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| Florida Keys - Key
Largo - May 2005 |
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"When we came within sight of the sea, the waves on the
horizon, caught at intervals above the rolling abyss,
were like glimpses of another shore with towers and
buildings", Charles Dickens
"Gaaah, aarrg, blauh, Buuick, ralph", Bob Miller
Photo by Cherri Wood |
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 We
gathered around the dock at the
Quiescence Dive
Shop, gazing longingly at the 3 6-pack dive boats ready for us to
load up. The words were not want we wanted to hear -- winds were
running about 15-17 or more and seas about 4 with occasional 5 footers.
We were given plenty of choices and only 4 divers in the group,
otherwise known as the "Diehards", decided to brave the wind and seas.
The rest of us decided that some shopping, the beach and the pool
sounded much more intriguing.
When the small group (Marianne & Bob Barger, Michelle Plank and Chris
Cross) returned they declared that it wasn't too bad but was a little
rough.
Photo by Bob Barger. |
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 Captain
Harry on the 2nd boat took 6 of us (Janet & Bob Miller,
Frank Panhuise, Barry Donegan, and Gary & Cherri Wood)
to a deeper area with the hopes of avoiding the surge
and bad visibility we expected to find because of the
big waves. We were disappointed to discover that the
visibility was not just a measly 10-15 feet, but that
the sponges were spewing white foam like a volcanic
eruption. The water was filled with clumps of
stuff. There was a current to make it even more
interesting but Gary Wood
managed to find this colorful Scorpion Fish snuggled
down in one of the sponges.
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 We
headed back in to Molasses Reef and a familiar spot
called the "Hole in the Wall". At this location,
the visibility was very nice but the surge was
definitely keeping us on the move. Molasses is
always a good dive and there were some nice swim
throughs and plenty of critters to entertain us.
According to Bob Barger, boat QI with "The Diehards"
did two non-buoyed reefs on Sunday. They were at a max
depth of 48 feet and sported at least 50 feet of vis.
Capt. Steve very generously put us on these two
reefs which were loaded with fish and undisturbed hard
and soft corals. All four of us drifted and swam for 50
minutes on one dive and 1 hour and 2 minutes on the
second, as he followed overhead. Each of the reefs were
large enough that we could have made both dives on
either and still not seen the entire reef system. Bob
says the dive buddies worked together as great teams.
Open Mouth Grouper by Chris Cross |
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 Boat
number 3 took Uschi & David Lanier, Bob & Marcia Mahood,
Dennis Shultz and Bob Waters to another dive site where they reported
really good viz and lots of exciting sea creatures.
Bob Mahood provided the following info:
Dive 1 was at Elbow Reef at the edge of a gentle, sloping drop off to
80 feet. Entry was easy with the option of either a
back roll entry or a giant stride entry off the
stern. Visibility was around 50 feet, however due to
the gently sloping terrain and lack of hiding places,
there was a distinct lack of sea life with just a few
small fish in the area. All of us noticed the sponges
with their clouds of substance drifting lazily upwards
and looking very much like a chimney with smoke
billowing upward. The word from Captain Mike
was the sponge were spawning and we were witnessing a
somewhat unusual event.
The seas were slightly smaller for dive 2 which was
only a mile or so south on Elbow, but what a
difference a mile or so makes. We dove on "The
Slabs", a set of 3 slabs of reefs in about 30' of
water. Captain Mike says this is one of their
"secret" locations and it was fabulous. We saw quite
a few lobster, a very sleepy nurse shark, a number
of larger fish in the ledges, lots of colorful small
fish and a couple of very toothy, smiling barracuda.
The second slab of reef also had a beautiful swim
through in the middle of the reef and an elbow swim
through at the end of the reef from the ocean side and
up through the top of the reef. "The Slabs" is a name
to remember when diving with Quiescence.
Quiescence did a great job for us and their boats
are sized just right for small groups. They went
out of their way to make sure we understood the
conditions and did an excellent job of finding dive
sites that suited our needs.
Hogfish photo by Cherri Wood |
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