Snorkeling Coffins Patch
- The Donut & The Stake
Snorkeling Coffins Patch is pretty fun. It consists of several different patches, each very unique.
We visited two, and most boat companies will take you to two or three spots.
Like many of the reefs around this part of the Florida Keys, this location was named for a shipwreck (supposedly a ship carrying coffins).
The Ddonut is just that, a round donut mound of rocks that sits in a bit deeper water, which makes it a better spot for divers than snorkelers.
Still, we enjoyed this spot, and it is pretty interesting for snorkelers mainly for the abundance of beautiful sponges present here.
There was a decent amount of fish at The Donut, but not as much as at other places. The depth was about 15 feet down to 20 feet. So unless you freedive, getting decent pictures was not that easy. There was a fair amount of sea rods and fans, but not a lot of coral here.
Check out the video below to see some of the schools of fish that would come cruising by.
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Below you can see a couple of pictures of the Bubbling Neoprenes we encountered here. They are fun to watch sometimes.
To get decent pictures I had to freedive down a bit. In the next picture you can see me coming back up from taking a picture of the wonderful Hogfish and grouper in the pictures after that.
Snorkeling The Stake
The Stake is much better for snorkelers, offering a nice shallow area that allows close viewing of a huge variety of fish. Below you can see what the area is named after, a stake that sticks up above water.
Nicole saw a Puddingwife Parrotfish that we had never seen before. We also saw a nice Spotted Moray Eel, almost 4 feet, weaving through batches of rocks.
We saw lots of Yellowtail Snappers, Sergeant Majors (including the purple phase), Blue Angelfish, Foureye Butterflyfish, and Spotfin Butterflyfish. Also Gray Angelfish, Blue Tangs, Grunts, Porkfish, Bicolor Damselfish, Yellowtail Damsel, a good number of groupers, a Rock Hind, and a Tiger Grouper. We found Midnight Parrotfish, young Rainbow Parrotfish, Striped Parrotfish, Spanish Hogfish, Yellowhead Wrasse, Goatfish, Flying Fish, Trumpetfish, Scrawled Cowfish, Spotted Trunkfish and a Lobster.
In the next picture you can see Nicole snapping pictures of the locals when snorkeling Coffins Patch.
Have fun checking out the next video. It shows how snorkeling The Stake was much better than The Donut for a snorkeler.
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And right before we got out of the water I had fun watching this first time diver get some lessons. He was just practicing going up and down and getting used to breathing underwater.
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Now check out the amazing Sombrero Reef
Return from Snorkeling Coffins Patch to Snorkeling Middle Keys
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