Key West Trip and Dive Report

Got to Key West Saturday afternoon and we stayed at the Hyatt Resort on the
north end of the island. This is not a motel, but a timeshare, which was
listed on Expedia. I suppose that it was not timeshared out, so they rented
it out for our time. Even though there was no maid service, it was a great
place to stay. There were two bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room,
and a screen in deck. Very quiet and very nice, my wife was happy, I would
recommend it.

What can I say about Duval Street that has not already been said? Whenever
we had no plans, we ended up there, which was everynight. Always something
interesting to do and see there. Once again, the Sunset Celebrations were
entertaining. We ate at Cheeseburger Paradise, Hard Rock Cafe,
Margaritaville, and other places around the island. I would rate the food
from good to very good.

As for snorkling, Fort Zachary Taylor Park has a nice beach, where you can
rent chairs and umbrellas. There are artificial reefs about 20 to 30 feet
off shore with abundant fish life and good visibility.

Now, for the Dive Report. I dove two days and used Dive Key West and was
very impressed with them. They are a friendly and customer oriented
business. They practically did everything for you and all I had to do was
just doublecheck all my equipment and the set-up. I took two morning dive
trips and there were seven of us one morning and five the next, so there was
no rushed cattle boat experience. I think it would be difficult for some to
get out of bed early after a night on the town, but if you can, mornings
were a good time to go, then I spend the rest of the day with my non-diving
wife. The first day, we dove an outer reef about 30 feet and a shallow
inner reef. Visibility was about 20 to 25 feet at best. Maybe it was just
the time I was there, but I would rate Nassau as the best visibility I have
ever seen, followed by Cayman. So, from my experience, that puts Key West
third on the list, at least for me. At least for now.

The next day was a 65 foot dive to Joe's Tug. Interesting dive. I saw a
video on the internet from a couple of years ago with an intact one piece
Joe's Tug. What I saw and videod was a smashed wreck in two main pieces
with a debris field in the middle. I read this happened after Hurricane
Francis and I marveled at nature's destructive fury, especially at this
depth. There was an abundance of feeding fish on all the pieces, but I did
not see the eel. The video housing started leaking, a slow drip at 15 feet
turned into a steady drip at 65. However, I wanted the footage, figured
there was ample room in the housing, took a chance, and everything worked
out upon my return to the surface after 30 minutes. Our last dive was
another shallow reef dive and I videod that, too. The housing kept dripping
at a rate of 1 drip every thirty seconds, so after an hour, there would be
120 drips on the housing floor. Figured I'd still be okay. (By the way,
repaired the housing yesterday at home.) Always nice to be around the coral
reef life. Something you don't see everyday. As before, I will post the
video on Google Video for those that are interested, after the editing.

To sum up, overall, very good vacation ***. The Hyatt ***1/2. Food ***.
As for diving, still better than the quarry I dove here in Ohio, so I have
had better, I have had worse. Overall, I would rate it as good diving in
Key West ***.