Trip Dates 2007-06-16 to 2007-07-01

The Providers

American Airlines  (http://www.aa.com)
Alamo Rent a Car (http://www.goalamo.com)
Florida Keys Vacation Rentals Inc (http://www.rentalsfloridakeys.com)
Abyss Divers (http://www.abyssdive.com)
Hall's Diving (http://www.hallsdiving.com)
Middle Keys Scuba Center (http://www.divingdiscovery.com)
Captain Hook's Marina and Dive Center (http://www.captainhooks.com)
Looe Key Reef Resort (http://www.diveflakeys.com/godiving.htm)
Innerspace Diving (http://www.diveinnerspace.com)
Quiescence Diving Service (ttp://www.keylargodiving.com)
Cristal Clear Watersports (http://www.cristalclearwatersports.com)

Summary

We spent a couple of weeks in Marathon and dove there, in Looe Key,
and off Key Largo.  During our time there we hooked up with 5 other
rec.scubans for diving and dining.  It was fun.

Preparing

In addition to figuring out how to get there and where to stay, we
also booked some dives in advance.  This is because some rec.scubans
live in Florida and have been known to join those that don't.  This
meant arranging group dives in advance without knowing who the group
was.  This was my second trip to the Keys and the only dive shop I
knew was out of business.  But, google is my freind and I was able to
locate some shops.  Diving with Hall's at least once was a high
priority because they had been bad mouthed,
(http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.scuba/browse_thread/thread/94d4a80b450667f6/77
63e60b8f176839?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#7763e60b8f176839)
unjustifiably so in my opinion, in January 2007.  Also, I wanted one
of the group dives to be at Looe Key.  I found three shops on the
internet.  One didn't answer their phone.  Innerspace only took 6
passengers and that left Looe Key Reef Resort.  Even though they
turned out to have a cattle boat, they were the correct choice for
what we were doing that day.

American Airlines had an annoying feature when booking online.  My
wife's Advantage Card is in the name Patricia L. Bracuk.  The online
form didn't accept periods and if I ommitted it, the name didn't match
what they had on file.  I found that to be silly, especially since I
do that sort of programming for a living.

Looking for accomodations had it's adventures as well.  We inquired
about a number of properties but rarely got a reply.  The first reply
we got led us to attempt to book the place, but it wasn't available.
Either were our next two choices.  Eventually the agent sent us some
info about places that were available and we were in buisness.  I was
a little concerned about booking two weeks plus one day, but it turned
out to not be a problem at all.

Accommodations

Often when we visit a foreign country we stay in an all inclusive
resort and the only locals we see are the ones who work there.  This
time we took a very different approach.  We rented a local house
(http://www.rentalsfloridakeys.com/vrdetail.cfm?pid=4083), shopped at
local stores, and frequented local eateries.  This gave us an
opportunity to see what Yankees were like, up close and personal.  We
noticed a terminolgy difference, and a few instances where they could
improve their efficiency or manners.  Other than that, they were
reasonably civilized.

Our typical American house was quite nice.  It didn't have any lawns
though, perhaps Americans don't like cutting grass.  One thing that
was different than Canada was the stuff behind the house.  In Canada
you are likely to have either another house or maybe a back alley.
This house had a canal to the ocean.  I guess Yankees like boats.

Dive Shops

None of the dive shops were exceptionally good or exceptionally bad.
In fact, none were really bad at all.  They all got you out and back,
and all provided something to drink on board.  All offered unguided
dives lasting until you had 500 psi left or 60 minutes had elapsed,
whichever came first.  There were differences though.

We dove with Abyss Divers in Marathon once. This was one of the shops
that I had found on the internet before leaving and I booked a trip
with them before we left.  They had a decent boat and a friendly
captain.  There were only 5 passengers so it was spacious.  If they
filled it, it would have been crowded.  Had this shop been closer to
our house, we may have dove with them again.

We also dove with Middle Keys Scuba Centre in Marathon once. We
discovered them by driving by the shop.  It was just around the corner
from our house.  They either provided good service or no service.
When we dove with them, we were their only passengers, so that
shouldn't have been an issue.  We booked with them again, but they
cancelled on us and transferred our reservation to Hall's.  A third
time, I visited the shop but they wouldn't commit to sending a boat
out on the day we wanted to dive.

This led us to Captain Hooks, also within walking distance of our
house.  They ran a six pack (their larger boat was broke).  It was
comfortable but a little short of storage space for gear.  This meant
that we geared up consectutively instead of concurrently.  The captain
also swapped our tanks for us.  Some of you guys don't like that, but
it suits Patti and I just fine.  One thing that set this boat apart
was that they offered fruit punch in addition to water.

We dove with Hall's in Marathon thrice.  Two of these trips were
booked in advance and the third was the referral from Middle Keys
Scuba.  This was both the best and worst shop we dove with.  The bad
part was that the shop was not located near the boat so you had
another drive to make.  Worse though, was that they kept your c-cards
in the shop while you were diving so you had to go back and get it.  I
found that inconvenient.  On the plus side, they were the only shop
that had food as part of the fee.  They had sliced cantelope,
pineapple, and/or watermelon for us between dives.  On hte last day we
dove with them, they also had chocolate.

We dove Looe Key with Innerspace in Big Pine Key thrice.  They had a
six pack boat with a limited shaded area.  There was sufficient
storage space on it though, and even with six passengers it wasn't
really crowded.

We dove Looe Key on the Kokomo Cat from Looe Key Reef Resort on Ramrod
Key once.  This was a cattle boat.  There were 42 passengers, about
60% divers and 40% snorkellers.  Gearing up and swapping tanks
required co-operation and courtesy because it was crowded.  These guys
do 3 tanks, not 2 and they sell hot dogs and bottled water after the
2nd dive.  You also don't really get your full hour of bottom time per
dive because the captain announces a time to return and does not take
into account the time it takes to get everyone into the water.  One
thing I noticed though, the divers dispersed well.  Once we were in
the water, most of the time we were by ourselves.

In Key Largo, we dove with Quiescence twice.  The first time was
pre-arranged by Lee Bell, and the 2nd we booked while we were down
there.  They had comfortable six pack boats and offered valet diving
to a certain extent.  The captain would bring your gear to you so you
could do your back roll, and he also swapped tanks between dives.
While their diving cost was about average, their tank rentals were
expensive.  Plus, since their shop is on the gulf side, the boat rides
are a bit long.

Last, but not least, we dove once with Cristal Clear Watersports.
This was pre-arranged by mag3.  They had a large boat with a decent
shaded area.  There was lots of room for gear storage as well.  We had
17 passengers and were comfortable.  It may have been crowded with a
full boat but we didn't have a chance to find out.  Perhaps mag3 can
comment.  This shop is not on the highway so you might need
directions.  However, it is on the ocean side so the boat rides are
shorter.

Rec.Scubans

We met grunman581 plus wife Grace and daughter Kaitlyn.  We also met
and dove with mag3.  He came to dive with us and we accepted his
invitation to dive with his group.  That turned out to be one of the
best diving days of the trip.We hosted Lee Bell for on our first
weekend and hosted Magilla and John Hanson on the second.  They are
all nice people.  If you don't believe me, get out there and meet them
and see for yourself.

Diving

We knew we were going to have shallow dives in Looe Key and that Lee
had requested shallow dives for the first Key Largo dives, but other
than that, we didn't know what to expect.  As it turned out, we made
27 dives in 13 days and never went deeper than 30 ft.  Most of the
time, Patti left her dive computer in the house.  Mine is in my
console, but I chose to not turn it on after the first couple of days.
I have a simple waterproof watch so I can figure out the 60 minute
thing, and at that depth, there was no way to run out of bottom time.

The visibility was not as good as we had hoped.  For the first week in
Marathon and Looe Key, it was in the 20-30 ft range.  Then we went to
Key Largo and it was great.  Back to Marathon for the pre-arranged
dive and it was bad again, but at Looe Key, it had improved to the
40-50 ft range.  The next two days we dove in Key Largo and it was
great.  Then we were weathered out and the next day we dove in
Marathon.  On the first dive, the viz was only 10 ft or so, but while
we were diving, our captain was on the radio to other boats.  He moved
us a mile or two to the west and the vis was 50-60 ft, the best for
Marathon for the entire trip.  On the final weekend the vis was about
40-50 ft in Marathon but only 20-30 ft in Looe Key.

The shallow reefs in Key Largo were very nice.  It's hard to compare
them to the other two places because of the visibility differences.
However, Looe Key seemed to have a greater variety of fish.  What
little we saw of Marathon reefs were ok, but not as nice as the other
two places.

Things That Happened

On our first dive, a triggerfish came up to Patti to say hello.  Then
it started towards me.  I took a picture and then watched to see how
close it would come.  It came right up and kissed my filter.  Then it
backed off and did it again.  Then it started to look interested in my
fingers and that was the end of that.

Lee Bell and I were exchanging stories about sea dwellers grabbing
diver's fins.  I told him about the sea lion in the Galapogos and he
mentioned something about a damselfish.  Then the next day I was
trying to photograph a jawfish and something grabbed my fin.  I turned
around to see whether it was a damselfish or sea lion, but whatever it
was had swam away.  Lee was nearby but was looking the other way so he
didn't see what it was either.

I recovered three snorkels.  One I added to my collection, and the
other two had been dropped by divers from the same boat, so I returned
them.

We had big green iguanas on the dock behind our house.  They were shy
though, when spooked, they jumped in the water and ran away.

One day I looked into the water behind our house and there was a small
barracuda that appeared to be on the mooch.  I tossed him some
luncheon meat that he appeared to enjoy.

Another day there was an iguana on the dock that got annoyed at my
existance so he jumped into the water.  He swam away on the surface
and right below him was the barracuda looking up at him.  I thought it
might attack, but it didn't.  Too bad, that would have been cool.

Yankees are not very obedient.  We went to a restaurant by the water
and the signs said to not feed people food to the birds and fish.
Everyone was doing it though, even the Yankee that was with us.

We went shopping before the first Looe Key group dive, the one on the
cattle boat.  Lee bought cookies, chocolates, and toffees.  He quickly
became the most popular person on the boat when he started handing
them out to everone within range.  While offering some toffee to a
lady on the boat, he uttered the phrase, "want some candy little
girl?".  Later, Lee and I were chatting by the cooler and this lady
brought her son up and just helped herself.  We were amazed.  Turns
out though, that the lady also had a daughter who had made freinds
with grunmans's daughter, so it was ok.

Still on the cattle boat, grunman's wife got sick and skipped the last
two dives.  On the second dive, grunman and Kaitlyn were the last two
divers in the water.  They had surfaced a few dozen yards away and
were swimming in at a leisurely pace.  In the meantime, Lee had
purchased a couple of hot dogs.  When they got about 15 yards away,
Lee threw some hot dog bun near grunman which started a yellowtail
snapper feeding frenzy in his immediate vicinity.  I laughed, Grace
Shelley (aka mrs grunman) laughed.  Patti laughed.  grunman took it in
stride.  Then Lee threw another hunk of bun, plus some weiner at him,
and the fish had a feast.  This time, even Kaitlyn was lauging in the
water.  Always the good sport, grunman added to the show by pretending
to be annoyed.

At a restaurant in Key Largo, there were wooden pillars topped with
plastic cones in the water.  A seagull tried to perch on one of the
cones with varying degrees of success.  Eventually it almost fell off
and flew away.  It's one of those, you had to be there things.

Our last supper in the Keys was cooked by Magilla, and it was really
good.

There is a sunken barge in Marathon.  The first time we dove it, there
was a Sgt Major guarding it's eggs.  Less than a week later, no Sgt
Major, no eggs.  Guess they hatched, or got eaten, or both.

On that same barge, I saw a type of filefish I had never seen before.
I submitted a photo to a fish database (http://www.fishdb.co.uk) to
which I contribute.   Hopefully they will identify it.

Something else I had never seen before, were wrasses pretending to be
blennies.  I often see little blennies sticking out of holes in the
coral.  This time, I saw a couple of what appeared to be juvenile blue
headed wrasses doing the same thing.  It was pretty darn cute.

Photography

All my photography was done with natural light only.  However, this
was the first time I had taken pictures in such shallow water and I
learned a few things.  For example, sunlight will cause backscatter if
there is silt.  Also, I have a colour correction filter to take out
the blue.  It works very well at 30-50 feet, but at 15-20 feet,
sometimes I was better off without it.  This was especially true when
I had a sand background.  Fortunately it is the type that you can
install and remove underwater, so I was able to experiment and switch
when appropriate.

Conclusion

There is good diving in the Florida Keys.  If I go back, which is
reasonably likely, I'll probably stay in or near Key Largo and do most
of my diving there.

Dan Bracuk
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.