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Spanish Anchor
 N 25° 00.579’W 080° 22.471’, Key Largo, FL
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Max Depth: 41-50ft/12-15m
Average Viz: 81-90ft/25-27m
Entry Type: Boat
Bottom Composition: Sand
Aquatic Life: Plenty To See
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Rating: 4.50 by 14 divers
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Spanish Anchor is a boat accessible salt water dive site, located at N 25° 00.579’W 080° 22.471’, Key Largo, FL. This dive site has an average rating of 4.50 out of 5 from 14 scuba divers. The maximum depth is 41-50ft/12-15m. The average visibility is 81-90ft/25-27m.
N 25° 00.579’
W 080° 22.471’ Spanish Anchor is a dive site where you can see a coral-encrusted boat anchor. This ten foot large iron anchor is believed to be used for pulling the boat of the reef after it lost its winch and got stuck on the reef. It is a typical 17th or 18th century anchor with a classic arrow shape and wooden stock. Because of the Spanish trade routes in those years we believe it is Spanish, but this cannot be said with certainty. Near buoy M21, just northeast of
Fire Coral Cave, it is a dive site perfect for beginners with characteristics such as moderate currents, good night dive possibilities and enough to see to make it interesting. Tangs, sergeant majors, parrot fish and barracuda’s hover around the anchor and its reef.
Molasses Reef is by far the most crowded and best known dive location in the Key Largo area and maybe even in the world. There are over thirty different dive sites all marked by buoys designated with the letter ’M’, nowadays counting from M1 up to M33. Molasses Reef is located six miles southeast of Key Largo at the southern-most border of the National Park Sanctuary and Pennekamp Park. It contains an area the size of fifteen football fields and its name is probably coming from a barge full of molasses that sank here years ago.
There is a small Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA) and a 45-foot high steel light tower marking the save reef edges for ships. The diversity in flora and fauna compared with its countless ledges and coral bommies make it one of the most photographed coral reefs in the world. With this many different dive sites it is not hard to find a spot of your liking. Also night dives have become popular with regular sightings of spiny lobster, long legged spider-crabs and octopuses. The only drawback of Molasses Reef is the large crowds of tourists coming from daytrips and diving boats. N 25° 00.579’W 080° 22.471’