USS SPIEGAL GROVE VICTIM OF TORPEDO ATTACK!!
My friends and I dive out of Kevin Sweeney's Scuba Adventures in Naples Florida. Kevin's shop is known as the main dive shop for equipment and training in Southwest Florida; including advanced Trimix technical divers.
On this weekend several of us drove to Key Largo to dive with Dan Dawson's Horizon Divers. Dan's shop has two boats, a large Catamaran for instructors and students or just groups of basic and advanced divers and Dan's second boat, the Pisces. The Pisces handles our smaller groups who request specialty dives, in this case wreck diving on the Spiegal Grove.
The Spiegal Grove was a Landing Ship Dock (LSD32) built in 1954; she was used to dry dock, repair or haul home damaged ships. This was the type of US NAVY ship used to dry dock the USS Cole after she was attacked and bombed in Yemeni in 2000. The Spiegal Grove is 510' long and 84' wide. She sits in 134' of water near the Dixie Shoals in Key Largo Florida. Her upper structure rises up to approximately 65'. The Spiegal Grove was sunk in 2002 to provide an artificial reef and wreck site in the Florida Keys. The Spiegal Grove along with two 329' Coast Guard Cutters sunk in 1987, the Duane and Bibb constitute our main dive sites for wreck diving and wreck penetration training in the Key Largo area.
The biggest problem encountered by divers trying to work out a dive plan, is how do you "see" a 510' long ship when she is sitting in 100+ feet of water? Looking over past dives on my AERIS Elite T-3 computer I find our normal dives were approximately 115' for a run time of about 32 minutes, not a lot of bottom time available for exploring. So that leaves you two choices, get into technical diving or find a way to cover more ground.
One choice I made was to become a tech diver. In July 07 I dove with Peter Sotis, owner and chief instructor for ADD HELIUM. On one wreck penetration training dive on the Duane, my dive computer shows that with using doubles and a deco stage bottle, the dive was to 113' for a run time of 74 minutes.
However for advanced recreational diving we elect to use TORPEDOS. Our Diver Propulsion Vehicles are made by Torpedo Inc. out of Dunedin Florida . They are rated to 170' and running at 2-3 knots have a burn time of approximately 80 minutes. These DPV's are very manageable, not that heavy and with a slightly negative buoyancy. With an attached accessory lift bag you can trim the DPV so it is neutral.
The Spiegal Grove sits upright and has many large openings on her upper decks. We were able to run the DPV's down companionways and completely through the bridge from side to side. The sensation of riding a DPV through a shipwreck is like when you were a kid and imagined flying down the hallways of your house! The Spiegal Grove also has a large dry dock area that with lights is an amazing cavern like site. Running a DPV around the outside of the wreck at 2 to 3 knots allows you to complete the entire transit on one aluminum 80! I do want to point out that except for very open areas on the upper deck of the Spiegal Grove bridge area, NO penetration of this wreck is recommended by the Key Largo Dive Shops without proper training.
My wife Kathie and I also use our DPV's in the Gulf of Mexico to cover lots of ground with an attached diver flag and float. One other great use of a DPV is to rapidly blow away sand to uncover objects buried in the area of wrecks and dive sites. However using any DPV is not without risks, for example a DPV can change your depth very rapidly.
SSI Instructor Terry Garland has written an approved SSI course on the training and use of DPV's. Terry can be contacted at Scuba Adventures for information on this course, go to www.scubadventureslc.com. Proper training is a must for safe use of DPV's. With proper training a DPV is a great addition to your "dive bag"
For more information on diving the upper Keys and the Spiegal Grove, Duane, Bibb and other great sites, contact Dan Dawson at www.horizondivers.com
(Photograph of Terry Garland handing out on the Spiegal Grove mooring line is attached.)
My friends and I dive out of Kevin Sweeney's Scuba Adventures in Naples Florida. Kevin's shop is known as the main dive shop for equipment and training in Southwest Florida; including advanced Trimix technical divers.
On this weekend several of us drove to Key Largo to dive with Dan Dawson's Horizon Divers. Dan's shop has two boats, a large Catamaran for instructors and students or just groups of basic and advanced divers and Dan's second boat, the Pisces. The Pisces handles our smaller groups who request specialty dives, in this case wreck diving on the Spiegal Grove.
The Spiegal Grove was a Landing Ship Dock (LSD32) built in 1954; she was used to dry dock, repair or haul home damaged ships. This was the type of US NAVY ship used to dry dock the USS Cole after she was attacked and bombed in Yemeni in 2000. The Spiegal Grove is 510' long and 84' wide. She sits in 134' of water near the Dixie Shoals in Key Largo Florida. Her upper structure rises up to approximately 65'. The Spiegal Grove was sunk in 2002 to provide an artificial reef and wreck site in the Florida Keys. The Spiegal Grove along with two 329' Coast Guard Cutters sunk in 1987, the Duane and Bibb constitute our main dive sites for wreck diving and wreck penetration training in the Key Largo area.
The biggest problem encountered by divers trying to work out a dive plan, is how do you "see" a 510' long ship when she is sitting in 100+ feet of water? Looking over past dives on my AERIS Elite T-3 computer I find our normal dives were approximately 115' for a run time of about 32 minutes, not a lot of bottom time available for exploring. So that leaves you two choices, get into technical diving or find a way to cover more ground.
One choice I made was to become a tech diver. In July 07 I dove with Peter Sotis, owner and chief instructor for ADD HELIUM. On one wreck penetration training dive on the Duane, my dive computer shows that with using doubles and a deco stage bottle, the dive was to 113' for a run time of 74 minutes.
However for advanced recreational diving we elect to use TORPEDOS. Our Diver Propulsion Vehicles are made by Torpedo Inc. out of Dunedin Florida . They are rated to 170' and running at 2-3 knots have a burn time of approximately 80 minutes. These DPV's are very manageable, not that heavy and with a slightly negative buoyancy. With an attached accessory lift bag you can trim the DPV so it is neutral.
The Spiegal Grove sits upright and has many large openings on her upper decks. We were able to run the DPV's down companionways and completely through the bridge from side to side. The sensation of riding a DPV through a shipwreck is like when you were a kid and imagined flying down the hallways of your house! The Spiegal Grove also has a large dry dock area that with lights is an amazing cavern like site. Running a DPV around the outside of the wreck at 2 to 3 knots allows you to complete the entire transit on one aluminum 80! I do want to point out that except for very open areas on the upper deck of the Spiegal Grove bridge area, NO penetration of this wreck is recommended by the Key Largo Dive Shops without proper training.
My wife Kathie and I also use our DPV's in the Gulf of Mexico to cover lots of ground with an attached diver flag and float. One other great use of a DPV is to rapidly blow away sand to uncover objects buried in the area of wrecks and dive sites. However using any DPV is not without risks, for example a DPV can change your depth very rapidly.
SSI Instructor Terry Garland has written an approved SSI course on the training and use of DPV's. Terry can be contacted at Scuba Adventures for information on this course, go to www.scubadventureslc.com. Proper training is a must for safe use of DPV's. With proper training a DPV is a great addition to your "dive bag"
For more information on diving the upper Keys and the Spiegal Grove, Duane, Bibb and other great sites, contact Dan Dawson at www.horizondivers.com
(Photograph of Terry Garland handing out on the Spiegal Grove mooring line is attached.)
