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[ReelDiver]

Its Spring Break and what better way to spend it then with a week of diving in Key Largo, FL!! Nothing gets me more excited about the coming warmth of summer more than the American Caribbean!

I managed to wrangle together some of my students from this winters college courses. Those who knew if they wanted to finish their open water dives before June the warmest bet would be to head South. We rented a 15 passenger van and a nice house on the water, and made drove South until people no longer wore socks and Jeeps didn't have doors. 18 hours is a long time to drive...but the hot tub and hammock at the house when we arrived on Sunday made it all worth it!

Five days of mid-70s blue water goodness with Horizon Divers lay ahead of us and we were stoked! All week we had 80* temps and not a wave about 3ft. Monday & Tuesday were our shallow days which we spent on French and Molasses Reef playing with some rays and a curious turtle. Three of our six were doing their Advanced Open Water so they did their Peak Performance Buoyancy while swimming through Sand Bottom Cave and around Aquarium. Lake Rawlings is a great place to take students because its close but the reefs off Key Largo offer a much better opportunity to practice skills. What could be better than actually having to find the boat for your Underwater Nav dive?! We even got a beautiful night dive and had two hawksbill turtles join our group.

Wednesday started to seriously awesome adventure. Although, I think me waking everyone up at 5am wasn't what everyone really had in find when I said "fun" day in Key West. We loaded up the mystery machine and made our way to the end of the overseas highway to the Southern-Most-Point of the United States, Key West baby!! Wednesday was our opportunity to check out the Florida Key's newest addition, the UNS Vandenberg! We may have had some directional issues when it came to finding the boat behind the Hyatt but we made it there. For those headed to Key West, South Point Divers took real good care of us but their boat is in the Hyatt Resort which made loading gear a bit special. It didn't help matters any that we had our own tanks and a re-breather with us. Guys and gals wishing to dive tech may want to look into a private charter although South Point does back-to-back dives I'm not sure if they allow single tech runs with double recreational runs.

Tropic Mike, our boat captain, got us on the wreck and we had two amazing dives! The first had a good 2.5 knot current running across the wreck which made moving down the line fun but that died down during our SI and the second dive was calm and relaxing. This ship is B - I - G!! I mean LARGE!! Supersized, huge, gigantimus, vast, expansive, spacious, huge even! In two dives we saw two radar dishes, the bow, and the bridge. There is very little growth on the ship but some sponges are there. Like gym socks, or that stuff in the fridge, give it time and the growth will get better and more interesting. All in all, it was two really great dives but spending the afternoon in Key West made the two hour drive from Key Largo worth it more than the Vandenberg did. Bottom line, spend a couple days in Key West to explore the diving options, Capt. Tony's, Sloppy Joes, Amigos, South Point, ect or stay in Key Largo and relax. Key West is party central and more like Bourbon St. than anything.

After making our way back to Key Largo our escapades to Key West took casualties on Thursday morning. Two of our guys opted out of diving the Spiegel Grove and rejuvenated themselves via an all morning session of mattress therapy. The rest of us hopped aboard the Pieces back at Horizon Divers and made for the Spiegel Grove. We had the 12 passenger boat to ourselves and with two of our six dreaming about diving back at the house we prepared for some dream dives!

OMG it was AMAZING!! The Spiegel Grove is my favorite wreck dive. I've dove the Great Lakes, North Carolina, the North East, and nothing beats dropping in on The Grove!! We had no current, no waves, and a ton of vis (80+ feet). Horizon leaves a little later than the rest of the Key Largo boats so when we arrived Ocean Divers, Amorea, Keys Divers, & Sea Dwellers were already on scene. Someone must have left because ball #6 was open which is on the top deck and makes for a great beginning and ending spot for a dive, especially for anyone doing deco dives. The top deck sits at 65' so you can do your first deco stop while still enjoying the wreck! A great lesson for everyone on board happened before we even got to the wreck. Someone, from one of the other boats, made an uncontrolled accent to the surface and three divers from one of the other boats were headed up our mourning ball as we started down. Two dives Thursday and two more Friday on the Spiegel Grove and my crew were experts. They can lead you Snoopy no problem, take you to the toilet in the well deck, or hover at 128ft on the anchor line just off the bow and above recreational limits (they may have been briefed to death about this). We tried to feed one of our guys to the Goliath Grouper on the starboard crane and even got to hang out with a Southern Stingray chillin on the bow.

Friday afternoon we snuck in two of the most awesome reef dives on Molasses reef. On board the boat teaching a class was Toni (Oceanic model & Scuba Radio mermaid) who immediately got the attention of the two college guys in my group. Let me tell you, those four dives offered more entertainment and cannon fodder than the whole week's previous escapades! I just kept my mouth shut and witnessed the suave happen...or not happen. lol

Unfortunately that ended our diving escapades for the week. As a finale we enjoyed the setting sun on the patio of Sundowners restaurant and joked about all the awesomeness that had taken place this week. After thirteen dives, 27 tank fills, 2400 miles, a dozen stingrays, 6 turtles, 5 bartenders, three boats, and one mermaid our trip was done and we all are stuck going back to work in the morning.

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

That's a great trip report! I've dived everything you described except the Vandenberg, and your report brought back some great dive memories!

[WreckWench]

Oh my you had your hands full.

The Vandy is exactly as you describe it EXCEPT there is still a gold coin on her that if you find it, it can be traded for a real gold ATOCHA coin. Or maybe silver...I will ask but I know the coin has never been found and its in recreational limits!

While I really enjoy the grove...it can't be the NC wrecks out of Morehead! NOTHING beats diving on history is 80+ degree water!