Hello from St. Louis. Looking for wrecks to dive.

[fncop]

Greeting from St. Louis, Missouri. I joined this site to try to find suggestions on the best places to take my husband for some wreck diving. We're still new divers (only 50 dives each) so we don't have the experience level yet to do anything like the Orisknay. Not anyplace overly expensive. Would like to spend a total of about $5,000-$6,000 for the two of us from the United States. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bl6394]

fncop

As a fellow St. Louis-an I'd suggest you look to the Great Lakes. I've had awesome recreational dives in Lake Michigan - from 20 ffw to 130 ffw. The Zebra mussels have done a great job cleaning up the vis and the fresh water preserves the wrecks better than salt water wrecks. It will be dry suit diving with water temps between 36 and 42 degrees at depth - but much of the diving in the Midwest is. Some of the nicer charters I've had have been through Captain Jitka Hanakova (Shipwreck Explorers - Scuba Diving Charter Boat Operator around the Great Lakes) and Captain Greg Such (Shipwreck Adventures). I would recommend either of them. Y Kiki Dive Shop (Ykiki Scuba Diving Snorkeling Equipment Gear Accessories Tanks Certification | Creve Coeur, South County, St. Louis) also puts together group trips from time to time - and we'd love to have you come along.

I've also had fantastic wreck dives in Florida: Key Largo and Key West. Depths were 40 fsw to 130 fsw - and doable in a wetsuit. Some of my favorite wrecks were the Benwood (shallow reef wreck), the Duane, and the Speigel Grove. But a Florida trip will definetly cost more than a trip up to Waukegan, IL (Chicago).

Happy Diving!

Bjorn

PS - Most of my diving has been domestic - so I'll defer the international responses to divers with that experience.

 

[diversteve]

There's a lot of wrecks just of St. Thomas - that should be well within your budget. Blue Island Divers lists them - including depths. Blue Island Divers Dive SItes

One other option might be to ferry - or drive(car ferry) over to St. John one morning to dive the RMS Rhone in the British Virgin Islands with Cruz Bay Watersports. Cruz Bay Watersports - Scuba Diving Programs bring your passports...

It's the signature wreck in that area - they filmed "The Deep" there. I'm not that interested in wreck diving but I liked that one. Especially the back half - it's done as 2 different dives.

Their boat leaves at 7:45 but there's a couple of early ferries that make that possible since they dock in Cruz Bay. Add at least 30-40min. for the drive from Charlotte Amalie to Red Hook - traffic makes it slower than it looks. Virgin Islands Ferry Schedule Or park at the Ferry terminal in Red Hook and take a passenger ferry over.

The other really good place for wrecks is Bermuda but it can be colder (except in summer) and a lot more expensive. The Ultimate Bermuda Shipwreck Guide | Blue Water Divers & Watersports (Bermuda) I've never been there.