We got into Marathon Keys late Saturday night and went looking for food (this was about 11:55pm). We went into this hole in the wall, a place that I would never have gone to except that we were very hungry. At the front door there was a sign that said "white trash. see how they live". Hillarious!
It turned out that the place was a bar on one side with live music and a restaurant on the other side. The live band played this blues kind of music and were pretty awesome. On top of that the food was even more amazing. And I mean AMAZING!!! I guess you can never judge a place by the sign on the door, specially if you are in the keys. lol
We slept in Sunday morning (’cause I’m on vacation!) and then headed to Key Largo to book a dive. We ended up at the Spiegle with 2 afternoon dives. The crew of the dive outfit, The Conch Republic Divers were really cool, the boat was nice a big and the dives were way awesome! Viz on the first dive was not that great and there was a little bit of a current. Our first stop was at the Super Structure (the front of the boat). Depth in the sand was about 136 (?) or so but we only went down to 105’ on Nitrox. There were plenty of open lighted "swim throughs" at the deck (nice and easy penetration), lots of corals and fishes, even an American flag just hanging as if there were no wind blowing. It made you wonder how life was during her hay days... quite an experience. I dove on my 3mm and was quite comfortable although there was a thermoclime at around 77’ or so.
On the second we headed straight to the back of the ship where the cranes were. Viz was much reduced and was really cold but that was the best dive of the day. The crane structure is huge and the ship looked really sinister in the dark. That’s where the big ’cudas hang out. I also got to "meet" the resident 300lb grouper someone told me about on this site. Talk about pre-historic!!! Just like an old cheap sci-fi movie. LOVE those!!!
The reef dives we did yesterday and today were pretty nice too. Saw a huge moray eel, a big crab of some kind (yum!) and lots of cool fish...the spotted trunk fish being my favorite.
Tomorrow we check out the Duane. Stay tuned... :)