Trip Report With Pics: Wreck of the Doc De Milly/Spiegel Grove 05-20-2008

[SFLDiver3445]

On Tuesday, myself and a couple of other rebreather divers went out with Silent world Dive Center (DIVE KEY LARGO AND PENNEKAMP WITH SILENT WORLD DIVE CENTER, FLORIDA - SCUBA Diving, snorkeling, PADI diver training) of Key Largo and dove the Wreck of the Doc De Milly and the Spiegel Grove. I wrote up a very detailed trip report with lots of pictures on Rebreather World (Trip Report: Wreck Of The Doc De Milly/Spiegel Grove Dives 05-20-2008 - Rebreather World), which is where I normally post my trip reports, but since I'm trying to post more reports here, I'm posting condensed report and a few pictures here as well.


The Doc De Milly, which sits approximately midway between Miami and Key Largo, is an amazing wreck that's in approximately 147 feet of water and usually delivers a great diving experience. On our dive, as is often the case at this wreck, the current was pretty strong, but we still had a great dive and saw plenty of marine life. Here's a few pics from our Doc De Milly Dive:

As a second dive, we dove the Spiegel Grove. Here's a few pics from that dive:

Enjoy!

 

[lilo]

nice pics!

 

[CLEAR BLUE]

Wow...love the pics!

 

[luv2diveWPB]

wow that sailfish must've been real cool to see. great report

 

[SFLDiver3445]

wow that sailfish must've been real cool to see. great report

It's not uncommon to see gamefish like that while doing drifting decompression in deeper water, like we were doing that day. I saw a Sailfish once before and I even saw a Wahoo once - It's awesome everytime!!!

 

[deeper thoughts]

That sailfish shot is amazing

 

[kidsdream]

I too love the Sailfish capture.

 

[Marvel]

Great pics! Frankly, I've never heard of the Doc De Milly- guess it's because it sits a bit below recreational limits. Who did you go out with?

 

[SFLDiver3445]

Great pics! Frankly, I've never heard of the Doc De Milly- guess it's because it sits a bit below recreational limits. Who did you go out with?

Hi Marvel,

The Doc De Milly has been down since 1986 - I actually remember the day they sank it, because they allowed military fighters to bomb it with concrete bombs to sink it, so it was a pretty memorable event.

We went out with Silent World Dive Center (DIVE KEY LARGO AND PENNEKAMP WITH SILENT WORLD DIVE CENTER, FLORIDA - SCUBA Diving, snorkeling, PADI diver training). Silent World is in Key Largo and runs a very nice operation with a couple of boats. Our group often uses Silent World, because besides diving the normal Key Largo Wrecks, they also take qualified divers out to dive the more technically challenging wrecks - They are one of the few true technical dive shops in the Keys!

 

[SFLDiver3445]

I don't really edit any of my pictures, as I have still to even acquire Photoshop, but I got so many compliments and so much interest in the sailfish picture, that I decided to see if I could make the picture any clearer.

Unfortunately, I had a wide angle lens when the sailfish stopped by to visit us and it really didn't get close enough or stick around long enough for me to get a clear shot.

I took the original picture and zoomed in a bit, then I played a bit with the limited touchup features that Microsoft's basic picture editor makes available. Not sure if it's any better or worse, but I think you can see it a bit clearer this way - Here's what I came up with!

Enjoy!