Jules is a great option on a windy day
It had been very windy for several days with gusts well over 30 mph and some of the waves at Molasses Reef topping 8 feet – terrible news for dive operators that rely on calm seas to transport divers to the reefs that lie off the Upper Keys.
But, windy days are good news for Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, which has a lagoon protected by mangrove trees and man-made structures.
The parking spaces near the entrance were already filling up at 9:15 a.m. I walked over to the cement walkway next to the lagoon and saw one class of beginning divers from Keys Dives of Islamorada in the water and another class from SCUBA Outfitters, whose shop is in Naples, assembling dive gear and putting on wet suits.
More fledgling divers carrying loads of dive gear walked by. It was going to be a very busy day, indeed, at Jules.
Back at the shop which, serves as the sign-in area and houses a gear rental facility and fully stocked gift store, Sebrina Havens, dive shop manager and mission director at Jules, was busy signing-in student divers.
“During windy days, our protected lagoon is a great location for student divers. Instructors from all over bring their students. And, on windy days when the boats don’t go out, certified divers still have an opportunity to dive during their vacation in the Keys,” she said.
Nearby the shop, Theresa Mckinna, VP and CFO at Jules, smiled at me saying: “We get to see our old friends and make many new ones on windy days.”
Even on calm days Jules is a great place to learn to snorkel, dive or even take a short resort course to try out diving. It has warm showers, bathroom facilities, places to rinse gear and the cement walkway next to the water is bordered by a raised platform, which is a handy place to assemble gear.
The lagoon has buoys with lines attached to the bottom, which is about 25 feet deep — depending on tides. The secured lines are useful to learn descents and ascents and to practice other diving skills that require the instructor to make sure the student diver maintains a controlled rate of ascent.
The calm water, which can get murky if there are many divers in the lagoon, is also very helpful for student divers to practice skills like compass navigation or removing and replacing their scuba units at the surface.
Even when the water is murky, there are a lot of fun things to see including old cannons, pots and artifacts.
The Lagoon is home to Jules' Undersea Lodge, the world's only underwater hotel and the MarineLab Undersea laboratory, the first underwater research lab made accessible to the general public.
The principal developers of Jules were Neil Monney and Ian Koblick, who is president of Marine Resources Foundation and owner of the lodge.
Koblick, who has worked as a pioneer in developing advanced undersea programs for ocean science and education, is considered one of the foremost authorities on undersea habitation. Dr. Neil Monney, with extensive experience as a research scientist, aquanaut, and designer of underwater habitats, served as a professor and director of ocean engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy.
The entire structure, placed in its current location in 1985, is lifted by legs to approximately five feet off the bottom of the lagoon. It is filled with compressed air preventing the water from rising and flooding the rooms.
The only way to access the interior of the lodge is through a 5x7 foot "moon pool" entrance in the floor. (Imagine a James Bond movie.) The moon pool is in the floor of a “wet room” where divers leave their gear and take a quick hot shower before they enter the interior of the lodge. Besides feeling good after a dive when the water in the lagoon is cool, the shower helps protect the interior of the lodge from the corrosive effect of salt water.
The air-conditioned interior of the lodge has two bedrooms and a multipurpose room housing a galley and conference area. Each room is equipped with telephone, intercom, VCR/DVD and a 42-inch round window.
The mangrove bordered lagoon is a nursery area for many of the Key’s reef fish including tropical angelfish, parrotfish, barracuda, and snappers. Anemones, sponges, oysters and feather duster worms cover much of the bottom of the lagoon and exterior of the habitat.
"Waking up to view a pair of angelfish looking in your bedroom window is a moment you'll never forget,” says Koblick.
"Marine life actually is enhanced by the presence of the underwater structure", notes Koblick. “The flow of air to the Lodge constantly adds oxygen to the surrounding body of water, creating a symbiotic relationship between the technology of man and the beauty of nature."
When guests are staying in the lodge, it is monitored 24 hours a day by a mission director housed in a land-based "command center" located at the edge of the lagoon.
The command center is connected to the lodge by an umbilical cable which delivers fresh air, water, power and communications.
Guests of the Lodge have included former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, rock stars Steve Tyler of Aerosmith and Jon Fishman of Phish.
The lodge received international attention in December 2014 when Roane State associate professor of biology Bruce Cantrell and adjunct instructor Jessica Fain set a record breaking 73 days living and working underwater in a saturated environment (where the body tissues absorb or become saturated with the maximum amount of nitrogen for a given depth).
While underwater Cantrell and Fain hosted “Classroom Under Sea” featuring interviews with leading scientists and explores covering topics such as conservation, undersea exploration and recreational diving. Two of the presenters were astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Mike Gernhardt.
Aldrin was part of the historic journey by man to land on the moon. The first astronaut to egress the Apollo 11 lunar module on July 20, 1969 was Neal Armstrong. He was followed down the module ladder to step on the moon by Aldrin.
Mike Gernardt, Ph.D. logged over 43 days in space, including four spacewalks totaling 23 hours and 16 minutes. His diving background includes over 700 deep-sea dives involving air, mixed gas, bounce bell and saturation diving.
Jules' Undersea Lodge served as the site for the historic 1995 sea-space link-up during which astronaut and oceanographer Scott Carpenter and Ian Koblick spoke with Gernhardt who was circling the earth aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.
Besides being a popular windy day training venue for student divers, Jules is also a training and testing location for instructor candidates. It is frequently used for training by technical divers and those learning or practicing rebreather diving (a system using a carbon dioxide-absorbent canister and a way to add fresh oxygen needed by the diver instead of the traditional scuba tank) and side-mounted scuba tank systems.
Divers can even enjoy a three-hour visit in the lodge and enjoy a pizza lunch (delivered underwater in a waterproof container) from a local restaurant.
As I was about to leave, Sebrina Havens reminded me about the MarineLab facility located on the property that has been in operation since 1985. “Over 4,000 students from 5th grade to college age from the US, Canada, the Caribbean and other countries attend the Marine Science Camp each year learning about the marine environment and participated in shore cleanup activities,” she said.
Don Rhodes, in addition to a career in government affairs, has taught scuba for 30 years. He and his wife retired to Tavernier five years ago, where he works as an instructor for Conch Republic Divers. He can be reached at donrrhodes@gmail.com.
This story was originally published March 10, 2017 at 9:31 AM with the headline "Jules is a great option on a windy day."