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Reefs We Visit
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These are the reefs and wrecks our boats visit most often. Depths run from the shallowest part of the reef to the sand around it. The captain picks the reefs each morning by the wind, the current and who's on board, so we can't promise a particular reef on a particular day, but tell us what you'd like to see when you book and we'll do our best. Snorkel trips go to the shallow reefs: Grecian Rocks, Key Largo Dry Rocks, and the shallow end of Molasses on a calm day. |
| Reef | Depth | What you'll see | Level |
| Key Largo Dry Rocks | 5 to 25 ft | The bronze Christ of the Abyss on the sand, with elkhorn and brain coral all around. Sergeant majors, blue tangs, parrotfish. | Everyone, snorkelers too |
| Grecian Rocks | 3 to 25 ft | Shallow thickets of elkhorn coral, a long reef that's easy to follow, schools of grunts, and parrotfish you can hear crunching. | Snorkelers and new divers |
| Molasses Reef | 10 to 40 ft | Long fingers of coral with sand channels between them, big schools of fish, moray eels, turtles, and an old iron windlass from a ship lost long ago. | Everyone; some days a current |
| French Reef | 15 to 45 ft | Ledges, swim-throughs and small caves, Christmas Tree Cave among them. Glassy sweepers and grunts packed under the overhangs. | Steady buoyancy needed |
| The Elbow | 15 to 35 ft | The scattered remains of old shipwrecks grown over with coral, and more fish than you can count. Often a current. | Some ocean dives behind you |
| Benwood Wreck | 25 to 45 ft | A freighter that sank after a collision in 1942, now covered in coral and sponges. Schools of snapper and grunts, and now and then a nurse shark asleep under the plates. | A good first wreck |
| Duane | 60 to 120 ft | A Coast Guard cutter sunk on purpose in 1987 to make an artificial reef. She sits upright on the sand. Big fish, strong currents, and blue water all around. | Advanced only. We'll ask to see your logbook. |
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What lives here
On almost any dive off Key Largo you'll see parrotfish, angelfish, blue tangs, sergeant majors, yellowtail snapper and great schools of grunts. Barracuda hang in the water and watch you; they're curious, not hungry. Moray eels open and close their mouths at you from the holes in the reef; that's how they breathe, not a threat. With some luck you'll meet a sea turtle, a nurse shark resting under a ledge, a stingray on the sand or a spotted eagle ray flying past. Ask us for the laminated fish card on the boat and keep track of what you saw. The sanctuaryAll of these reefs are in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and several of them are protected areas within it where nothing may be taken, fish included. Every one has mooring buoys, so no boat ever needs to drop an anchor on the coral. Our reef manners apply everywhere we go. |