 | Flower Garden 2003 by Jim Simmons The
report on the 2002 Flower Garden trip ended with “I’ll definitely go
back.” We did, here’s the scoop!
It would have been hard to imagine that we’d
actually have more fun on this year’s trip, especially in light of the
great time last year, but we did. The initial line up at the dock
brought a surprise … a lot of familiar faces … and none from our
group. This trip actually turned out to be a reunion of sorts with
one of the same dive shops from last year’s trip and that was pretty
cool.
We ended up on a different boat this year … the
M. V. Spree, and what a great crew! This year we had Capt.’s Frank
and Larry, Divemasters Melanie and Trish, and our terrific galley
crew, Jeff and Daniella. Accompanying us along with our host, Dave,
from Caribbean Dive Shop in New Orleans, was his wife, Sunday, who
missed the trip last year, and the returning members of the “Screaming
O” team, Eddie, Chrissy, Paul and yours truly … Jimbo, and also some
new friends, Scuba Steve, Chris & Tim the “Young Jedi’s”, Laura, and
Rebecca. Just in case you’re wondering, the Screaming O team is named
for a busted o-ring, and not for you may have been thinking.
The cruise started Sunday night with an “on time”
9:00 PM departure from Freeport, TX. Early Monday morning we were
rousted from the bunks for the first dive, only preceded by a quick
continental breakfast. As I did last year … I passed on the rolls,
brushed my teeth and went diving. We saw an abundance of healthy
corals, sponges and fish on every dive on the Flower Garden Banks. We
did two dives on oilrigs, vs. one dive last year, and I’ll state right
up front that diving on these rigs could very quickly become my diving
of choice. Probably the biggest advantage here is that you can make
full use of your dive computer for multi-level diving, as opposed to
either the Flower Garden Banks or the Stetson Banks where the depths
are fairly consistent. The marine life supported by the stanchions is
both thick and diverse. There’s actually more fish here than on the
banks and it seems the deeper you go … the bigger they get.
I failed to see a whale shark or a manta although
a small manta was sighted by some of our group. We did see more
sharks than last year, including one circling the second oilrig, but
the ones I saw on the Flower Garden were more up close. I personally
saw some Caribbean reef sharks and some black tips. But all in all,
my favorite critters on this trip were the big conch’s we saw on a
night dive at the Stetson Banks that were either engaged in heavy
battle or something a lot friendlier. Not being scholarly enough to
tell the difference, it will just have to remain a mystery and their
little secret. Also on the same night dive, decorator crabs were
everywhere, along with this big stud hermit crab in a huge shell. I
can only imagine some young kid begging his parents for one of those
skimpy hermits occasionally sold in shopping mall pet stores …
feasting his eyes on this dude … truly, the mother-of-all hermit
crabs. My Louisiana roots had me ready to fire up the crab pot for a
boil. On the Flower Garden Banks, we saw everything from half-dollar
sized red scallops and tiny peppermint shrimp all the way up to
thirty-pound grouper, with tons of stuff in between.
We did eleven dives over three days and I
completely lost count of the number of meals and naps. We watched a
few movies, played a few hands of cards, and I even managed to finish
my book about Lance Armstrong in between dives. It’s an intense
cruise and it’s all about the diving. The crew runs a tight ship as
all of your dives are charted with begin times, end times, depth, and
your returning cylinder pressure, but this focus is to help you
maintain a margin of safety. Remember, you are 110 miles offshore and
if needed, help is a long time coming.
If you have not yet made your run to the middle
of the Gulf of Mexico … it remains … a must do dive trip. Good
crew, good diving, good food. What are you waiting for?
http://www.gulf-diving.com/
|
|
Flower Garden 2003 by Paul Dovie
|
It’s hard to believe that another year has come and
gone, but here we are with another Flower Garden trip. I didn’t think
that this year would be better than last year, boy was I wrong. We
missed Joe and Shawn on this trip but had three new divers to the
group. We welcomed Steve, Laura, and Becka to the group this year. This
year Dave booked us on the Spree with our crew being Captain Frank
Wasson and Larry Statham, divemasters Melanie Wasson and Tricia
McElrath, and in the galley Jeff Standiford and Daniella Fontana.
Arriving on Sunday evening, we waited to board and get our cabins. The
next step was to set up our gear and get a briefing. We signed the
necessary release forms and showed our certification cards for diving
and Nitrox. After that, we got under way and settled in for the night.
Morning would come fast, so it was time to get some sleep. The ride out
was smooth. The wake up call came at 6:00am to dive.
Back Row L TO R: Chris, Steve, Tim,
and myself
Middle L TO R: Laura, Kristie,
and Becka
Kneeling L TO R: Eddie, Jimbo
The Spree was moored to the West Bank buoy #2
and Melanie gave us a briefing of the conditions, and we hit the water.
What a way to start your morning, is there anything better then this? I
logged a dive of 94 feet with a bottom time of 43 minutes. Eddie told
Steve that Jim and I go down on Monday and don’t come up till Thursday.
We got a laugh out of it, but as the week went on it started to seem
that way. I logged a total of 9 hours and 3 minutes on 11 dives with
all dives over 70 feet. Those steel 95’s came in handy. The second
dive was at the same location and on this dive we got a visit from a
Caribbean reef shark and saw a large lobster. On most coral heads,
Christmas tree worms have taken up residence. You will find what ever
color of worms you can imagine. Jim and I were hoping for a visit from a
Whale Shark and a Manta this year; we had to settle for an Eagle Ray
instead.
The third dive of the day was on an oil rig,
HI-A-389-A. I learned that HI stands for High Island. It was located
between the West Bank and the East Bank and was a great dive also. The
legs of the rig were covered with sponge and teaming with fish from
juveniles to adult. Visibility was eighty to one hundred feet and a
little current at the surface and hardly any current at depth. On this
dive I decided to take some still photos and just enjoy the dive. A
Porcupine fish decided to spend some time with me and let me take his
picture. I logged eighty-three feet and forty-seven minutes and used
1711 psi of air.
HI-A-389-A
My
friend the Porcupine fish
Captain Frank moved the Spree to the East
Bank and we moored on buoy #4. This would be our location for the next
dive and night dive. We were told to scout out the area for our night
dive. This time I took the video camera and the current was mild. It
gave me some problem holding on to the housing. It’s hard to hold the
camera and pull yourself down with a current fighting you. I did try
latter to hook the housing in my BC and use both hands and that worked
out great. I’ve never had to fight a current with my video camera in
hand. Our night dive was one hour and the depth was seventy feet. I
think Dave was waiting on the mooring line to cut loose so we could move
to the next location, hope he wasn’t waiting to long for Jimbo and me.
The first day was done, now off to sleep and to dream about what we saw
and about Tuesday’s day of diving. The boat will rock you to sleep and
the only noise comes from the waves against the hull of the boat. That
kind of noise puts me to sleep every time.
Tuesday found us on the East Bank buoy #1 with
a 7:54 am entry into the water. The seas were one to two foot with a
very light current on the surface. Visibility was in the eighty to one
hundred foot ranges and no current to speak of on the bottom. The coral
is very healthy with an abundance of fish. Because of the low light in
the morning, this dive is usually for sight seeing and relaxation. I
logged forty-nine minutes and a depth of seventy feet. The bottom
temperature was a nice eighty-four degrees. The surface interval on the
first day was two hours - thirty minutes, and on the second day a
surface interval of three hours was required.
Dive number two was to be on another rig.
Captain Frank moored us to HI-A-376-A for this dive. Melanie briefed us
on the conditions with no current to speak of. This dive called for the
video camera and I was glad I did. We did see one shark on the outside
of the legs, but too far to film. Angelfish were all around, from Blue,
Queen, and French angel. Again, this rig was teaming with life. Frank
moved us to the Stetson after the rig and this was the location that I
had been waiting for.
The Stetson is a world of it’s own, when you
first dive in, don’t get discouraged. This is a place for juveniles of
all types, with young spotted and green eels. One thing to watch out
for is the urchins, they are everywhere. On one of the dives Jimbo
found two conchs either fighting or making love. We logged four dives on
the Stetson with one night dive there. The visibility was fifty to
sixty feet at best and some areas of water in the temperature range of
eighty-one to eighty-two degrees. Most areas ranged in the eighty-four
to eighty-five degrees.
The great thing about this year’s trip was
that the seas were flat to maybe two feet at the most. Last year the
trip was cut short by one dive and the ride in was very rough because of
the tropical storm coming off Louisiana and moving into the Gulf of
Mexico.
Oh, by the way, the food was great as always.
Captain Frank made a trade with a shrimp boat on Wednesday for some Ruby
Red Shrimp. What a lunch we had on the way home. Everyone helped to peel
the shrimp. Dave’s wife, Sunday, made a shrimp stew and the rest was
cooked to make steak, chicken, and shrimp fajitas. I believe that was
one of the best lunch meals we had, not saying the other meals weren’t
good, and they were all great.
Peeling the catch of the day,
RUBY RED SHRIMP
This table shows the dive time, depth, and
location.
Flower Garden
