38 replies to this topic

[WreckWench]

In preparation for the finishing touches being put on our Fl Keys Liveaboard trip here, please list your favorite Florida Keys dive destinations from Key West to Miami!

It can be reefs or wrecks but a name and description would be AWESOME and will help us set the diving itinerary for this upcoming trip!

[Bubbles]

How about the Adolphus Bush and Spiegel Grove wrecks? We dove both wrecks during the Keys Krawl back in July.

Adolphus Busch:

Located about 5 miles off shore of Cudjoe Key, it is 3 miles west of Looe Key. The Adolphus Busch was cleaned and prepared for divers with large holes cut for nice swim through and was sunk December 1998 as an artificial reef. There are three resident Jewfish living on the wreck and are seen on many dives. The largest weighs in at about 400 pounds. The ship is 210 feet long and the maximum depth is 110 feet, a very good dive for nitrox. This dive should be considered an advanced dive and divers wishing to dive the ship should have an Advanced Open Water certification or plan to be accompanied by an instructor or divemaster.

Spiegel Grove:

Sunk June 10, 2002, the Spiegel Grove is largest vessel intentionally sunk to make an artificial reef. The ship was designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious landings, and was retired by the Navy in 1989. After more than three years resting on its starboard side, waves from Hurricane Dennis pushed the 510-foot U.S. Navy ship Spiegel Grove into an upright position, before the hurricane brushed the Florida Keys July 9, 2005 leaving no significant lasting damage.

Here's the link to a website describing various dive sites in the Florida Keys

[pmarie]

As I rarely make it past Islamorada I would like to put in a vote for the Thunderbolt off of Marathon.

[WreckWench]

Great post ladies!

And Bubbles great job...that helps everyone see if the dive is something they want to do!

[CJdives]

Now ya'll are in my back yard...

Wrecks:

The Spiegel is a great dive, and its BIG...now doubt, however a bit smaller and my favorite of the wrecks in the vicinity, is the Duane, a Coast Guard Cutter, sometimes the current can be moving, however all in all, its a great wreck, with lots of life, both the fish type and growth as well.

There's also the Benwood, it's a barge which collided with another ship during WWII, they were both running without lights, and then used for bombing practice, anyhow it has lots of growth and in the bow section you'll always find schools of pork fish.

Also, off the "pencil" bouy, which is just off the bow, you take a heading of 160 degrees for about 50 yards, you'll come to deep drop off to about 80 feet or so, you'll find "Pierre"...Pierre is an old time scuba instructor who passed away many years ago and some fellow divers planted a plaque down there and we from time to time drop by to clean off Pierre...anyhow, it's a fun dive...just make sure you come back at 340 and if possible, have a local take you...like me of course. :-)

The City of Washington wreck, which is more like a reef than a wreck.

Reefs:

Off of Key Largo as you know, there's John Pennekamp State Park...my favorite reefs there would have to include:

Molasses...a great reef with an abundance of growth and fish, a must dive...Fire Coral Cave with a resident Goliath Grouper the size of VW and the Winch (Hole in the Wall) where you'll find a winch of course and a hole in the wall of the reef, a shallow dive, no more than 25 feet, however with finger spur reefs, full of corals and you'll always find a beautiful school of huge, midnight blue parrot fish swiming up and down the grooves.

Snapper Ledge...where there's usually about the same amount of fish as the bailout plan in dollars.

French Reef has Hourglass Cave, Christmas Tree Cave and my favorite, Sand Bottom Cave, a non descript cave of sorts, however its a place that simply makes you want to sit back and relax, just make sure that you don't "kick" through it, or the people behind you will know why it's call Sand Bottom Cave. :-)

Edited by CJdives, 01 December 2008 - 09:30 AM.

[WreckWench]

Great post CJDives! Now we are cooking and if you want to flesh out the reefs and wrecks you posted a bit more like Bubbles did that would be even better so we can use the info in our FL Dive Post as well as an ongoing "Those In the Florida Know Dive Here" sort of listing!

[pmarie]

I apologize in advance. Please, please take this with a grain of salt and consideration. The reefs listed are very popular reefs and while wonderful to dive, they are reefs that have divers on them all of the time. I truly believed the purpose of the Live-a-board setting was to get to reefs that other divers through normal charters and operators do not get to dive. I completely understand the wrecks, with the exception of the City of Washington and Benwood. These are typically classified as "reefs" due to depth and condition. I also would prefer to avoid the Pennekamp area as that is also a heavily dived (is that a word?) area.

If I have offended I certainly had no intention and do apologize. I would just like to see this be a better that average trip for the $$. I would like to see reefs that are not crowded or less frequently visited due to location.

[Harleyguy33458]

With my limited diving in the Keys, I have always love the Spiegel Grove and I am definitely looking forward to going back in January. I have not been on the Dwayne or the Bibb (spelling?). As far as the Miami area, I taught out of North Miami Beach for a few years and I always loved the Tenneco Towers, about 110 feet depth, if I remember. Also, I loved diving the "wreck treck", which is an area of different diving sites: a barge, a very large rock pile, a small shrimp boat, and a couple sunken vessels. they are all interlinked by submerged metal stakes that take you from one wreck to another.

I do miss diving Miami, as the current was minimal and the wrecks and reefs were pretty good.

I don't know if this will fit into the liveaboard diving sites, but I do mention them for divers looking to dive sites in the area.

Ralph

[WreckWench]

With my limited diving in the Keys, I have always love the Spiegel Grove and I am definitely looking forward to going back in January. I have not been on the Dwayne or the Bibb (spelling?). As far as the Miami area, I taught out of North Miami Beach for a few years and I always loved the Tenneco Towers, about 110 feet depth, if I remember. Also, I loved diving the "wreck treck", which is an area of different diving sites: a barge, a very large rock pile, a small shrimp boat, and a couple sunken vessels. they are all interlinked by submerged metal stakes that take you from one wreck to another.

I do miss diving Miami, as the current was minimal and the wrecks and reefs were pretty good.

I don't know if this will fit into the liveaboard diving sites, but I do mention them for divers looking to dive sites in the area.

Ralph

Miami is an option however it will add considerable transit time to the trip which means we may miss some dives in order to transit back to Key West.

However a list of AWESOME Florida sites SHOULD contain the awesome sites in Miami! And I too loved diving in Miami. I'm waiting for more details to flesh out about these great spots. They certainly need to be in our final list we make on AWESOME SPOTS TO DIVE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS!

[WreckWench]

I apologize in advance. Please, please take this with a grain of salt and consideration. The reefs listed are very popular reefs and while wonderful to dive, they are reefs that have divers on them all of the time. I truly believed the purpose of the Live-a-board setting was to get to reefs that other divers through normal charters and operators do not get to dive. I completely understand the wrecks, with the exception of the City of Washington and Benwood. These are typically classified as "reefs" due to depth and condition. I also would prefer to avoid the Pennekamp area as that is also a heavily dived (is that a word?) area.

If I have offended I certainly had no intention and do apologize. I would just like to see this be a better that average trip for the $$. I would like to see reefs that are not crowded or less frequently visited due to location.

Marie is right...the advantage to the liveaboard we are doing is to see sites you NEVER see or need a special friend who is a boat captain to take you too.

In fact we want to avoid as many of the day sites that are reefs and often dove alot UNLESS they can be moored to since no one wants a 100 ft boat floating around when they are diving. Even using dive flags would not make this a comfortable feeling for the typical diver.

So it would not only be more fun to dive areas that NO ONE DIVES...but it would be safer. The wrecks of course do not fall into these categories as we can moor up to them. Anyplace we can moor up works best for the liveaboard.

However these sites NEED TO BE ON THE MOST AWESOME SITES TO DIVE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS! Then we can assess whether they are suited for a liveaboard or not.

[DiverBabs]

As I rarely make it past Islamorada I would like to put in a vote for the Thunderbolt off of Marathon.

One of the best dives I've ever done was on the T-bolt. She's not a big wreck (only 200 ft) and conditions can vary... but, if you catch her on a good day it rocks!!

http://www.middlekey...a.cfm?siteID=42

the main site....

http://www.flkeysdiving.com/ provides some great info on site up and down the keys.

[WreckWench]

Hey Barb...where do YOU recommend we dive? Anything in particular that say the day ops DON'T often do?

[CJdives]

WW...

I hate to be a debbie downer or put a dent on things...however...I've been diving up and down the keys for the past 25+ years, and most, if not all of the dive sites, wrecks and/or reefs are close enough to shore where the local dive operators frequent them.

As far as the Spiegel or Duane...two remarkable must dive wrecks in Pennekamp, they offer mooring bouys to tie up to, and sure enough, as you mentioned, a 100ft dive boat tied up to them would be a sight to see.

Down in Islamorada you have the wreck of the Eagle, which lies on her side and is completely encrusted and as Barb mentioned, down in Marathon you have the Bolt and even further down you come to Looe reef...all close to shore and the daily local dive operators.

Key West does not have much likable divable sites, except that everyone is waiting for the sinking of the Vandenberg.

One point I'd like to stress though, that for me and the locals that have done these before, they may not be the thrill of lifetime, however for many of those, which we Floridians call "snowbirds", specially if it's their first time diving the Florida Keys...all of these sights are great in their own right.

[Native Texan 2 Dive]

I think what wreckwench is after is to hear where you would like to go to on a liveaboard, not a day boat. From Key West to Key Largo. Along with the popular wrecks, and reefs there are also a large number of places that have no moorings, not marked as a popular site on the charts, but you have dived there and really thought it was a good site and might even have the Lat/Lon. Also give some description of the site for others to have an idea. For instance lots of sea fans or hogfish galore, or hard coral. And the sunsets over the islands are breathtaking. As I read the other post I see a lot of knowledge from members of some great places to go. Its like planning, your own trip and dive sites.

[WreckWench]

I think what wreckwench is after is to hear where you would like to go to on a liveaboard, not a day boat. From Key West to Key Largo. Along with the popular wrecks, and reefs there are also a large number of places that have no moorings, not marked as a popular site on the charts, but you have dived there and really thought it was a good site and might even have the Lat/Lon. Also give some description of the site for others to have an idea. For instance lots of sea fans or hogfish galore, or hard coral. And the sunsets over the islands are breathtaking. As I read the other post I see a lot of knowledge from members of some great places to go. Its like planning, your own trip and dive sites.

YUP...two things going on here...where are the BEST places to dive in the FL Keys and why and of those sites which would be suited for the liveaboard we are planning.

So EVERYONE is right...I'm just the one that is confusing! Sorry...

But to Native Texan 2 Dive's point...if you know of places that the day operators do not dive that you would like to dive...this is the perfect trip to do so. The list however can't be complete without all the awesome sites to dive in the FL Keys.

And I agree with CJDives...I LOVE THE EAGLE!!!