Key Largo, Florida Keys

Key Largo

Florida Keys

US Highway 1 - Mile Marker 100

Key Largo Diving Headquarters was Carl Gage’s dive shop.  Carl was a colorful local character.  I recall he even had "Dive Instructor" in large letters down the arms of his wet suit.  There were lots of characters in the diving business in those days.  He was an interesting guy and I guess you would call him a "Man's Man".  If I recall, he was ex-marine and kept his head shaved.  He was physically fit and I think he must have been about 35 at the time.  He had a deep voice and really barked the orders out when he wanted things done.  He had two good sized wooden boats that he took out for reef dive trips - one was called the "Reef Queen" which we went diving on. I don't recall the name of the other. He kept them both backed into the end of the canal that comes in on the ocean side of US 1, right next to the Holiday Inn in Key Largo.

Johnny and I were diving with him one day and he pointed out a large Puffer fish under a ledge.  He bounced it out like a basketball but made the mistake of getting his thumb into the fish's mouth.  The fish chomped down and I remember seeing the blood ooze out - it was green due to the lighting underwater, which really looked strange.  He was yelling and cussing underwater but soon got over it.

Carl had an orange two-man wet-sub hanging from the ceiling of the shop used in the 007 movie, “Thunderball”.  Carl designed a number of underwater scooters and other similar devices.  Carl was "The Man" among Key Largo divers back in those days.  He used to wear a t-shirt with the Marine crest on the front.  It was printed in reverse on the back of the shirt to symbolize that it went all the way through. For Carl it REALLY did.

Carl protected the reefs by always making sure we dropped anchor in the white sandy areas away from the reefs.  He stood over Johnny and I on the second trip and yelled at us because we didn’t have a buoyance vest.  We could not afford one at the time but he kept on us all morning.  Later that day after I had it with Carl, I got up the courage to say to him: "You're the meanest son-of-a-bitch I've ever met".  I thought Carl was going to throw us overboard on the spot but instead he got a big smile on his face and offered us both deckhand jobs.  I think we all became a little closer as a result.  We worked about two weeks with him before continuing our trip and had several great dives.   What an experience!  It was truly a dream come true.  The job was hard work, long hours, very little pay but the experience of a lifetime for two young, single adventurous guys.

Johnny and I went on a wreck dive to the 90 foot deep Benwood Wreck with Carl.  The sea was so calm you could see the bottom from the surface. We watched schools of sea turtles and rays in 1 inch seas, almost totally flat and calm, just a little bobbing motion on the water.

I ran into Carl in the late 70’s at a hot air balloon rally.  He had sold his dive shop and moved to Helen Georgia then California and was manufacturing hot air balloons.  I recently read he passed away in 2002.

Also on the island of Key Largo was a dive operator named Steve Klem who ran a 6-passenger boat called the Mary Metro out of the next door marina and he was called the Pied Piper of Pennekamp Park because he always dove and fed hundreds of underwater creatures including barracudas, jewfish, sharks, eels and groupers.  Johnny and I were so impressed with his ability; every time we dove with him he took us and taught us how to feed the critters.   We dove several times each summer with Steve who was also a Key Largo character.

We dove about four miles off the coast of Elbow Reef, where the City of Washington sank back in 1917.  The German schooner was built in 1877, had three decks, and spanned 320 feet long.  The ship transported troops to Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and following the war was converted to a coal barge.  The wreck is largely deteriorated, but the shallow waters make the spot ideal for snorkeling and diving.  Johnny and I did a night dive on the Washington with one of Carl’s deckhand divers.

The colorful reefs and mind-numbing profusion of fish in Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is reason enough to pack up and head south.  But if you are looking for some really big wrecks, the 510-foot Spiegel Grove at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary may be the main attraction. Toothy fish like barracuda and oceanic jacks have made these sites their home base.  You can see why this is known by many as the best scuba diving in Florida.  The moon would be shinning on the water on a warm summer night, part of a beautiful panorama. 

But I also remember the bugs down there.  Scorpions were nasty critters, also cockroaches and mosquitos.  But the worst bug in the Keys was what they called no-seeums.  We called them the flying “Jaws” of Florida.  They were bugs so small you could not see them to swat them.  You did not know they were there until they bit you.  When we were in south Florida on a rental boat we would have to spray insect spray, outdoorsman; as “Off” did not work, on our face, neck and arms to protect ourselves from these nasty bugs.  They would bite you and you’d think you had been bitten by a fire ant, it hurt that bad.  I think this is one reason more people did not live in the keys at the time. 

We made dives at the Elbow which was up near the middle of the park.  A lot of people did not go there from the south of Key Largo because it was a long way to travel.  It was visited mostly by divers from the north end of Key Largo.  It was known for its beautiful Elk horn coral.  Elk horn was coral that formed big wide branches like elks horns.  They were in shallow water and were just beautiful set against the white bottom.  The sun would shine though the water and reflect off the sand and the bottom would glow with the bright white color.  There was a light on the Elbow, not rally a lighthouse but a navigation beacon.  They called it the Elbow because it formed a corner.  The reef extended from Molasses in a straight line up to the Elbow and then the reef turned slightly east and extended up to the border of the park past Carysfort Reef.  We never had the chance to dive Carysfort but we heard that there were large formations of Stag and fan coral there.

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