Molasses Reef Lighthouse Key Largo

The story goes that a large barge being pulled by ship somehow ended up on the reef with a sticky cargo of molasses stored in barrels.

Therefore the Molasses Reef.

Here is another screwpile skeleton tower Lighthouse with a lantern room at the top.   Built and lit in 1921 it’s light flashed every 10 seconds with a range of seven nautical miles.  It was fully automatic from the time it was first lit.   Although the lantern has been removed it’s still an active aid to navigation.

Molasses Reef is a popular scuba diving and snorkeling location with numerous dive sites marked by mooring buoys as well as the base of the lighthouse.

A notable site is at buoy # 7,  referred to as the Winch Hole.  Here lies the large mechanical winch from the Slobodana,  a 170 ft wooden hulled schooner that sank in 1887.

There are a ton of fish here, including Caribbean reef sharks, nurse sharks, lobsters, shrimp, moray eels, colorful snappers, angelfish, parrotfish, sea turtles, loggerheads, with schooling fishes such as grunts, goat fish and spade fish everywhere.

Most of the corals found in the Caribbean are represented here:  elkhorn, staghorn, star brain and fire corals along with assorted soft corals like sea fans, and gorgonians.

This is a clean and shallow reef that’s great for kids swimming and snorkeling, located within the Florida Keys Natural Marine Sanctuary.

Fishing is about as good as it gets down here so get you a boat over here soon.