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A list of the best rated scuba dive sites in Florida.
Bayronto
At a distance of thirty miles offshore Sarasota and Venice we can find the wreck of the British freighter Bayronto. She was built in Newcastle, England in 1905 by Armstrong Whitworth & Co. On July 1918, during World War I, she was torpedoed by a German U-Boat which caused for substantial delay. During her last voyage she was transporting wheat from Texas to France and ended up in a huge hurricane on September 13, 1919. The hurricane was too strong and sank the enormous freighter within minutes. ...
Cayman Salvage Master
Just outside the coral reef line at about seven miles SE of Key West and one mile SW of Nine Foot Stake sits one of Florida's greatest shipwrecks. The Cayman Salvage Master or Cayman Salvager was built in 1937 in Wilmington, Delaware under the name of Lieutenant Colonel Ellery W. Niles. She was meant to be used as a Cable Layer but was converted to a United US Army Minelayer but changed during WWII. In her years of service she has also been a Coast Guard Buoy Tender, Navy VIP ship, freighter...
Hen & Chickens Reef
A nice reef named Hen & Chickens is located at two miles southeast of Windley Key and Plantation Key. Boats shouldn't have any trouble finding it as she is marked by a 35 foot high light tower. To protect its natural resources and wildlife she is protected as a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA), where fishing, coral collecting and lobstering is forbidden. Its name is coming from its location which looks like a large 'hen' patch protected by several smaller 'chicken' patches. From out of the air ...
Blue Grotto
Blue Grotto is one of the best spring diving locations in Florida. It is a massive sinkhole that reaches depths of one hundred feet making it one of the deepest sinkholes in Florida. She is located just west of Williston at less than a mile from Devil's Den. At the tourist shop you can rent all equipment necessary for diving including nitrox air refills. You can watch caving underwater video's, there are picnic tables, restrooms and hot showers. Once in the water you will see two training plat...
Morrison Spring
Morrison Springs is a great fresh water alternative to all the salt water open ocean dives near Panama City. The pool is located to the east of Pensacola and flows right into the Choctawhatchee River. From Ponce de Leon you head southeast for five miles until you see a sign that directs you into the park. It is one of the largest springs in the area and has a diameter of three hundred feet. It was privately owned until 2004 when the Walton County state bought the land and created a park out of i...
Breakers Reef
Breakers Reef or Breakers Shallow is according to many boat owners one of the best reefs in the Palm Beach area. It is a five to fifteen foot high ledge packed with marine and coral life running north to south for about two miles. It is located three miles south of Palm Beach Inlet right in front of a luxury hotel named Breakers Hotel, hence its name. Sea fans, barrel sponges and gorgonians brilliantly decorate the ledge, creating a great area for wide angle photographers. There used to be ...
USNS Vandenberg
Finally sunk May 27th, 2009 after 10 years of fund raising, cleaning and completing the required paperwork, the USNS Vandenberg has become THE site to dive in S. Florida. Suitable for Novice to expert diver it offers many levels of intrigue. Dive Guides are recommended for safety! Built in 1943 and used during WW II as a troop transport and then as a missle tracking ship, its claim to fame was the movie "Virus" starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Sutherland. At 522 ft and 17,250 tons ...
USS Massachusetts
The USS Massachusetts is together with the USS Oriskany one of the best known dive sites of north-west Florida. At 1.5 miles southwest of Pensacola Pass just within the Fort Pickens State Aquatic Preserve, this heavy-calibre warship was one of the most impressive ships of her time. In a time where most ships where still made of wood she was a steel steam powered battleship with a beam of almost seventy feet and a displacement of more than ten thousand tons of water. Together with the USS Indiana...
City of Washington
The City of Washington lies west of Elbow Reef, just five hundred yards northeast of its lighthouse between buoys E9 and E10. It was a 320 foot long, 38 foot wide two masted schooner supplied with a huge steam engine. Originally built in Pennsylvania in 1877 she could accommodate over four hundred passengers and crewmembers. Her history as a steamship is spectacular starting as a three deck passenger and cargo deliverance ship between New York, Mexico, Panama and Cuba. In 1898 she was one of t...
Carysfort Reef South and HMS Winchester
Its southern brother Carysfort Reef South is a long, shallow and narrow reef system of alleyways and canyons filled with reef fish and covered in beds of Elkhorn coral. Accessible from the Ocean Reef Community in Key Largo this is one of the reefs extremely suitable for snorkelers as coral heads almost reach the surface. Blue parrotfish, damselfish and surgeon fish are very common inhabitants. The HMS Winchester is a 933 ton warship from the United Kingdom located at approximately 1.5 miles sout...