The Elbow
The sparkling clarity of the water in the Florida Keys is due to the Gulf Stream, which regularly sloshes its warm blueness over the reefs. The center of the Gulf Stream wanders a bit between Florida and The Bahamas, though, and the water in the Upper Keys changes with the position of the stream. Nearshore water bathes the reefs in green, the Gulf Stream turns them blue, and a mix will appear blue-green. The Elbow, which juts out into the path of the Gulf Stream slightly more than other reefs, enjoys the benefits of clear blue water more often. When it’s green at Carysfort and blue-green at French, it’s probably blue on The Elbow. The price for this blue water is the occasional moderate current.
Scattered remains of several wrecks litter the reef, including the City of Washington, the Civil War Wreck and the Tonawanda, a steamer that sank here in 1866. The depth is about 15ft over the shallowest ridges, which slope in a fairly even gradient toward deep water. The prominent ridges appear to end in 30 to 35ft of water, and the bottom is more uniformly flat, although as you move into deeper water, you’ll pick up vestiges of the coral ridges and sand channels. Turtle encounters, mostly with hawksbills and loggerheads, are frequent between 20 and 35ft anywhere on The Elbow.
One deeper mooring buoy sits atop the southern reef section. The depth is just below 50ft at the buoy, and the bottom slopes very gradually toward a lip at 55ft called “Nelson’s Ledge.” The terrain slopes more steeply from that point, ending with scattered corals on a sand bottom in 85ft. This area is characterized by prolific soft corals, lower-profile star and brain corals, many tube and finger sponges and large numbers of giant barrel sponges. Queen angelfish, blue angelfish and four common Florida species of butterflyfish—spotfin, foureye, banded and reef—are abundant.
Reproduced with permission from Diving & Snorkeling Florida Keys 2001 Lonely Plant Publications www.lonelyplanet.com