Glass Bottom Boat – Journey

The Glass Bottom Boat – Journey returned to her berth in the Pennekamp Marina right on time. The passengers disembarked. The Captain and his mate did a little clean up and then the All Aboard was called for our 3 PM trip.

I’ve been on a few Glass Bottom boats but never one like Journey. Most have a large glass viewing port in the bottom of the boat. A few had the windows in the hull where you looked out the sides. This one was different. There were 4 large boxes. They looked like freezers with lids tightly secured when we got on board. Benches surrounded these Boxes and we were told to take a seat at any of the four.

The Journey on the Journey

After the obligatory safety instruction Journey cast off and we motored out through the mangroves. We spotted beautiful white herons perched in the trees but finally we entered more open water, the sea grass plains. The boat picked up speed here. The Captain’s Mate told us to watch for sea turtles. Sure enough, they were everywhere. They were hard to spot until you saw a splash as they ducked back under the water. They kept their distance from the boat. At one point there were so many the Captain slowed to almost a standstill so we could get a chance to look around without spooking the turtles.

Open the Freezers!

As we left the sea grass plains behind we prepared for arrival at the reef. The Mate went around to each of the boxes and helped us remove the lids. The viewing port was at the bottom of the “well”. We could lean on the sides of the boxes and look down through the window to the sea floor below. The water wasn’t very clear. Not like I would expect for the Florida Keys. It was obvious that the winds had been stirring things up.

View from Above

We drifted over Molasses Reef watching for any signs of sea life. Finally someone called out that they saw a turtle. Then we began seeing little reef fish like parrot fish. But our window had the best sighting. We got a shark! We also saw a jelly fish and several little sea turtles. After drifting there for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half it was time to head back to the marina. No one got seasick but it was easy to see how you could glued to the windows as we all were.

Conclusion

This was a good choice. The visibility wasn’t good enough to warrant the effort it would take to go snorkeling in 2 ft seas. It would have been nice to see the Christ of the Abyss which would require a snorkel trip but even the snorkelers didn’t get out there due to the rough seas. Maybe next trip.

Snorkel the Reef? Glass Bottom Boat or Snorkel

When I entered the shop a couple were talking to the Snorkel sales person. She was really pushing the Dramamine. The seas were still running 2-3 ft and it was quite rough. She didn’t think they’d get to the Christ Statue today but that it would be up to the captain to decide when he got out there. She did assure them that they could bring children. I don’t think I’d take kids snorkeling on 2-3 foot swells but maybe that’s just me. I prefer my snorkeling in calm sheltered waters. If it’s rough give me a regulator and scuba any day. Much easier. Having overheard that I moved on to the Glass Bottom Boat desk.

The Glass Bottom Boat

The sales rep at the Glass Bottom Boat desk was also encouraging the use of Dramamine. The reefs are located between 3 and 8 miles offshore off the coast of the Florida Keys so exploring them on your own is out of the question unless you have a boat. The “Christ of the Deep” statue is located at Key Largo Dry Rocks reef. No glass bottom boat tours go to see the statue; the area is too shallow. After some personal soul searching I decided on the glass bottom boat. I really wasn’t up for hard snorkeling and swimming yet and my scuba certification is still in limbo. The Glass Bottom Boat would give me a chance to check out the conditions. How rough was it really? How clear is the water?

3 pm Boarding time

It was almost 2:30 so with a 3 pm boarding time I opted to turn in my gear and wait at the marina. I didn’t want to take a chance on losing track of time and literally “missing the boat”. The Glass Bottom Boat is the “Journey”. I settled on a bench in the Gazebo to wait for it’s return.