More diving pics of my trip in Key largo, I dived with Quiescence and Island Ventures, both where good diving operators and I recommand these operators.
We mainly dived on the reef around French reef, Molasses, the Winch, Benwood, The City of Washington, the Duane, the Spiegel grove...
The sea was agitated and visiblity wasn't always optimal but I really enjoyed this dives. The number of fish and their sizes is quite impressive thanks to the effort of preservation in the area. I wish we had more reservations like this. Most of the dives where shallow, around 10 m except on the wrecks. I dived off season, the week after after the Fantasy feest in Key West, it is very quiet and good if you want to avoid the crowds however the weather can be a problem sometimes, cold and strong winds. Prices are ok, not cheap but you can find good places at an affordable rate. I stayed at Ed and Helen's lodge and enjoyed my stay.
Unfortunately I don't have pics of the Duane and the Spiegel because it was too deep for my small camera, I can go down to 10 meters without an underwatercase and it is shockproof, I can't wait till they make one going down to 40 meters at least. These two wrecks are really good with plenty of life around, huge rays, big groupers, sharks and more...
If you're not american it is hard to figure out the tipping system, I still don't get it after all these trips to the States, I had a hard time figuring wether I should tip the captains or not and how much. Basically, I never knew whom to tip. During my journey I overtipped some people wich I learned later I didn't need to tip, and undertipped other persons at the end of my journey. For the boat captains I definitly undertipped but realized that later. However, it would be good for the diving operator to give an indication of the tip on the bill for the foreigners wich are not used to tip, like in some of the restaurant. I also don't know if the tip is shared among captains or personal.
