Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi gang,

Just a quick note letting all of you know that Tropical Storm Ernesto has come and gone with out much fanfare. They closed the Keys for a couple of days because they thought it could get bad. The truth is, if we didn’t have the weather channel and there were no satellites, we would have not missed a beat. It would have seemed like a normal summer afternoon storm that had a bunch of rain, maybe a bit more than usual, but honestly, the wind in the Keys never got much about 30 miles an hour, and it was for a very short period of time.

Anyway, we are still here and will be bringing you reports from all of our trips this Labor Day weekend, so stay tuned. If you were thinking about coming down this September, don’t delay, the weather is great and we’ll keep our fingers crossed and do a ritual dance to ward off any more storms.. I wish they were all this tame..

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

What a day! What a night! Great visibility, flat seas, lots of critters all day… Some folks did some lobstering, others were in classes… And then we did a night dive on top of that. I guess it’s safe to say we had a little bit of everything. We’ve been to Snapper Ledge, Pickles Reef, Molasses Reef and the Benwood Wreck for the night dive. We’d like to say Hello to two new Advanced Open Water divers from England ( Megan and Jack Whittle.) Kevin says they did an awesome job, and we hope to see them next year. Our lobster hunters are some old friends from Ft. Meyers (David and Bill) who have been super helpful constructing and painting the dive boats in the past. We have a lot of visiting Instructors in town, (Tom Mellor) with a bunch of his students, and of course our good friends from Team Divers in Miami (George and Mel) were down this morning with a bunch of their students. Our friends across the canal at Blue Water divers have a boat that is in the hospital today, so they hitched a ride with us. Hope you guys are up and running soon! We also had Matt Jones and some of his students with us today. If you find yourself needing an Instructor while in Havre de Grace, Maryland look here-> www.thescubacenterhdg.com

Anyway, we’ve got pictures pictures pictures!! From this mornings trip, this afternoon and of course our night dive!! Enjoy!

Article Author:

Captain Scott
Master Scuba Diver Trainer

We’ve been diving so much this week, we haven’t had much time to post here on the dive log! Anyway, we’ve had some very calm winds this week so it’s been very calm seas, but for some reason we’ve had an above average current. The current has been very heavy out on the wrecks, not too heavy to not make the dive, but it’s only the kind of day that makes sense for very experienced divers. Of course, it’s worth noting that current is both good and bad. The reasons you don’t want much current are obvious, but the best thing about current is that it cleans out the water! So we’ve had great visibility all week. The Florida Keys, Key Largo and Islamorada typically have little or no current at all on most days.. So when we get it, it seems strong, but in fact it’s child’s play compared to many other places in the world where it’s so strong, the only way to dive is with a drift dive.

All in all, another spectacular day. We had a pod of dolphins following the boat and playing in our wake as we came back from the reef. That’s always a treat in the summer. Someone on the boat got some pictures and video and if they will send it, we’ll post it here! 

Here are some shots of our new friends we took out to French Reef, a big hello to Tamara, Ashley, Kevin, Rachel, Lola, Miriam, Francisco, and Ruben!  You guys are crazy! Hope you all had a great time, I know we did!

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Sometimes in the late summer, we find ourselves with a little free time (i.e. an afternoon with less than the usual amount of divers). I think it’s because people are so worried about hurricanes because of last year, that they wait until the last minute to make reservations. In any case, no hurricanes! Great weather, great Diving! They tell me that September and October is some of the best diving of the year. I’m looking forward to it. The water is still 85 degrees, and when there isn’t a hurricane brewing, the winds are very calm, and the air cools just a bit. This makes for outstanding conditions for diving (no waves at all, and great visibility). Once we enter September, the hotels get super cheap (our packages have hotels as low as $69.00 per night!) and the crowds of the summer thin out. Our fall customers often end up with just a handful of divers on each of our boats. So for those of you who have a little gamble in you, come visit us in September or October and if we aren’t under hurricane watch (contrary to last year, is a lot less often than you might think) you are in for some of the best diving we get all year and the lowest prices! After last year’s multitude of near misses, it’s hard to believe that a hurricane hasn’t really hit the Florida Keys for a long, long time.

So anyway! We did a staff dive with me, D.J., Shaun and Bill took the Tropical Dream out in Islamorada to Victory reef. We had flat seas, no current, and visibility was good, not great. Visibility was about 60 ft. I’ve heard all about Victory reef, and I’m glad I finally got to see it for myself! 

You’ll need REAL PLAYER to view the video from our staff dive on Victory Reef!! CLICK HERE TO VIEW!

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi Gang,

Lots of times, on our shallow afternoon trips, we have families who are not all divers. Many times they are kids and are not yet divers (although, most of them are fish, and probably should be divers, see attached photos) so they are limited to snorkeling. Now, for you divers who are anti-snorklers and don’t want to get “stuck” on a boat with snorkelers because you want to make a wreck or deeper dive, fear not! This is precisely why we have several boats and most every morning we have a deep boat and a shallow boat so everyone gets to do what they want to do and divers aren’t stuck with snorkelers or the other way around. We are happy to be able to accommodate everyone together, and usually the snorkelers go on the afternoon trips which are all shallow anyway. So for you divers who have family members, significant others, or other people in tow, you don’t have to leave them behind when you go diving! They can snorkel or participate in a Discover Scuba class and actually go diving with you on the same trip! Don’t forget that they can also join an Open Water class while you are diving, and then you can all go diving when they do the four checkout dives! It’s a great way to spend time with your family and friends.  

Anyway, it was another great day out on the reef. The shots are from our afternoon Key Largo trip on the Tropical Voyager. It looked like a lake out there and it was hard to remember it was the ocean! We also have a new Captain who has taken over for Captain Rob! She must have orchestrated a mutiny!!

Article Author:

Captain Rob
Master Scuba Diver Trainer

Hey everyone! Another great day out on the reef brings you another great reef report! The pictures today are from the Tropical Explorer with a crew of me (Captain Rob) and David (1st Mate) along with Kevin who was teaching a Discover Scuba Class and D.J. who was the Divemaster. D.J. brought the digital video camera along again so he will probably post a movie later tonight, so check back! Big hello goes out to Terry and Keith McCammon who are return customers and doing a lot of diving with Instructor Bill. This afternoon we took a trip out to the Winch Hole, and Sand Bottom Cave. Along for the ride in was D.J.’s old friend Paolo Buonfante, who brought a few of his friends from Milan, Italy for the Discover Scuba Diving Class! Ciao! We also had Captain Doug back on board finishing the Open Water Certification class he started yesterday. Big hello to David, Marlene, Christine, Erica, Pedro and Lee. Congratulations on your new certifications, we hope to see you back for Advanced Open Water!! We had a great time, and if you are reading this, wish you were here!

Dateline: 10:30pm EDT—> Here is the Video of the DAY!!! CLICK HERE!(Requires RealPlayer)

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hey gang! Just got back from a GREEEAAAATT afternoon trip out to Sand Island and the Race Track in Key Largo. We had some return customers with us which were Anne Allard and Philip Stromme, and of course some new customers who did a great job diving today – Help me give a big HELLO to Tom Garske and Rebecca Martin. Thanks for diving with us guys. Here are a few pics of the water.. Super calm and super blue today. Just a little bit of current, but that is probably what gave us the great visibility.

Our old freind Captain Doug (a PADI Course Director) brought some students along to do some Open Water Certifications and it would have been harder to have nicer conditions. Great job on your first two check out dives guys! ** Pedro, Erica, Marlene, Christine, Robert and David ** We’ll see you again tomorrow, and be sure to check back on here by tomorrow for a link where I’ll post some video that I shot today. Got lots of great stuff, can’t wait to get home and dump it to the computer to check it out! AND HERE IT IS: CLICK HERE TO VIEW! [requires RealPlayer]

Dive safe, Dive Often!

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Hi Everyone!

Lots going on out on the Tropical Explorer today in Key Largo. It was a bit wavy due to the Tropical Depression once known as “Chris” that fell apart long before it got here. It still brought us a little bit of wind and some small waves. Visibility was great! We went to the Spiegel Grove and then we went down to Molasses Reef.

Francois and Marjolaine were visiting us from Quebec and were camping at John Pennekamp State Park’s camp (just a mile and half from us). They said “it was the best dive they ever did in their lives” and thanked Tom (the Divemaster) for showing them around.

Eddie was doing the Advanced Open Water Class with Geneva and Janine. They did the deep dive on the Spiegel Grove and learned Navigation on Molasses Reef. We had a great time and we hope everyone else did too!

Georgia

Article Author:

Captain D.J.
Master Instructor

Welcome to the Rainbow Reef Dive Center daily diving Blog! We plan to bring you updates from Key Largo and Islamorada in the Florida Keys. We’ll update you on our daily adventures out to the Reefs, Wrecks and Walls we dive every day.

Check back often, our Captains, Divemasters and Instructors will be bringing you daily reports from our dive sites. We’ll let you know what the weather was like including the winds, waves visibility and water temperatures. We will try and bring you as many pictures as possible.

Thanks for checking in and we hope to see you out on the reef!

D.J. @ Rainbow Reef