First time to Spiegel Grove....WoW!!

[MikeJacobs]

Sounds great... I've heard several war stories of bad currents and rough seas from a few divers in our club. Nice to hear the SG is not all about hanging on for dear life..

Yes, unfortunately a few well-ego'd individuals with the need to make an adventure out of diving have exaggerated the dangers, but to their credit most divers here recognize the SG for what it is: a challenging, awesome dive. While responsible divers will call a dive rather than proceed when the conditions are questionable (like Dan the man), under average conditions it is a dive experience of a lifetime with appeal to all skill levels. As always, know your dive plan beforehand and listen to your captain/DM.

 

[iflyprops]

I just dove the sg last wednesday for the first time with my college dive club. What a huge boat! eerrr ship... I didn't really think, except for the depth, it was all that challenging. And that is comming from a basic ow diver with eanx privelages...and a grand total of 17 dives. I was amazed by the size of the ship though and the variety and abundance of the marine life after only being under for a year. I will definitly be back to dive her. I also have my medallion proudly zip tied to my bc telling the other divers that I DOVE THE GROVE!!! :lol:

 

[Charlie99]

I didn't really think, except for the depth, it was all that challenging. And that is comming from a basic ow diver with eanx privelages...and a grand total of 17 dives.

Yep. As MikeJacobs also pointed out, in reasonable conditions it isn't a difficult dive at all.

As for depth, twice I've buddied up with divers that didn't want to go below 80'. In both cases, we were able to wander along and amonst all of the stuff along the port side, stay above 80' and have a nice long interesting dive. In one case, my buddies were a woman with about 25 dives, and her boyfriend whose only OW dives were the dives he had done on a western caribbean cruise the week before, and the two shallow dives we had done together the day before. Nice comfortable dives, particularly since we did a live drop and drifted onto the wreck; thereby eliminating the need to fight the current.

Yep, the Spiegel Grove can be a deep dive with significant deco obligation, and it can be an extensive penetration dive, but OTOH, you also choose to make a relatively shallow dive w/o penetration.

 

[d33ps1x]

Any good photo links and info? I hear a lot about this wreck.

 

[ReefTrekker]

Here's a great online video of the wreck
http://www.innovative-dynamics.com/uwvideo.htm

I haven't found many sites with a lot of pics of the wreck, but there are a ton of sites with information on the ship. Just search, and you'll run across them.

Do any of you wreck divers out there know where I can find some charts of the wrecks around Ft. Lauderdale and the keys? (Including the SG)
Nothing fancy, just some drawings or maps indicating points of interest?

 

[d33ps1x]

Thanks a lot ReefTrekker!