Help me pick my Key Largo dive sites

[PoolsOpen]

The wrecks are huge, specially the Speigel. Depending on where you're tied to and the swim thrus its basically a different dive each time. Same goes for the Duane. If conditions are good I highly recommend them. I recommend Nitrox for the wrecks. I believe they only offer AL80 if you choose nitrox.

 

[The Chairman]

If you have a 'pre-flight' day, try to get out to snorkel among the mangroves in Florida Bay, especially if there's a sea wall. Lots of sharks, lobsters and one of the only places you can find seahorses in the Keys. That or do the sunset in Mallory Square in Key Weird, er West.

 

[anchochile]

If you have a 'pre-flight' day, try to get out to snorkel among the mangroves in Florida Bay, especially if there's a sea wall. Lots of sharks, lobsters and one of the only places you can find seahorses in the Keys. That or do the sunset in Mallory Square in Key Weird, er West.

Hey, that sounds cool. Is that a boat trip or is their shore access? I'm a Florida noob, as you can tell.

And, uh, I won't get eaten by a gator in the mangroves (asks the guy who doesn't give the GWS a second thought in Northern CA...)?

 

[The Chairman]

Hey, that sounds cool. Is that a boat trip or is their shore access? I'm a Florida noob, as you can tell.

Find a cool spot... it can be hit or miss. Again: look for mangroves and a wall.

And, uh, I won't get eaten by a gator in the mangroves

No, they would be American Crocodiles. No, I'm not kidding. You don't see them often and I've never seen one below MM98.

 

[caruso]

The wrecks are huge, specially the Speigel. Depending on where you're tied to and the swim thrus its basically a different dive each time. Same goes for the Duane.

The Duane is about half the size of the SG. When I've dived the Duane. I typically swim forward from the stern, then criss cross back and forth through the large rooms from port to starboard and working my way to the bow then swimming back over the superstructure to the stern mooring tie in. The entire wreck can easily be done in one dive.

I was about to mention that Rainbow Reef requires proof of AOW to dive the Spiegel Grove.

Most Dive Ops in the Florida Keys including Rainbow Reef require AOW for all 4 deep wrecks although some will bend a bit if you're willing to pay for a divemaster for your group.

 

[anchochile]

The Duane is about half the size of the SG. When I've dived the Duane. I typically swim forward from the stern, then criss cross back and forth through the large rooms from port to starboard and working my way to the bow then swimming back over the superstructure to the stern mooring tie in. The entire wreck can easily be done in one dive.

What kind of dive times do you get on the Duane with an AL80? Since that's the only tank Rainbow Reef offers, as I understand, I wonder if it's even worth doing the Duane for what would probably be 15 minutes of bottom time, vs doing multiple mornings at Spiegel Grove where the dives would be a bit longer and there's more new territory to explore with each dive.

 

[caruso]

What kind of dive times do you get on the Duane with an AL80?

Attached to this post are 2 screenshots of 2 recent dives on the Duane showing dive profiles, bottom times, dive notes, etc.

One dive was 25 minutes the other was 30 minutes using Nitrox.

A good tip that was provided by a DM is that if you are on the stern mooring and the current is flowing briskly from bow to stern, rather than expending a lot of time, energy and gas swimming forward, pull yourself hand over hand along the side of the wreck until you get to the middle of the ship where all the structure is. Not advisable to do it without gloves.

 

[caruso]

What kind of dive times do you get on the Duane with an AL80? Since that's the only tank Rainbow Reef offers, as I understand, I wonder if it's even worth doing the Duane for what would probably be 15 minutes of bottom time, vs doing multiple mornings at Spiegel Grove where the dives would be a bit longer and there's more new territory to explore with each dive.

Here's the differences between the wrecks from my experience.

The SG is much larger, but even so if there's no current and you're a good swimmer you can swim around the entire wreck in one dive but you gotta keep moving. You can spend up to 45 minutes on this wreck on an AL80 depending on SAC rates of course.

The Duane is a bit less than 2/3 the size of the SG and can easily be done in one dive, although most of the dive will be deeper so the dives are shorter.

I've always found a lot more marine life on the Duane.

If you like to do penetration, the Duane has mostly large open rooms and it's not so wide that you can't see from one side of the ship to the other under most conditions so don't have to worry about getting lost (assuming you don't go down into a dark hold or something). You can enter on one side, swim through a room and exit on the other side, go a bit further up the wreck, and repeat.

The SG has long corridors and many levels and you can easily find yourself deep within the middle of the ship with no easy access to an exit. There are no rooms (that I am aware of) that go from one side of the ship to the other as with the Duane. There's a lot of interesting superstructure in 60-80 ft above the deck that you can swim through and around. The Duane has only a crows nest that rises well above the deck. The chimney stack is gone as of last year.

You didn't ask about the Bibb but I'll add a quick word. It's almost identical to the Duane as far as structure, but it's not dived as much because it's deeper and on it's side so there's not too many places to penetrate or swim through unless you want to drop in on one side and drop down to 130-140' and burn through your gas and no-deco limits for no good reason. I've never seen much marine life on it.

 

[noj3333]

And does anyone know if RR offers larger tanks for the deep dives? 100fsw on an AL80 seems like a pretty short dive.

They offer AL100's. From my memory, and other peoples posts, they're often a little short on the fill, topping off around 3100 PSI. That 'short fill' will not give you a true 100 cu/ft, but it's better then an AL80 filled a little short...

With that said, when I go this winter (24 scheduled dives), I'd like to 'establish a relationship' with some of the DM's... AL 100's with 3300PSI = EXTRA GOOD TIP...

EDIT... make sure you request 100's in advance if you want them... and please post a quick (or extensive) review after you do your trip...

 

[anchochile]

Thanks. I'm newly AOW-certified and will definitely not be doing any penetration - I'll be diving with the Rainbow Reef guides since I'll be on my own for this trip. Sounds like both wrecks are well worth seeing. With three days of diving, I'm thinking I'll try to do the Spiegel Grove twice and Duane once, with reef dives in the afternoon.

I'm also wondering if Nitrox is worth it for the wrecks if I'm with the Rainbow Reef guided groups. If we're limited by the lowest NDL (or air supply) diver in the group, it would presumably only help if everyone in the group is diving nitrox. Is that usually the case?