The Spiegel Grove!

In this area, it is very rare when you can claim the day is less than beautiful. And, this day was no exception.

The sun was shining spectacularly, the few clouds provided small patches of cooling shade, the temperature was a gorgeous 82 degrees, the breezes passed through cooling what the sun continually warmed and the water was pristine – not a ripple in site. Perfect, maybe not, but pretty close!

We were approximately six miles of the coast of Key Largo, at 25° 04.00' N, and 80° 18.65' W. Moored to one of the mooring buoys, which are provided and maintained by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, my dive buddy/mentor and I prepped for our dive.

Minutes later, geared up and ready, we dove in. Did I mention it was a beautiful day? Well, it only got better. The water was crystal clear with more than 100 feet of visibility, little to no current, and we were the first divers on the reef that morning (that in itself is an amazing feeling).

We descended down the mooring buoy downline, and beheld an amazing site. As this was my first time diving this “reef”, I was awestruck. It was massive! Starting at 60 feet of depth and descending to just over 130 feet deep, this 510 foot long, 84 foot wide “reef” is extraordinary!

Okay, so this is not a “regular” reef, this is a gigantic artificial reef. This artificial reef is the one and only Spiegel Grove, which was sunk in 2002 to provide an underwater habitat for marine life and a remarkable site for dive enthusiasts to visit.

As I mentioned before, we descended using the downline located on the Spiegel Groves’ stern, starboard side. We then followed the line of the ship forward on the starboard side and returned aft on the port side, continually noting the various details of this submerged wonder, such as the locations of other mooring buoy downlines, the detached landing grate, the Sponsor’s Plaque, the Volkswagen sized Grouper, and much more.

It is truly a site that must be visited time and again, because you cannot take in everything during one dive.

As for me, I will be back a number of times; learning and enjoying every fin kick of the way!

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