Recently, I had the privilege to dive the Spiegel Grove. The wreck is located approximately 6 miles from Key Largo. We were fortunate to dive on the wreck 4 times during the week that we were in Key Largo. We did not plan to dive on the wreck so many times, but the alternate (the Duane) was not safe to dive in the opinion of the boat captain (due to strong currents on the day).
At first I was disappointed that we did not get to dive the Duane, but after diving the Spiegel Grove 4 times, I realized that we had so much to see that 4 dives were barely enough to just do one lap around the top deck of the ship. Because I take lots of photos, we tended to stay in one area longer and tried to take in as much as possible. On each dive we covered approximately a quarter of the ship. I would recommend that if you want to cover the ship from stem to stern then 4 dives would be the minimum. We did not do any deep dives (deeper than 100feet), or do any penetration dives. There are issues with both types of diving, that would have affected our photo taking activities.
I guess I was not really prepared for how large the ship is. I had read that the ship was large, and people told me that the ship was large, but actually diving the wreck, one gets to take in the expanse of the ship firsthand. The most impressive to me were the size of the cranes, and the gigantic dock in the stern of the ship.
The Spiegel Grove should be on any diver's to-do list. Highly recommended.
