Soft Corals

Sambos Reef is divided into three parts: Western Sambo, Middle Sambos, and Eastern Sambo. They are convenient to Key West scuba charters, especially those that go out of Stock Island marinas. They are south and a little bit east of Key West and can be combined with a dive trip to the Vandenberg, Joe’s Tug, or the Cayman.

Just four miles out from land, the Sambos are a nice spot for a quick scuba trip.  You can get down to about 40 feet at Middle Sambo, making it a nice dive for novices.  Take note of the abundance of soft corals here, as well as at the other Sambos.

Stargazer Reef is the most unusual Key West dive spot.  As much a work of art as it is anything else, this artificial reef sits in about 25 feet of water.  Consisting of a series of metal tubes welded into sawhorse-like structures and entirely silhouetted against white sand, Stargazer Reef is not exactly a fish haven but it is interesting to see.  There is a huge jewfish (Goliath Grouper) that hangs out underneath. and some Angel fish and Mangrove Snappers hang around, too.  But as you can see from the pictures, there just isn’t much surface area on Stargazer for coral to take a hold of.

Stargazer Reef is a nice stopoff spot on the way in from any number of Key West dive spots, and it has a convenient mooring bouey.

Star Gazer Reef from the Surface

[View with PicLens]

The Cayman Salgave Master

The Cayman Wreck is very popular with the Key West dive boats that take visitors out on daily excursions for scuba.  It’s just beyond the main reef about six miles out from Oceanside Marina on Stock Island.  It’s only one mile from the Nine Foot Stake, another great dive spot.  It’s eighty five feet deep, so snorkelers won’t see a thing.  But it’s perfect for scuba, which is why it remains of the most popular Key West diving spots, year after year.

The Cayman Salvage Master itself is situated on white sand, and has a layer of sand over it, too.  You will see the remains of the steel hull sitting on the bottom, its ship shape still very much intact.  It was once a Coast Guard bouy tender, built in the 1930s and used in the Muriel Boatlift in the 1970s, carrying Cubans.  It was intended to be an artificial reef but sank on its way out where it is today.    Lucky for divers, it never made it to its intended 300 foot depth, where it would never have been accessible for scuba divers.  There are actually a number of intentionally sunk ships out in very deep water, for fishing.