Scuba Diving Road Trip - Florida
For regular readings of this website you’ll know that last year we relocated out of Malaysia to live in a new country as it’s the 4th of July I thought it would be a good time to reveal our new location - yes, you guessed it - the good old US of A! Its been sometime since we arrived and while diving opportunities are somewhat scarce in upstate New York (although you can dive there - more to come in a future post) the best scuba diving is to be found in the south. Having acclimatised to the new climate and survived our first winter in many years we decided that the best way to get some scuba diving in would be via a time honoured American tradition - the road trip!
The first few months when moving country are generally pretty fraught, what with trying to find somewhere to live, set up bank accounts, and furnish a new home it takes a while for things to settle down. However, we decided that it was time to get out on the road and see what this magnificent country has to offer. We loaded up the truck (yes, we’re in America - you need a truck here!) with all of our gear and started the trip down to the sunshine state, Florida.
It’s a pretty long journey from New York to Florida so we decided to break it up a little stopping off in Virginia and then in Savannah, Georgia to make the most of it. While Charlottesville in Virginia was nothing to write home about, Savannah in Georgia was stunningly beautiful. Our hotel was spot on and even had a rooftop bar and we were able to enjoy a gorgeous sunset and a few cold beers with a pizza to unwind after a couple of long days driving. It was here that we decided the first stop off point of the road trip would be in West Palm Beach. The primary reason for this was the well known and acclaimed dive site Blue Heron Bridge which is renowned for its macro life including Seahorses in the sea grass. After a little bit of research on the web we found a great little dive shop located nearby call “Pura Vida Divers”, named after the Costa Rican saying that literally means Pure Life. We contacted the team there and were able to book a dive the next day at Blue Heron Bridge - we were super excited, especially myself as it had been more than six months out of the water - I had all my gear and my underwater camera set up with me and just just chomping at the bit to get stuck in.
A Seahorse at Blue Heron Bridge
The next morning we rocked up at the dive shop, rented the few bits of gear we still needed and got our first introduction to the reality of diving in Florida compared to Asia - we had to load up the tanks and gear into our truck, on our own and drive the the entry point! It was a harsh bump down to reality after so many full service trips in Asia where to do anything yourself can be seen as an insult to the crew and guide. Still, I wasn’t complaining (much) and the site was just a couple of minutes from the shop. Blue Heron Bridge is exactly what it appears to be - a bridge over one of the inland waterways in Florida that is home to a state park and small beach favoured by the locals. We rocked up, met our guide and started to get kitted up - not being sure of the water temperatures and having read online that the water can get cold in Florida I opted for my Shark Skin titanium top of leggings to ensure I wouldn’t get cold, this turned out to be a bit of a faux pas as the water was much warmer than expected. The three of us entered via the shoreline and submersed underneath the water. Having read so much about the site, I was expecting something similar to Southeast Asia but it was pretty different - no nudibranchs today! Still, we explored the little coral bommies and found a number of shrimp, hermit crabs and small fishes that kept us pretty occupied - I was using my snoot torch which took a little getting used to again - after a while we moved away from the bommies to underneath he bridge where the water was a little cooler and we found a couple of stingrays hiding out. I looked down at my dive computer and saw that the site was pretty shallow, around 5m, but this allowed for an extended dive time - we were already at about 1.5hrs. After the bridge we headed towards a patch of sea grass where after a little bit of searching we came across a Seahorse which decided to pose nicely for me to get off a couple of photos. We surfaced at around the 2hr mark, certainly my longest ever dive but feeling good after a nice easy dive to get back into the swing of things.
A Spider Shrimp at Blue Heron Bridge
Having thoroughly enjoyed our first dive with Pure Vida we signed up for a two dive boat trip the next day with them once we had dropped off the tanks and headed back to our hotel for some evening beers and tacos which was a perfect way to end the day. The next morning we headed to the boat with our gear and loaded up onto the boat with the other guests. The crew then explained how the things would operate which was again different to Asia but still manageable. The main difference is that divers here in the US are expected to be much more self sufficient that in Southeast Asia - I guess the theory being that people should be able to deal with small problems themselves and this should make everyone safer. I’m not sure I fully agree with this but there is no right or wrong of doing these things. The boated headed out to a site called Paul’s Reef about an hour away so we enjoyed being out on the ocean with good weather until the signal was given to get ready. We jumped in and were greeted by a much bigger coral reef than the dive the day before but not with quite the same abundance of life that you’d expect to see in say, Malaysia. Still, that didnt mean that it was devoid of anything to see - the invasive Lionfish which are not native to this area were there for all to see, without any natural predators here their numbers have soared. We also saw a few shrimp, a boxfish, spiny lobster and even a loggerhead turtle swam past us as well. The dive lasted around an hour at a max depth of about 17m but the water was nice and warm - I didn’t wear as much exposure protection of the day before and felt a lot more comfortable as a result.
A Spiny Lobster at Paul’s Reef, West Palm Beach
The last dive of the day was at a site called teardrop - while not as pretty as Paul’s reef it was still interesting and saw lots of soft corals at this site - I was immediately struck by the fact that there were no clownfish here - I hadn’t realised until now that they were only found in Australia and Asia. Without them it felt a little empty but that didnt stop us from finding a few pufferfish, lion fish and even a couple of Morray Eels. After the dive the boat headed back the the harbour for us to unload and wash down gear. The first few scuba dives of our American road trip had been pretty successful.
We spent another day or so just chilling out in West Palm beach before decided to head on down to the Florida Keys - this was pretty exciting as I had always wanted to visit them since before I can remember. Our first stop would be at Key Largo and we rolled into town before midday and quickly found a nice little hotel on the shoreline with its own little private harbour, some sit on top kayaks and a couple of restaurant/bars next door, We had a nice chilled out day playing around on the kayaks and then watching the sunset with a couple of cold ones which was just perfect. We had managed to find a company called Sea Dwellers for us to dive with the next day so we headed to bed early ahead of another days diving. The next day we rocked up at the shop and went through the same process of loading tanks and gear into our truck - this time we had booked a guide so we could get to see the best life underwater. We headed around tot he dock where we had to wait for about an hour in the sun for the boat to be ready - not the best preparation in terms of staying hydrated before diving. As we headed out to sea it was evident that the wind was up and the ride was a little bumpier than the previous days - this wasn’t too much of an issue for us, but some of the younger teenagers on the boat found it a bit too rough for their liking and made sure everyone knew how they were feeling. After about an hour we got to the site called French Reef and kitted up. I was glad that we booked guide as the other groups were just allowed to jump in with no briefing about the dive site or topography - something that would never happen in Asia. With our guide and another couple (a mum and her son) we jumped in and stared to explore. It was immediately evident that this reef did not have much life on it - a shame and it made it feel very eery. Our guide showed us around but I could help but feel he wasn’t really interested in trying too hard - we went down to a depth of around 15m and after a while the mum and son went back up to the boat - the guide seemed to let them go and they didn’t perform a safety stop - just shot up pretty quickly. Anyway, we saw this and came up, with a safety stop an got back onto the boat. The other groups were all back on board and complaining about the choppy water wanted to abort the second dive and head home. We had noticed that the lady who had dived with us was complaining of not feeling very well and was lying on the floor. We alerted the staff who hadn’t seemed to notice this while seeming more interested in placating the other groups who wanted to head back. We were asked what we wanted to do and said that we were happy to head back as the lady on the floor really didn’t look very well at all. At this point, one crew member kicked into action and got an oxygen bottle out for her and started her breathing on that.
A Sea Fan in the Florida Keys
Coral at Marathon, Florida Keys
As the boat headed back to shore the crew member really worked hard - keeping the lady breathing on the oxygen, asking if she wanted an ambulance and keeping her talking. When we arrived back at the dock we were kept back while the emergency services helped the lady off into an ambulance and then we were allowed to disembark. The incident brought into stark contrast the difference between diving here in Florida compared to what I was used to. It really was a bit of a free for all and even if you have a guide they won’t really look out for you or try to point out interesting life. We retuned to our hotel at the end of the day tired and a bit shaken by what we had seen, we hoped that the lady recovered from her symptoms and that her young son was OK. (We found out afterwards she was OK and was discharged from the hospital after a day or so). That evening we decided on the next leg of the trip and that we would try somewhere a bit different. Most people would normally head all the way down to Key West, but we decided to stop at Marathon - a sleepy, small town about half way to Key West that wouldn’t be as busy. As luck would have it, right next to our motel was a dive centre so we headed round to enquire about any diving trips they may have on. The scuba gods were smiling on us as we managed to book onto a boat trip the next day - so with this in mind we headed out for dinner and drinks before turning in for an early night,
We’d booked with a company called Tilden Scuba who run regular trips from Marathon and as we got to the dock I instantly got a good feeling that this was a team that knew what they were doing. They were friendly and very helpful - helping us get our gear onto the boat and giving us water while we waited for the rest of the customers. The boat left dock and we were pleasantly surprised that the winds had rescinded a little making it a more comfortable journey out to the first dive site called Sombrero Reef. The reef is a circular outcrop with a lighthouse in the middle - its very picturesque and quite famous I believe, As we were the only divers, the rest were snorkelling, we jumped in first, on our own and were told to be back at the boat in an hour. We swam around the reef trying to ensure we kept our bearings and could see the boat - easier said than dine. Still, we had great fun exploring and Laura even found $20! After an hour we got back onto the boat and headed towards the last dive of the day and our trip called Coffin’s Patch.
Coffin’s patch is a number of long, thin coral outcrops that from above look a little like coffins, hence the name . We spent our time swimming in and out of the outcrops exploring and seeing what there was to see - lots of yellow snapper were hiding in the area and so I tried to get some nice photos of them, but the school kept on breaking up before I could get a shot and as it was fairly shallow and the waves were picking up it was fairly sanding too. We came up after about 50 minutes and got back onto the boat and heading back to shore. We rinsed everything off and thanked the boat crew who were fantastic helping to wash stuff down, especially camera gear. After that it was sunset beers at a hotel nearby before the next (non-diving) leg of the road trip. We decided to head up to Orlando and go to Universal Studios for a couple of days which was the perfect way to end our road trip to Florida.
The diving is certainly different to Malaysia and Southeast Asia, you are expected to be much more self reliant and normally dives are unguided. It took a little getting used to, but eventually we figured it out. Would I return to the keys to dive? Yes, but I would be going back to dive some of the wrecks that the area is famous for rather than doing reef dives Still, we had a fantastic time and really enjoyed the adventure of it all - would really recommend as a diving experience.
Making diving pay!