Bahia Honda anchorage & Looe Key dive, July 11 - 13, 2014

Since last week was spent on the dock at Marathon Marina, we decided we want to anchor out and dive for the weekend. Randy did some searching for anchorages and found one at Bahia Honda which is close enough to Looe Key for us dive. So, Friday afternoon we left the dock and headed toward Bahia Honda. We found our anchorage which was between the abandoned bridge and the new bridge and right outside the entrance to the marina. Once we anchored, we deployed the dinghy to go to shore and explore the island and it’s waters. We snorkeled for a little while before heading back to the boat for the night.

Passing under the bridge to the anchorage

The entrance to the docks and ship store at Bahia Honda

Once ashore, Corey climbs the nearest tree

Corey and Randy on the bridge with Blue Turtle in the background

Beautiful sliver of land that is Bahia Honda

Watching the sun set behind the old bridge

The next morning, I was awakened with the start of the engine at 7:30am. I am not a morning person and I love to sleep in on vacation, however it seems I’ve been awake earlier on this vacation that I am most the year. We were one of the first boats to arrive at the reef and we secured a mooring ball. We had a great dive, though no sighting of the shark or Melvin from the previous week. After the dive, we decided to anchor nearer to Looe Key in the spot we last anchored near Newfound Harbor Channel. That afternoon, we took the dinghy to a popular sandbar next to our anchorage. It was mostly sand and rocky, so not much snorkeling, but Randy and I did enjoy a couple of margaritas.

Blue Turtle at her anchorage by Newfound Harbor Channel

Randy enjoying a beverage at the sandbar

We left early again the next morning for Looe Key and got a ball. This dive had great structure and marina life and corral and this time we all saw the reef shark. We also received a long visit from Melvin, our Goliath Grouper friend. He would come near to us every now and then to check us out. As we were ending our dive and beginning to surface, he camped out right beneath Blue Turtle where we snorkeled with him for a while. I got alot a great video of Melvin and our dives and will be putting into a video as soon as I can.

DSCN0825 — A barrel sponge and rope sponge

Parrotfish giving me "the eye" — Parrotfish giving me “the eye”

Randy get's an upside down view — Randy get’s an upside down view

Brain coral that actually looks like a brain

Corey snorkeling and diving down to see the huge grouper

After our dive, we released our mooring ball and headed toward Marathon. We towed Corey for a while to let him trawler surf and we even got out in 100 ft deep water to let him fish too. As we arrived at our marina, we saw David’s (our friend from Fort Myers Beach) Grand Banks a couple slips from us. He wasn’t there but was planning to return later in the week. After we got the boat and gear cleaned up, we went to Burdine’s for dinner.