Water Temps & Choices July 4th

[geo_dives]

Heading to Key West for the July 4th weekend. Have friends who live there so accomodations are taken care of. I've read enough posts to know that holiday weekend traffic is gonna suck and so staying on Key West is probably in our best interest...but we'd drive if the site was worth is (Key Looe?).

Curious about water temps and dive operators to consider. We'd like to do 2-tank dives on the 3rd, 4th, & 5th. Wife tends to prefer "shallow" - 60 foot or less. But we've both been to 115+.

Thanks for the inputs.

And happy 4th of July.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

You should take one day and drive up to Looe Key. It is just what you are looking for. An absolutely beautiful shallow reef lush with all sorts of hard and soft corals and fish life. Depths 15' at top of coral to 30 feet on the sand, maybe a few feet deeper on the outer edge. You can do 3 long tanks and no worries about deco.

Don't know which operator to recommend, maybe netdoc or a Keys native can weigh in on that.

If you want a deeper wreck, the Vandenburg off of Key West is really nice. It is an advanced dive but sounds like you have the experience for it.

 

[billinwilliamston]

Water temps should be lower to mid 80's by then depending on the site. Most ops dive the Vandy in the morning and reefs in the afternoon. For the most part, the reefs around here are in the 15 - 30 ft range. Kind of a long, swimming safety stop. There are 4 major ops in Key West (with a nod to the MV Spree, a live aboard which, I'm sure, is booked for the weekend), Dive Key West, Captain's Corners, Southpoint and Lost Reef. I don't know much about Dive Key West. Southpoint probably has the nicest boat of the other three, Captain's Corners is the lest expansive and Lost Reef has the best crew (my wife is an instructor there) ;-).

Traffic shouldn't be too bad Friday afternoon or Saturday, but could be absolutely miserable heading South Thursday evening and heading North Sunday afternoon.

Have fun!

 

[geo_dives]

Thanks for the info on Key Looe. Is a shore dive or will we need a boat?

---------- Post added June 3rd, 2014 at 11:26 AM ----------

Thanks for the info on water temps. I tend to be cold and will check wtih NOAA and see if I need a 5 or 3 mm. Yea, that kind of cold.

I've checked the website for Dive Key West and it looks good. Haven't looked at the others, but will do that this week.

We're flying into Key West, so overall traffic shouldn't be too much trouble. Good to know that we could make it to Key Looe without to much interferance.

Thanks!!