After having had 4 dive trips cancelled in a row for weather or other
reasons, I was ready to get wet.  I ended up carrying over too many
vacation days from last year and the powers that be at work were
"encouraging" me to take them "as soon as possible"....so, after
exchanging a few emails with Capt Jim of Reef Divers, a trip to the Fla
Keys was planned.  I have seen Reef Divers website and had exchanged a
few emails with Capt. Jim, but aside from that, the only thing I knew
about Reef Divers were the positive comments I had heard from others.
My Non-Diving Spousal Unit (NDSU) accompanied me on this trip which was
1100 miles.  We stayed on Key West and Reef Divers is located on Cudjoe
Key, about 21 miles north (about a 25 minute drive).  I will go into
accomodations and other activities in the second part of my trip report
and deal with the diving and dive operations in the first part.  Capt
Jim runs a small operation, but he is obviously quite busy.  His boat is
a "6 pack" with an outboard 225hp motor.  Capt Jim puts diver safety and
comfort above all else which was apparent from the outset.  The first
day I arrived at his shop, his first question for me was "Can I see your
C-cards".  I have been on boats before where no one checked my c-card
and that does little to inspire confidence in the operation.  I had made
advance arrangements with Capt Jim to dive nitrox on my dives so he
verified my nitrox c-card also.  After analyzing the gas, loading the
equipment on the boat, and a quick pre-trip briefing on the boat, 4
other divers and myself were off to some relatively shallow reefs.
Visibility was about 40-50 ft and the water temperature was around 73-75
degrees.  We spotted a Goliath grouper about 20 ft away, but he/she seem
unsociable and departed the area.  Lots of coral and sponge life as well
as the usual variety of angels and typical Caribbean marine life.  I had
received a new underwater digital camera as a Christmas gift and was
anxious to try it out.  What I didn't realize until I returned home was
I had the strobe setting wrong.  Oh well, new equipment, still on a
steep learning curve.  After the first dive, we moved to another shallow
reef and it was on to the second dive.  The second dive was not
extraordinary and it was more of the warm water coral and fish life we
had seen earlier.

As we returned to shore, Capt Jim said I could leave my dive gear at his
shop instead of having to haul it back and forth each day which was
greatly appreciated.  The next day, it turned out, I was the only diver
but Capt Jim generously said we could go out anyway.  He asked how I
would like to dive the "Adolphus Busche", a skuttled wreck in about
108ft of water.  My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree so the two of us
headed out to the wreck.  Capt Jim, fixed me up with some "slightly"
different tanks this time.  Instead of the Al 80's which were quite
adequate on the shallow reef, I was now diving LP steel 120's with 32%
nitrox.  Now we're talking about some serious bottom time.  We
encountered a pretty significant current when we moored into the wreck
so Jim ran a line from the front of his diveboat to the mooring ball.
From there, it was an easy decent to the wreck.  The Busche is a large
wreck with LOTS of swim through's and easy penatration.  It would
certainly be a great site to do a shipwreck certification dive on.  Two
goliath groupers hovered off the starboard side of the Busche as we made
our way around the deck and went into the spacious hold area.  A
beautiful green moray was poking his head out of a small compartment on
the deck.

As I mentioned, my NDSU was with me and rather than require her to
become a "dive widow" and sit around the hotel, the next day, I set
aside so we could tour a bit on Key West.  The day following that, was
too windy for Capt Jim to venture out, so the NDSU and myself did a bit
more looking around on Key West.

My first day in the Keys brought a scare into my dive plans.  My chest
and sinuses started getting congested so a quick trip to a nearby
Walgreens and I got some cold medicine that kept me diving.

I had planned on returning from Key West and spending a day in Key
Largo, 100 miles north with hopes of diving the Speigel Grove.  My
timing didn't work out for the Speigel Grove but I did manage to get two
relatively shallow reef dives in.  Capt Jim recommended an outfit called
"Scuba-Do" in Key Largo.  They didn't have anything going out that day
but referred me to Ocean Divers.  Ocean Divers had a 1pm trip going out
and were quick to put me on the passenger manifest.  After checking my
c-cards, analyzing the gas, I loaded my gear onto their dive boat.  The
boat, the "Santana" is a relatively new craft, that can accomodate 24
divers and 6 snorklers ( I think those are the numbers).  We headed out
about 5-6 miles from shore.  As we stopped, I looked out across the
ocean and the mooring balls floating on the surface made it look like we
were downrange from an oversized golf driving range.  The boat captain
was giving us a pre-dive briefing on the site.  Nearby was a glass
bottom boat that was taking a tour on the reefs.  Our captain was
telling us to follow the mooring line down, take a 300deg heading and
then follow the wall.  He cautioned us about other boats in the area.
He mentioned, if you get under a boat and there are 200 faces looking
down at you, you are obviously under the glass bottom boat.  One of the
sites we visited had a large winch on the sand.  The captain told us
that some years back, a sailboat got hung up on the reef, so they
decided to use the winch to pull the sailboat off the reef.  The only
thing they succeeded in doing was pulling the sailboat down to the bottom.

The diving in the Keys is great and Capt Jim Wyatt gave me the VIP
treatment, but then, I suspect he does that for all his customers.  I
look forward to diving with him again.

This is the second part of my report that has nothing to do with diving
but with other things to see and do in Key West.  Our accomodations were
 at the DoubleTree Hilton on KeyWest and were quite clean and
comfortable.  Room rates on Key West range from $140-$1000 per night.  A
quick check on internet prices through services such as Travelocity, etc
gave a little price-break.  I did a Google search and checked the
DoubleTree Hilton main site and they listed rooms for several hundred
dollars a night but when we went to the website for THAT particular DT
Hilton, we were pleasantly surprised to get a rate of $160 per night.
When we arrived, they were expecting us and there was NO hassle at all.
 A quick checkin and it was time to move the luggage.  The lobby of the
hotel features a HUGE cylindrical saltwater aquarium that towered 10-12
ft towards the ceiling with a variety of tropical fishlife.  There was
coral in there, but I suspect it was not real.  Key West is only about 2
miles by 4 miles in area but almost every square inch of that is either
built up or used.  Virtually no vacant lots that I saw.  There are the
usual variety of stores and a shopping center or two available.  If you
have a taste for standard American food, there are burger places, an
Outback steakhouse, etc.  The main place where the activity goes on is
Duvall Street.  Lots of bars, clubs, and activities.  One of the guys I
work with is a Jimmy Buffet fan, so we made a point to stop in the
Margaritaville bar and have....well..of course, a margarita.  Saw no
signs of Jimmy Buffet though.  Lunch was at "Sloppy Joes", which was a
favorite haunt of Ernest Hemmingway who's picture is prominently
displayed around the bar.  Dinner was at "Crabby Dicks" restaurant which
featured a great seafood selection.

If you visit Key West, be aware there is virtually NO WHERE to park in
the downtown Duval street area.  The easist way we found to tour the
area was to rent a small two person scooter.  This allowed us to see
much more and was a LOT more maneuverable than a full size car.  There
were plenty of places you could park a scooter so parking that was not
really an issue. The scooters would easily cruise at 35-40mph and since
the speed limit was at the highest 35, we had not trouble keeping up
with traffic. We toured the Mel Fisher museum that started with a brief
17 minute video of Mel Fisher and his search for the Atocha gold.  The
remaineder of the museum featured various artificats he had recovered
and there was one display where you could actually pick up and handle
one of the gold bars he had recovered from the Atocha.

We took a tour of the lighthouse facility and the Ernest Hemmingway
house and visited and had our picture taken at the marker designating
the southernmost point in the United States.

Since the NDSU had never seen any of the underwater things I have seen,
We took a ride on a glass bottom boat.  This was a large catamaran style
boat.  The seas were around 3-4 ft that day.  Each side of the catamaran
featured a large well with windows facing towards the sea bottom.  There
was quite a bit of "surge" that day and the NDSU started getting queasy
watching the boat and coral life rock back and forth through tha window
so she had to go topside.  Oh well.  She was the one with the iron
stomach and I was the one who always got seasick.  Maybe I am getting
more used to it now.

I am certain we only saw a fraction of the things to do in Key West and
I certainly would love to return some day to tour and dive again.