Captain Hook's Dive Key West

This is what "family-owned" actually looks like. 🦞

Meet the Millers — Darren and Jordan, with Dylan and Tatum. Darren and Jordan help run our admin side plus our Big Pine Key and Key West shops, which means when your regulator starts free-flowing at 6am on mini-season morning, they're the reason you're not standing on the dock watching everybody else splash.

Gear rentals. Air fills. Repairs. Tanks, fins, masks, the works — across all three locations, from Marathon to Key West.

And the little ones? Already in uniform. Those lobster hats weren't our idea. Dylan and Tatum came ready.

That's the thing about Captain Hook's — this is a family business run by families. Brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, and now a couple of very small crew members who mostly supervise.

So while you're chasing bugs today and tomorrow, know there's a whole crew behind the scenes making sure you've got what you need. And when you come in with your heaviest one, the Captain Hook's Lobster Showdown is waiting:

🦞 FREE to enter
🦞 Heaviest lobster takes the prizes
🦞 Weigh-in at the marina in Marathon
🦞 Raffle proceeds go to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Need gear, air, or a last-minute repair before you splash? We've got you.

📍 Marathon MM53 | Big Pine Key MM29.5 | Key West MM2.5

Sixty feet of visibility and a Gulf-side breeze so light it barely counted. Captain Billy called it early.

Nine Foot Stake was showing off this morning. Five knots out of the north-northwest, a flat blue Atlantic, 87-degree water, and just enough current to keep everything drifting the right direction. From the surface you could count the coral heads before you ever put your face in — that's what 60 feet of viz looks like out of Key West in late July.

Full boat, divers and snorkelers both, and everybody came back up talking. Nine Foot Stake stays shallow, which means long bottom times and a whole lot of reef for the air you're carrying.

🌊 Viz: 60 ft
🌡️ Water: 87°F
💨 Wind: NNW 5 kts
〰️ Seas: Calm
🧭 Current: Light

Get on the next one: https://buff.ly/bQ3Nd4N

📍 Key West, Florida Keys

Yesterday in the AM, 60 feet of visibility and a glass-calm surface — Captain Billy called it a Key West bluebird morning. ☀️

We ran out to Marker 32 under a light southeast breeze, and the ocean barely moved — seas under a foot, water a bathwater 86°, and clarity for days. Divers and snorkelers dropped in over gin-clear blue with the reef spread out below like a map. Easy entries, an easy current, and nothing but blue water and sunshine. This is the Key West morning you dream about all winter.

🌊 Viz: 60 ft
🌡️ Water: 86°F
〰️ Surface: glass-calm, seas under 1 ft
🌬️ Wind: SE 7 kts
🌀 Current: light

Tomorrow could be your dive day. Book with Captain Hook's Dive Key West: https://buff.ly/bQ3Nd4N

📍 Key West, Florida Keys

Divers up top, divers down below — same boat, same big smiles. 😄

Captain Billy ran this morning's trip to Nine Foot Stake and the whole crew surfaced grinning. A light current, a gentle 2-foot roll, and warm 86° water made it an easy, social morning — the kind of shallow reef where scuba divers and snorkelers float side by side and everybody wins. Viz held a comfortable 30 feet, plenty to soak in the reef without working for it.

🌊 Viz: 30 ft
🌡️ Water: 86°F
💨 Wind: E 10 kts
〰️ Surface: 2 ft, light current

Your spot's waiting. Book with Captain Hook's: https://buff.ly/bQ3Nd4N
📍 Key West, Florida Keys

The #1 reason people get cited during mini-season? An undersized lobster.

Here's how to stay legal — and it all happens BEFORE the bug goes in your bag:

📏 The carapace must be GREATER than 3 inches. That's the hard shell section between the eyes and where the tail starts — not the tail, not the antennae.

🤿 You have to measure it IN THE WATER, every single time. And you're legally required to carry a gauge on you at all times. No gauge = a problem before you've even caught one.

🦞 If it's short, let it go. FWC writes more citations for undersized lobster than almost anything else, and the fines stack up per lobster.

One more for the Keys: the bag limit in Monroe County is 6 per person, per day. Six means six.

Get the size right and you'll spend mini-season catching, not explaining yourself to an officer.

And if you land a monster? Bring it to the scale. The Captain Hook's Lobster Showdown is July 29–30 in Marathon — that's where the biggest bugs of the season come together. 🏴‍☠️ We have prizes too!

The walls are up! At each of our locations, we have our Lobster Walls up for the start of mini-season and throughout Lobster Season.

We have your lobster kits, and your tickle sticks. We got your lobster nets, snares and loops. We got your in-water gauges to make the measure and the dive flags to keep you out of trouble. It's all here at Captain Hook's in Marathon, Big Pine Key and Key West.

We want you to know we also have air both in the shop and underwater. And we have air fill cards to get those tank fills. We are ready for your visual inspections (VIPs) and we can still take your Hydros if you hurry! Tanks a lot!

We are fully equipped with the finest scuba gear around and we have some rental gear to boot. Boots too!

While you sipped your Sunday coffee, Captain Josh had divers stepping off into the deep blue over the Vandenberg. 🚢

She's a 520-foot warship resting in the Atlantic off Key West — and today the crew earned it. A little sporty up top, but the current laid down and the water was bath-warm at 87°. Thirty feet of viz on the deck of a wreck this size still feels like flying. This is advanced-diver territory, and the folks who booked it will be telling the story all week.

🌊 Viz: 30 ft on the deck
🌡️ Water: 87°F
〰️ Seas: 3–5 ft
🧭 Current: very light
💨 Wind: 15 mph

Deep wreck days like this don't wait. Book your seat with Captain Hook's: https://buff.ly/eDt3nK9

📍 Key West, Florida Keys

Thumbs up all around — because mornings like this don't come often. 🤿

Captain Billy pointed the boat toward the 9 Foot Stake and found exactly what we hoped for: calm seas, a whisper of SE breeze, and 60 feet of clear Key West water sitting at a bathtub-warm 86°. Our snorkelers were grinning ear to ear before they even climbed back aboard. Just enough current to drift the reef the easy way — the kind of relaxed, sun-soaked trip where people book their next one on the ride back to the dock.

🌊 Viz: 60 ft
🌡️ Water: 86°F
💨 Wind: SE 3 kts
🎯 Current: Light
☀️ Seas: Calm

Get on the boat with Captain Hook's: https://buff.ly/eDt3nK9

📍 Key West, Florida Keys

Light wind, warm water, and Captain Billy running the reef line off Key West — that's a Sunday well spent. 🐠

The crew rolled out to Western Sambos this morning aboard our Dive Key West boat and slid into 86° water with barely a breath of wind on the surface. Two-to-three-foot rollers, a moderate current to drift with, and 20 feet of visibility over one of Key West's classic shallow reefs — the kind of easy, sun-soaked morning that reminds you why divers and snorkelers keep coming back to these waters.

🌊 Viz: 20 ft
🌡️ Water: 86°F
💨 Wind: SE 6 kts
〰️ Seas: 2–3 ft rollers
🔄 Current: Moderate

Tomorrow could be your dive day. Book with Captain Hook's: https://buff.ly/NDqfgY9

📍 Key West, Florida Keys

Best viz of the day and a boat full of first-timers grinning — that's a win. 😄

Captain Billy ran Marker 32 out of Key West this morning and the reef delivered: 40 feet of visibility, warm 86°F water, and just enough breeze to keep things comfortable. Our crew geared up in bright yellow vests, splashed in over the coral, and came up buzzing — the kind of morning that turns a nervous first snorkel into a "when can we do that again?" It doesn't get much more welcoming than a calm reef and clear water off the Keys.

🌊 Viz: 40 ft
🌡️ Water: 86°F
💨 Wind: SE 10 kts
🌊 Seas: 3 ft
🧭 Current: light

Your turn to splash in: https://buff.ly/NDqfgY9

📍 Key West, Florida Keys