included in the trip, but we paid it, so there you go ...
Conch Republic has an online schedule where the first person booking picks the site. We signed up for a couple of TBA shallow reef trips, and that's what we got. Both trips were on their 46' boat; the first had a half dozen divers plus 5 OW students with instructor, very roomy. The second day there was a group from Arizona, maybe 20 divers on the boat, still not really that crowded. A big bus out to the dive site, all the necessities, efficient, professional, and courteous. Sometimes that's all you need.
Spiegel Grove
I'll start by saying "thank you" to all those who contributed to the recent thread http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/fl...e-advice-inexperienced-diver.html#post5955864 . This was very well-timed and useful. In particular, we were somewhat prepared for the currents, the use of the granny and mooring lines, and thought to bring our gloves, which we usually leave home for warm water diving.
The current was challenging, but not impossible. My SAC for this dive was 25% higher than the next-highest dive this trip, more like what I get diving in San Diego in a hooded 8/7/6 wetsuit. The captain, Chris, estimated the current at 1.5 knots, and said that more than half the time it's less than 1 knot, i.e., these were relatively tough conditions, although flat seas. I have no way of calibrating his estimate, or his characterization of normal.
He made the decision to not do the scheduled second dive on the Spiegel Grove, and took us to the Benwood. I'm sure this was partly the customer demographic. My wife really struggled with the line-climbing, and had already told me I'd be doing the second dive by myself. The others were a young woman who'd hired a DM as buddy (nice to have him in the water with us), an insta-buddy couple of another young woman and a guy who discovered while gearing up that his Cobra was in error mode (missed deco stop), and a solo rebreather diver/ photographer, who just went with the flow.
I was up for a second Spiegel Grove dive, particularly now having more idea what to expect, and the wreck superstructure at 70 feet did look interesting and I wanted to see more. But I didn't really mind, I'd rather dive with my wife, and even more, not have her sitting on the boat thinking about it. And while it wasn't seriously challenging, my rope-pulling arm and shoulder muscles did let me know about the unusual activity for a couple of days.
I'd like to try it again some time if I can convince her these were unusually strong currents. Twenty years ago I could leave her on the beginner slopes for a couple of hours while I bashed moguls until I'd had enough. But diving has buddy requirements that make the logistics of splitting up harder. We'll see ...
Looe Key
Pronounced "Loo". I'd seen this mentioned here a few times, and gave some thought last year to going to their "Underwater Music Festival", but my guess that this was pretty lame was generally confirmed. The reef itself, though was recommended as nice diving, and I'd agree. Looe Key Reef Resort Looe Key Dive Center dive sites runs a daily 3-tank trip that leaves at 10:00 AM, checkin at 9:00. They're on Ramrod Key at MM 27.5. That's about 65 miles, 1.5 hours, south of Tavernier, so we really didn't have to leave our room much earlier than for a morning dive trip in Key Largo.
The boat is a 45 foot catamaran. On our trip, there was a dive club with instructor of 21 divers, including several teens, plus us and another diver couple - and 20 snorkelers. 45 customers and three crew. I think probably if you look up "cattle boat" in the dictionary you'll see our picture. There was only room for 2 tanks each in the racks, so the crew swapped 25 tanks out during our second dive, from a storage area near the stern. I gather this was extreme even for them, and if we hadn't booked first, the group of 21 would have been considered a full boat. Still, they did a pretty good job of herding the cats, and we only left 15 minutes late.
They put a DM in the water with us, but I got the impression that's not SOP. Some combination of a student canceling at the last minute leaving her present but not working, and maybe the big dive club being on the boat.
The channel out to the dive sites is shallow, and low tide was coming on towards the end of the trip. The captain set a hard clock limit on completing the last dive because he was concerned that if he didn't get back through the channel before low tide we'd be stuck outside until evening. They usually limit the dives to an hour - tank PSI and no-deco time almost make no sense as limits in this kind of diving - but the last was just 39 minutes, and I used 900 PSI.
But truth be told, we had a very pleasant relaxed day of diving, and got to see some nice fish. It's mostly finger reefs on a sand bottom, similar to much of Key Largo, maybe a little sandier than most. My SAC rates for the three dives were the three lowest on this trip, and the second dive was a new personal low SAC. Like taking a nap. I'm not sure - I might have, the dive ended past 1 PM and I hadn't had any coffee since breakfast.
They cooked hotdogs and sloppy joes on a propane grill for sale between the second and third dives. Also chips, candy bars, and soda. Beer and Margaritas on the ride home. We knew to bring lunch and a bottle of cold coffee, and they had a cooler for that.
Bottom line, both my wife and I agree that next time we go to Key Largo, we'll plan to include a day trip like this down to Looe Key again. They have a wreck they do once a week, but other than that, I think it's pretty limited wrt variety. But once a year or so, I would like to do this again. Maybe next time we'll avoid colliding with a big group.
Accommodations - Ocean Pointe Suites
This was our first time here. It's actually in Tavernier (rhymes with beer) south of Key Largo, at MM 92.5. Fairly close to Conch Republic. Key Largo Hotels & Resorts | Ocean Pointe Suites | Florida Keys Oceanfront Resorts
I'd seen it recommended here, so we thought we'd give it a try. A little pricier than what we're used to in KL, but I think maybe that's because we'd gotten a couple of good deals at Kawama Yacht club, or stayed more clearly downscale at Key West Inn (AKA Suites at Key Largo).
It was mostly clean other than the floors, and well appointed, I'd be happy staying there again. We got a 2-bedroom "Island View", but there was a little bit of ocean visible out the angled balcony slider. Nice for checking out the weather. The second (full) bath had doors on both the hall and second bedroom, so it could be configured as a second ensuite room, which worked out well with my inlaws. King bed in the master. A small full kitchen. Washer/dryer, three TVs etc. Electronic safe.
Comparing to Kawama, it was less spacious. The rooms were just smaller, and the balcony might set a record for miniscule. You'd have to go inside to change your mind :cool2:. Another comparative downside was no internet except at the office/cafe/bar about an 8 minute walk from our condo building. That did work reliably.
But it's set up better than Kawama for booking, centralized administration rather than RBO or agent. There is no daily maid service, but we were there seven nights so we got a midweek change of linens and superficial cleaning.
Food and Dining
We mostly eat in when in KL, but after our last day of diving we went out to dinner at the Key Largo Conch House, MM 100.2, which we discovered last year and liked a lot. We mostly had stuff we remembered from last year. Very nice conch fritters, calamari greek salad, grilled mahi, and a very nice in-house-made key lime pie. The home-made coconut bread was again very good, and we had seconds. I think we'll be back again.
Silent World Dive Center - Recommended
Conch Republic Divers - Recommended
Looe Key Reef Resort - Recommended for a day trip
Ocean Pointe Suites - Recommended
86 degF bottom temps, sunny days, and flat seas - Recommended
Diving at low tide - Not recommended.
Introduction
My wife and I made our sixth dive trip to Key Largo in July. This time, we split our diving between Silent World and Conch Republic, both of which we've enjoyed diving with before, plus a day trip down to Looe Key. Mostly just mellow shallow warm water reefs and very old broken-up wrecks, but we did dive the Spiegel Grove for the first time.
Fourteen dives over six days. Three days with Silent World, including the Grove and a night dive on the City of Washington, two days with Conch Republic, and one three-tank trip with Looe Key Reef Resort. It just worked out that we dove the Benwood, which is one of our favorites KL sites, three times.
Bottom temps were almost all 86 degF, except 84 on the Spiegel Grove and one other dive, and 82 on the night dive. My wife's computer always reads slightly lower, she had several more 84s. We judged visibility usually at 40-50 feet. Some discussion with the crew taught us that most of our diving was being done at or near low tide near a full moon, which clouds the water at the dive sites with suspended coastal debris. Something we might want to consider in the timing of our next trip.
The Key Largo trip was sandwiched between visits to my wife's family in Orlando, which I won't discuss here, but we were traveling for three weeks. My non-diving brother-in-law and his wife came down to KL and stayed in our condo for most of the week, snorkeled, kayaked, went to Key West, and chilled out. We dove, ate in, and slept.
We enjoyed visiting our fish friends again, mostly just the usual suspects, very little charismatic megafauna. A few pretty large lobsters and a couple of crabs, a couple of spotted rays, and a few glimpses of nurse sharks. Didn't see any lionfish, large grouper, or eels. But it's all good. One band of blue tang in their "wild bunch" mode. A lot of the sergeant majors were in their egg-guarding blue phase. A small pod of dolphins or porpoises surfing the boat wake for a couple of minutes on one trip.
My wife continues to learn how to use her new Ikelite housing for her Canon S95 that she dove with for the first time in Bonaire last fall. It still hasn't flooded, and anything up from there is just a bonus. We left it home for the Spiegel Grove trip.
Silent World and Conch Republic
Both are quality operators with many good reviews on Scubaboard, including some I've written for past trips. We had a fine time with both, expect to be diving with both again sometime, and would recommend either without hesitation.
Silent World was a smaller boat and a more personal experience, but less organized. They have online pdf schedules of their dive sites, but we learned these should be considered aspirational. When I booked three weeks earlier, I made it clear that we had planned around these. When we showed up, though, the scheduled trip to the Spiegel Grove was going to the Duane/Bibb instead, and we didn't want to dive that. But we shuffled our schedule around a little, Chris the boat captain was very accommodating of requests from the guests, and we managed to dive all the sites we'd planned on, just in a different order/time. Flexibility is the key to happiness. And we certainly enjoyed the diving, the small uncrowded boats, and the atmosphere.
The night dive on the City of Washington was at the full moon, which rose just at sunset when we started the dive. A nice easy dive on a familiar site in a different light, nothing spectacular creature-wise. One big crab caught by our lights out in the open, couldn't decide whether to freeze or hide, tried both. They had a DM in the water, but I think he'd been hired as a guide by one of the other divers, not SOP. Coming back in, the full moon dead astern lighting up our wake in the warm evening air was a pleasant experience. They had some after-dive beers in the cooler in addition to the usual juice packs, but that's not my habit.
We dove air for most of the week, but Nitrox 30 (what SW stocks) for the Spiegel Grove trip. Nitrox is requested at booking. There's an analyzer at the dock. $14 / tank surcharge over the air included in the trip, but we paid it, so there you go ...
Conch Republic has an online schedule where the first person booking picks the site. We signed up for a couple of TBA shallow reef trips, and that's what we got. Both trips were on their 46' boat; the first had a half dozen divers plus 5 OW students with instructor, very roomy. The second day there was a group from Arizona, maybe 20 divers on the boat, still not really that crowded. A big bus out to the dive site, all the necessities, efficient, professional, and courteous. Sometimes that's all you need.
Spiegel Grove
I'll start by saying "thank you" to all those who contributed to the recent thread http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/fl...e-advice-inexperienced-diver.html#post5955864 . This was very well-timed and useful. In particular, we were somewhat prepared for the currents, the use of the granny and mooring lines, and thought to bring our gloves, which we usually leave home for warm water diving.
The current was challenging, but not impossible. My SAC for this dive was 25% higher than the next-highest dive this trip, more like what I get diving in San Diego in a hooded 8/7/6 wetsuit. The captain, Chris, estimated the current at 1.5 knots, and said that more than half the time it's less than 1 knot, i.e., these were relatively tough conditions, although flat seas. I have no way of calibrating his estimate, or his characterization of normal.
He made the decision to not do the scheduled second dive on the Spiegel Grove, and took us to the Benwood. I'm sure this was partly the customer demographic. My wife really struggled with the line-climbing, and had already told me I'd be doing the second dive by myself. The others were a young woman who'd hired a DM as buddy (nice to have him in the water with us), an insta-buddy couple of another young woman and a guy who discovered while gearing up that his Cobra was in error mode (missed deco stop), and a solo rebreather diver/ photographer, who just went with the flow.
I was up for a second Spiegel Grove dive, particularly now having more idea what to expect, and the wreck superstructure at 70 feet did look interesting and I wanted to see more. But I didn't really mind, I'd rather dive with my wife, and even more, not have her sitting on the boat thinking about it. And while it wasn't seriously challenging, my rope-pulling arm and shoulder muscles did let me know about the unusual activity for a couple of days.
I'd like to try it again some time if I can convince her these were unusually strong currents. Twenty years ago I could leave her on the beginner slopes for a couple of hours while I bashed moguls until I'd had enough. But diving has buddy requirements that make the logistics of splitting up harder. We'll see ...
Looe Key
Pronounced "Loo". I'd seen this mentioned here a few times, and gave some thought last year to going to their "Underwater Music Festival", but my guess that this was pretty lame was generally confirmed. The reef itself, though was recommended as nice diving, and I'd agree. Looe Key Reef Resort Looe Key Dive Center dive sites runs a daily 3-tank trip that leaves at 10:00 AM, checkin at 9:00. They're on Ramrod Key at MM 27.5. That's about 65 miles, 1.5 hours, south of Tavernier, so we really didn't have to leave our room much earlier than for a morning dive trip in Key Largo.
The boat is a 45 foot catamaran. On our trip, there was a dive club with instructor of 21 divers, including several teens, plus us and another diver couple - and 20 snorkelers. 45 customers and three crew. I think probably if you look up "cattle boat" in the dictionary you'll see our picture. There was only room for 2 tanks each in the racks, so the crew swapped 25 tanks out during our second dive, from a storage area near the stern. I gather this was extreme even for them, and if we hadn't booked first, the group of 21 would have been considered a full boat. Still, they did a pretty good job of herding the cats, and we only left 15 minutes late.
They put a DM in the water with us, but I got the impression that's not SOP. Some combination of a student canceling at the last minute leaving her present but not working, and maybe the big dive club being on the boat.
The channel out to the dive sites is shallow, and low tide was coming on towards the end of the trip. The captain set a hard clock limit on completing the last dive because he was concerned that if he didn't get back through the channel before low tide we'd be stuck outside until evening. They usually limit the dives to an hour - tank PSI and no-deco time almost make no sense as limits in this kind of diving - but the last was just 39 minutes, and I used 900 PSI.
But truth be told, we had a very pleasant relaxed day of diving, and got to see some nice fish. It's mostly finger reefs on a sand bottom, similar to much of Key Largo, maybe a little sandier than most. My SAC rates for the three dives were the three lowest on this trip, and the second dive was a new personal low SAC. Like taking a nap. I'm not sure - I might have, the dive ended past 1 PM and I hadn't had any coffee since breakfast.
They cooked hotdogs and sloppy joes on a propane grill for sale between the second and third dives. Also chips, candy bars, and soda. Beer and Margaritas on the ride home. We knew to bring lunch and a bottle of cold coffee, and they had a cooler for that.
Bottom line, both my wife and I agree that next time we go to Key Largo, we'll plan to include a day trip like this down to Looe Key again. They have a wreck they do once a week, but other than that, I think it's pretty limited wrt variety. But once a year or so, I would like to do this again. Maybe next time we'll avoid colliding with a big group.
Accommodations - Ocean Pointe Suites
This was our first time here. It's actually in Tavernier (rhymes with beer) south of Key Largo, at MM 92.5. Fairly close to Conch Republic. Key Largo Hotels & Resorts | Ocean Pointe Suites | Florida Keys Oceanfront Resorts
I'd seen it recommended here, so we thought we'd give it a try. A little pricier than what we're used to in KL, but I think maybe that's because we'd gotten a couple of good deals at Kawama Yacht club, or stayed more clearly downscale at Key West Inn (AKA Suites at Key Largo).
It was mostly clean other than the floors, and well appointed, I'd be happy staying there again. We got a 2-bedroom "Island View", but there was a little bit of ocean visible out the angled balcony slider. Nice for checking out the weather. The second (full) bath had doors on both the hall and second bedroom, so it could be configured as a second ensuite room, which worked out well with my inlaws. King bed in the master. A small full kitchen. Washer/dryer, three TVs etc. Electronic safe.
Comparing to Kawama, it was less spacious. The rooms were just smaller, and the balcony might set a record for miniscule. You'd have to go inside to change your mind :cool2:. Another comparative downside was no internet except at the office/cafe/bar about an 8 minute walk from our condo building. That did work reliably.
But it's set up better than Kawama for booking, centralized administration rather than RBO or agent. There is no daily maid service, but we were there seven nights so we got a midweek change of linens and superficial cleaning.
Food and Dining
We mostly eat in when in KL, but after our last day of diving we went out to dinner at the Key Largo Conch House, MM 100.2, which we discovered last year and liked a lot. We mostly had stuff we remembered from last year. Very nice conch fritters, calamari greek salad, grilled mahi, and a very nice in-house-made key lime pie. The home-made coconut bread was again very good, and we had seconds. I think we'll be back again.
