Report heard on FM104.1 vis at Looe yesterday was excellent.  Marker 24
(the lighted 20' tall steel I-beam marking Looes east end) joined the
marker Georges bent over in 1998.

Big Pine Shoal Marker (36'?) destroyed.

from todays Key West Citizen: (link below)

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Request: Please don't dive Spiegel right now

BY STEVE GIBBS

Citizen Staff

KEY LARGO - The mooring buoys from the Spiegel Grove artificial reef
were removed Tuesday and Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
officials called for a voluntary closure of the wreck, while Upper Keys
dive operators celebrated the uprighting of the massive sunken ship by
Hurricane Dennis.

Also Tuesday, sanctuary divers discovered that another intentionally
sunk ship - the Adolphus Busch off Ramrod Key - also had moved
around in the storm.

A voluntary closure is faster and more flexible than going through
federal regulations to officially close the site to diving, said Cheva
Heck, spokeswoman for the sanctuary.

"Once we see it's safe and try to get a new assessment done, we'll
re-install the mooring buoys," she said.

Heck said sanctuary divers Tuesday checked out the Adolphus Busch, a
210-foot ship sunk in 1998 three miles from Looe Key, and found the
ship had listed to starboard by 5 to 10 degrees, exposing the entire
keel and the propeller.

The ship's starboard bow anchor broke and the starboard stern anchor is
"very, very taut," indicating strong seas from the southeast, Heck
said.

Divers couldn't find the port bow anchor and the ship has settled an
additional 8 to 10 feet into the seafloor, making it a deeper dive,
Heck said.

Meanwhile, sanctuary divers and the dive shop owner who directed the
sinking of the 510-foot Spiegel Grove descended upon the site to check
out its new orientation.

The May 2002 sinking of the Spiegel Grove gained worldwide attention
after the ship sank prematurely while being readied for scuttling and
settled on her side. The Key Largo Chamber of Commerce and Monroe
County spent $250,000 to hire a salvage company from Stuart to right
the ship. But salvers could only turn her 90 degrees, and there she
stayed for the past three years - until Hurricane Dennis.

"I'm flabbergasted," said Rob Bleser, the volunteer project director,
after he surfaced from a dive on the newly oriented Spiegel Grove.
"Nature took its course and put it where it belongs."

According to Matt Strahan, meteorologist in charge at the National
Weather Service Office in Key West, the waves above the Spiegel Grove
wreck site could have been has high as 20 feet Friday afternoon.

"When Dennis was southeast of Cuba, it would have produced very high
waves that computer models project could have reached Key Largo," said
Strahan, according to a press release from the Tourist Development
Council. "Waves that high in close proximity to the reef can produce
unusually strong currents with tremendous force."

The Spiegel Grove is in 130 feet of water, about six miles off Key
Largo. The ship, designed to carry cargo and craft for amphibious
landings, was retired by the Navy in 1989.

Bleser said the ship is still facing in an easterly direction and has
not changed location.

"This will mean a whole new dive for those that have dove it before,"
Bleser said. "Its orientation is now less confusing for new divers, and
it's a bit deeper dive now."

He estimated that the ship now sits 10 feet deeper since it rolled over
into a large trough created as currents eroded the soft sand from under
the ship's hull over the past three years.

"She's more stable than ever," he said. "And she's sitting as level as
a pool table."

Capt. Todd Firm, who like Bleser is a dive shop owner, said the real
upside of the phenomenon is the worldwide publicity the dive industry
and the entire Keys receive from it.

"This is great for the dive business," said Firm, who's also a TDC
board member. "With the national press picking this up - CNN is
running it - it's a win-win for us and it doesn't cost any
advertising dollars."

Bleser said there have been about 75,000 sport dives on the wreck since
it opened to divers.

Residents have purchased more than 500 bronze medallions at $250 apiece
to help support the sinking of the ship. A plaque was attached to the
ship while it was on its side that lists the names of those who helped
support the project. When asked about the plaque, Bleser said it is
attached to the port side of the ship just below the second deck
railing.

"It's on the lee side [of the current]," he said. "It looks real good."

Citizen News Editor Nancy Klingener contributed to this story.

http://www.keysnews.com/283754725069552.bsp.htm