October is great time to dive in the Florida Keys since it is considered the off season, not to mention our anniversary, Brandi’s birthday and this time included Brandi’s 100th dive. The dive boats are not usually crowded so you sometimes are lucky enough to be the only ones on the reef.
The natural coral reefs are always beautiful but we especially enjoy diving the artificial reefs created by shipwrecks. One of our favorite wreck sites is Flagler’s barge. While only in about 20fsw the structure of the wreck is always teeming with life and this trip we were treated to a visit by a Hawksbill turtle. Another favorite is the USNS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg off the coast of Key West and we were joined by one of our previous dive instructors, Mike, who even located an Octopus on the wreck on National Octopus day, October 8.
On a side note, a photo Steve took during our dive on the Vandenberg won 2nd place in NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries “2016 Get Into Your Sanctuary” photo contest.
Trip VideoUSS Spiegel GroveGoliath Grouper
