Bibb lies on her starboard side, bow pointing NE in 130-135'. The prevailing current is to the north so it runs nearly parallel to the ship from stern to bow. Current here tends to really run hard.
Bibb is 327' long by about 40' beam. The shallowest part of her hull is at about 95'. She's been down since 1987 so has a real nice carpet of growth on her and a good population of big fish.
Bibb, although she is an artificial reef, is much more reminesent of a wild wreck. She's not often dived due to her attitude and depth and since the shallower, upright Duane is less than a mile away.
Bibb is rightly considered an advanced dive. Screw up and she'll kill you. She has killed at least one that I know of.
Spiegel Grove also lies on her starboard side. Her beam is about twice that of Bibb (83') and she lies in almost the same depth so her hull will be touched at around 40-45'.
I don't know how she lies in relation to the prevailing current but I do know the current in the Dixie Shoal area tends to be a bit less than further south where Bibb lies.
I think the SG will get a lot more traffic than Bibb ever did. It will also take awhile for growth to get a good foothold. I consider her an intermediate level dive, less advanced than Bibb in most respects.
The danger in the SG lies in the fact that she may not have been completely sealed prior to sinking. She's also massive. Anyone without proper training and equipment that gets inside of her is in for serious trouble.
In 10 years the SG will be much like Bibb is now. By then though, Bibb will be a completely different dive. The sea reclaims all and rust never sleeps.....
Tom
Alright, now that the Spiegal is down on her side and it appears that they intend to leave it that way, I'm wondering how similar to diving the Bibb would it be??
