Went to Key Largo for the weekend with a couple of buddies to dive the Spiegel Grove wreck. We're all technical divers, but they have decades of experience more than me. Either way, I'm no stranger to wreck penetrations and I've been to this wreck once before, so it was exciting to go back and do some advanced penetrations.
Dive #1 Saturday Morning:
We had plans of going to the forward/aft engine room, boiler room and through shaft alley. We went to the engine room and up to the traverse (110ft) deck. About 15-minutes into the dive my dive buddy had to bail out (from his rebreather), so we stayed close and followed him to the line. Once we knew he was safe we proceeded to go back down to the Traverse level, tooled around in the top decks and then went to deco. Not terribly exciting, but we still go to experience this awesome wreck!
Bottom-time: 43-mins
Run-time: 64-mins
Max depth: 131ft
Dive #2 Saturday Afternoon:
Now there are just two of us. We quickly topped off our tanks to go for dive #2. Our plan was to go to the front engine room again, then aft engine room, back to traverse and just generally tool around while we had plenty of gas after that. We spent a lot more time in the engine rooms this time. Extremely exciting, one of the best dives ever!
Bottom-time: 44-mins
Run-time: 75-mins
Max depth: 132ft
Dive #3 Sunday Morning (video):
CCR buddy rented some doubles so he could join us for this dive. So the three of us went through a port-side hatch down to the traverse level. Then we went to the upper and lower part of the forward engine room. We then exited on the starboard side and proceeded to just do more penetrations. Even though we were running a richer mix than previous dives, which would mean shorter deco, I stayed a bit longer to decompress as I was starting to get chilly and I didn't wear my hood.
Bottom-time: 43-mins
Run-time: 78-mins
Max depth: 138ft
Raw video of the 3rd dive (fun starts about 3-minutes in):
Overall very successful and fun dives. Excellent advanced penetration, different than what I'm used to. I'm so used to hot-dropping to the deeper wrecks, so there's a more dynamic environment to deal with. Spiegel has permanent moorings attached, so we take the line up and down. Thankfully there wasn't much current on all three dives. The max depth is in the 130's, but you have to be pretty deep into the engine room for that (or stay on the outside and go to the sand) and so I assume most divers stay a bit shallower.
This is a very easy wreck to get lost in; we discussed running lines before entering certain areas, but didn't end up needing to. After four dives on this wreck I'm getting a good handle for where everything is. The ship is just massive... and there's so much to explore. Can't wait to go back!
Dive #1 Saturday Morning:
We had plans of going to the forward/aft engine room, boiler room and through shaft alley. We went to the engine room and up to the traverse (110ft) deck. About 15-minutes into the dive my dive buddy had to bail out (from his rebreather), so we stayed close and followed him to the line. Once we knew he was safe we proceeded to go back down to the Traverse level, tooled around in the top decks and then went to deco. Not terribly exciting, but we still go to experience this awesome wreck!
Bottom-time: 43-mins
Run-time: 64-mins
Max depth: 131ft
Dive #2 Saturday Afternoon:
Now there are just two of us. We quickly topped off our tanks to go for dive #2. Our plan was to go to the front engine room again, then aft engine room, back to traverse and just generally tool around while we had plenty of gas after that. We spent a lot more time in the engine rooms this time. Extremely exciting, one of the best dives ever!
Bottom-time: 44-mins
Run-time: 75-mins
Max depth: 132ft
Dive #3 Sunday Morning (video):
CCR buddy rented some doubles so he could join us for this dive. So the three of us went through a port-side hatch down to the traverse level. Then we went to the upper and lower part of the forward engine room. We then exited on the starboard side and proceeded to just do more penetrations. Even though we were running a richer mix than previous dives, which would mean shorter deco, I stayed a bit longer to decompress as I was starting to get chilly and I didn't wear my hood.
Bottom-time: 43-mins
Run-time: 78-mins
Max depth: 138ft
Raw video of the 3rd dive (fun starts about 3-minutes in):
Overall very successful and fun dives. Excellent advanced penetration, different than what I'm used to. I'm so used to hot-dropping to the deeper wrecks, so there's a more dynamic environment to deal with. Spiegel has permanent moorings attached, so we take the line up and down. Thankfully there wasn't much current on all three dives. The max depth is in the 130's, but you have to be pretty deep into the engine room for that (or stay on the outside and go to the sand) and so I assume most divers stay a bit shallower.
This is a very easy wreck to get lost in; we discussed running lines before entering certain areas, but didn't end up needing to. After four dives on this wreck I'm getting a good handle for where everything is. The ship is just massive... and there's so much to explore. Can't wait to go back!
