Well, just got back from a long weekend in the keys and I had a blast. I flew into Miami on Friday night, rented a convertible (cheesy, I know), and hauled down to Key Largo. We stayed at Marina del Mar and I dove with Ocean Divers.
I was pleased to find out that Ocean Divers is located practically on-site w/ the hotel. It was about a 100 yard walk from the room to the boat, so that was a relief. I left my non-diving gf sleeping in the room while I went out diving so I was able to leave the car for her. Check-in was nice and easy. Just filled out the obligatory forms, and got a card to check out my nitrox tanks. The tank corral is right by the boat so if you want nitrox, just grab your tanks, analyze them, and walk them down to the boat. If you are diving air, they leave the tanks right on the boat so no lugging tanks. All of their air tanks are LP85's, so keep that in mind for weights. My rig is neutral w/o weights using an AL80, so I was able to get a couple of Nitrox AL80's.
The DM on the boat was great, the safety briefing was thorough, and the boat was not too crowded. We had about 15 divers and there was room for plenty more. The trip out to the site was about 25 mins.
1st Dive: Speigel Grove
The dive briefing itself was pretty good. All the basic entry/exit procedures, dive site description, etc. They gave a pretty stern warning against penetrating the wreck. I imagine this has something to do w/ the accident this year. Swim-throughs, etc are fine but nothing that would require a light. My buddy didn't seem too keen on going too far inside anyway, so no big deal. Once we splashed we made a quick descent down the mooring line to the top of the super-structure. Water temps were in the high 70's below the thermocline and vis was around 30-40 ft. Our max depth was around 100ft on the rear deck. This is a great wreck! There are seemingly limitless swim-throughs. You can spend a lot of time going from room to room and there is plenty of ambient light and tons of exits. The stern of the boat was pretty impressive as well, the loading bay and crane structures were huge. There was an impressive amount of growth on the wreck given the amount of time it has been under. So we cruised around, did a bunch of swim-throughs, and explored as much of the wreck as possible. We spent most of the time on the stern and the upper super-structure. I definitely could have used a few more dives on this one. Once we got back on the boat, we took a vote to stay or go to another wreck. Most people wanted to move on. Boo.
Second Dive: Benwood
The second dive was about 20 mins away. It was an old wreck called the Benwood. This wreck has seen better days. It's shallow and there is still plenty of relief on the wreck, especially in the bow area. It was a great dive. We say two large sting rays, a nurse shark, a school of barracuda, and all the standard tropicals. We cruised around for about an hour and then got back on the boat.
Afternoon: Freediving
So as I mentioned my gf doesn't dive (yet). She is scheduled to start her OW class this week, so I took her our snorkeling to break in her mask/fins/snorkel and get used to the equipment. We went out w/ the dive boat for the afternoon dives, which are very shallow. It was definitely a blow to ego having everyone encourage me to get my certification instead of just snorkeling
. At first, I was explaining that I was just being a supportive boyfriend and snorkeling w/ my non-diving gf but after awhile I just gave up. But fortunately, the reefs were shallow and I did some great freediving. I have been wanting to work on my freediving skills for awhile so this was a good opportunity. By the end of the afternoon I was diving to about 45 ft without a problem. I was even going through some swimthroughs on the reef in about 15-20 feet of water. So although I wasn't diving, I still had a blast.
The next day we drove down to Key West. Some folks here had cautioned against this since it was a holiday weekend and traffic would be bad. We had originally planned to just go down for the day but once we got there we were having too much fun and decided to stay for the night. We had a blast. We woke up at 6:30am the next morning to get on the road and beat traffic. No real traffic to speak of, so we made it back in about 2 hours. From there we drove into Miami, grabbed lunch in South Beach, and headed back to the airport.
Overall it was a great trip! I definitely need to do some more diving in the area. It was great to be able to dive a deeper wreck only 6 MILES from shore. Not that I don't enjoy spending three hours each way in the boat for 2 30 minute dives
Ryan
I was pleased to find out that Ocean Divers is located practically on-site w/ the hotel. It was about a 100 yard walk from the room to the boat, so that was a relief. I left my non-diving gf sleeping in the room while I went out diving so I was able to leave the car for her. Check-in was nice and easy. Just filled out the obligatory forms, and got a card to check out my nitrox tanks. The tank corral is right by the boat so if you want nitrox, just grab your tanks, analyze them, and walk them down to the boat. If you are diving air, they leave the tanks right on the boat so no lugging tanks. All of their air tanks are LP85's, so keep that in mind for weights. My rig is neutral w/o weights using an AL80, so I was able to get a couple of Nitrox AL80's.
The DM on the boat was great, the safety briefing was thorough, and the boat was not too crowded. We had about 15 divers and there was room for plenty more. The trip out to the site was about 25 mins.
1st Dive: Speigel Grove
The dive briefing itself was pretty good. All the basic entry/exit procedures, dive site description, etc. They gave a pretty stern warning against penetrating the wreck. I imagine this has something to do w/ the accident this year. Swim-throughs, etc are fine but nothing that would require a light. My buddy didn't seem too keen on going too far inside anyway, so no big deal. Once we splashed we made a quick descent down the mooring line to the top of the super-structure. Water temps were in the high 70's below the thermocline and vis was around 30-40 ft. Our max depth was around 100ft on the rear deck. This is a great wreck! There are seemingly limitless swim-throughs. You can spend a lot of time going from room to room and there is plenty of ambient light and tons of exits. The stern of the boat was pretty impressive as well, the loading bay and crane structures were huge. There was an impressive amount of growth on the wreck given the amount of time it has been under. So we cruised around, did a bunch of swim-throughs, and explored as much of the wreck as possible. We spent most of the time on the stern and the upper super-structure. I definitely could have used a few more dives on this one. Once we got back on the boat, we took a vote to stay or go to another wreck. Most people wanted to move on. Boo.
Second Dive: Benwood
The second dive was about 20 mins away. It was an old wreck called the Benwood. This wreck has seen better days. It's shallow and there is still plenty of relief on the wreck, especially in the bow area. It was a great dive. We say two large sting rays, a nurse shark, a school of barracuda, and all the standard tropicals. We cruised around for about an hour and then got back on the boat.
Afternoon: Freediving
So as I mentioned my gf doesn't dive (yet). She is scheduled to start her OW class this week, so I took her our snorkeling to break in her mask/fins/snorkel and get used to the equipment. We went out w/ the dive boat for the afternoon dives, which are very shallow. It was definitely a blow to ego having everyone encourage me to get my certification instead of just snorkeling
. At first, I was explaining that I was just being a supportive boyfriend and snorkeling w/ my non-diving gf but after awhile I just gave up. But fortunately, the reefs were shallow and I did some great freediving. I have been wanting to work on my freediving skills for awhile so this was a good opportunity. By the end of the afternoon I was diving to about 45 ft without a problem. I was even going through some swimthroughs on the reef in about 15-20 feet of water. So although I wasn't diving, I still had a blast. The next day we drove down to Key West. Some folks here had cautioned against this since it was a holiday weekend and traffic would be bad. We had originally planned to just go down for the day but once we got there we were having too much fun and decided to stay for the night. We had a blast. We woke up at 6:30am the next morning to get on the road and beat traffic. No real traffic to speak of, so we made it back in about 2 hours. From there we drove into Miami, grabbed lunch in South Beach, and headed back to the airport.
Overall it was a great trip! I definitely need to do some more diving in the area. It was great to be able to dive a deeper wreck only 6 MILES from shore. Not that I don't enjoy spending three hours each way in the boat for 2 30 minute dives
Ryan
