Our last dive stop before heading back to the marina and then home, was at Fowey Rocks Lighthouse at the northernmost end of the Maritime Heritage Trail. It is an iron-pile lighthouse that was built from 1875-1878. We’d hoped to also dive the Aratoon Apcar, sunk just off the lighthouse, which was still under construction at the time, in 1878. The current was too strong, however, and this was a less complete wreck than some of the others, so we gave it a pass. Instead we had a short dive in the shallow corals on the southwest side of the lighthouse. We once again started out against the current so we could ride it back to Lady afterward. The lighting was good and there were some lovely corals. I took a few pictures and one video which I share below.
After our dive and lunch, it was time to head back into the ICW for the trek back to the marina. From Fowey Rocks Lighthouse we headed toward Cape Florida, taking the Biscayne Channel into Biscayne Bay. This took us right through Stiltsville, which is also part of Biscayne National Park. The first of these shacks on stilts was built by one Crawfish Eddie Walker sometime in the 1930s. It has a somewhat colorful past, which you can read about by following that link. There were 27 such structures at its peak in the 1960s. Exposure, time and Mother Nature limited the life of these structures, and hurricane Andrew in 1992 left only 7 standing, none of which are original to the heyday of Stiltsville. The non-profit Stiltsville Trust was established in 2003 and is working cooperatively with the park to rehabilitate the buildings to support educational and interpretive services. One can acquire a permit to visit the structures from the Stiltsville Trust, but you’ll need your own (not large) boat to get there. We may try to visit one or two when we next go down if we can find a place nearby to anchor Lady and take the dinghy over.
This week’s video slideshow includes a handful of pictures and video from the Fowey Rocks dive, plus the stills I took of the Stiltsville structures. Several of the stilt houses line Biscayne Channel, but are still pretty far away for my camera, so close ups get a little blurred. Other of the houses are small blips in the distance. Regardless, you’ll get the idea of what they’re like. Enjoy!
Life on Lady 
Hi Lisa, Great videos and music! When are you both going down again? Nate H
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We’re hoping for mid January, but the exact timing will depend on when we get the parts we’re waiting for and on the state of the pandemic.
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Lisa, did you see a lot of dead coral in your underwater explorations?
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We saw much dead coral. But there appears to be new colonies forming on and around the dead stuff.
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Hey, Lisa – is it shoally where Stiltsville is? Is that why you need to take a small boat in? And can you write about your hookah rig? is that electric or gas drive? how portable is that? I am wondering if one can take one on a plane to Indonesia or somewhere. Best to you and Dave!!!
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Hi Tom! Stiltsville is inside of the reef in what I’d call a permanent shoal area. The hookah is a gas driven 4hp Honda 4-stroke motor with close coupled air compressor floating on a truck inner tube. That weighs about 40 pounds. Then there is a reserve air tank about the size of a fire extinguisher and the 4 floating air hoses, 60′ each with a regulator on the end. It even comes with a dive flag. Check it out at airlinebyjsinc.com. I’ll have to get some video of Dave setting it up and post that sometime.
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