- Messages
- 1,325
- Reaction score
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- # of dives
- I'm a Fish!
After driving through some heavy rain on 288 south and eating an early dinner at Luby's in Lake Jackson, we managed to go through half a can off OFF fighting buzzard size mosquitos waiting to board the SPREE.
Friday evening saw us leave the dock on time, enjoy some great snacks and hear one of the most thorough, complete and enjoyable dive/captain's briefings you'll ever experience. Then it was off to the bunks for most.
The first ten miles or so had a little chop. From then on out it was as good as it gets.
Saturday 6:00AM wake up with dive at 7:00AM First dive was at West Bank. Water temp was 86, viz was about 80'-90', only because the sun was still low. The sea was almost calm with a slow gentle swell....almost flat. Moderate surface current, minimal on the bottom.
Second dive at West Bank. Moderate currient, minimal on bottom. Viz had jumped to 100+ due to elevated sun.
Third dive was at the High Island 389 platform at the Flower Garden Bank. this was a great dive although a little challenging for some of the divers and the boat captain
The current was strong and the divers had to negotiate a line made directly to the rig.
This was a beautiful dive with viz well over 100', bottom depth 300+ feet. The number and variety of Caribbean reef fish that inhabit this platform is striking! Cobia (Ling) and some other larger fish were seen here as well as a loggerhead turtle.
Fourth dive was at East Bank. Viz 100+, seas gentle swell, temp about 86 degrees. The surface current was somewhat stronger here than it had been at West Bank.
Fifth dive was a night dive. Conditions were essentially the same as the fourth dive (except at night). I decided not to do the night dive, rather choosing to enjoy some of the great libation available on the Spree.
During sleep time, the Spree was moved to the Stetson Bank. Dives six and seven were made there. Viz on the first dive was limited a little by low sun. The second dive had viz at 100'+. The current was much less on the surface and negligible on the bottom. I did shoot a few pics at this site.
The nice thing about Stetson is that the eels, fish and creatures are easier to see because there is not the coral formations for them to hide under. However, there is plenty of growth and formations to provide ample protection.
Some larger crerature were seen here....at least one manta ray was seen and filmed and a school of amberjacks to about 80 lbs. were seen crusing the area. Also a few reef sharks were seen. Not to mention the thousands of Vermillion snapper present, along with the plethora of reef creatures.
All told, this was a great trip! There were a number of photographers onboard and all had plenty to keep them busy. The food was out all the time...if you got hungry it was your fault! One could not expect to meet a better bunch of people than were on this trip.
Most important....This is a well run operation. The dive briefings are thorough, no-nonsense and straight forward...as they should be. No points were overlooked. Individual diver safety checks are redundant and charted. Great effort id made to make this a safe diving operation and it is apparent! The boat is clean and everything is in it's place! 'Cause if it's not it'll end up in the freezer!
It is no surprise that this is one of the highest rated livaboard operations in the world.
If you've never done a Flower Gardens trip, crunch some numbers. Simply take the number of dives you get for your bucks and compare it to any other dive trip on a tropical reef. You may find that the Flower Gardens on a livaboard is the best bang for your bucks. Oh, and did I say the food was great,,,ice cream too!!
Regards,
Friday evening saw us leave the dock on time, enjoy some great snacks and hear one of the most thorough, complete and enjoyable dive/captain's briefings you'll ever experience. Then it was off to the bunks for most.
The first ten miles or so had a little chop. From then on out it was as good as it gets.
Saturday 6:00AM wake up with dive at 7:00AM First dive was at West Bank. Water temp was 86, viz was about 80'-90', only because the sun was still low. The sea was almost calm with a slow gentle swell....almost flat. Moderate surface current, minimal on the bottom.
Second dive at West Bank. Moderate currient, minimal on bottom. Viz had jumped to 100+ due to elevated sun.
Third dive was at the High Island 389 platform at the Flower Garden Bank. this was a great dive although a little challenging for some of the divers and the boat captain
The current was strong and the divers had to negotiate a line made directly to the rig.
This was a beautiful dive with viz well over 100', bottom depth 300+ feet. The number and variety of Caribbean reef fish that inhabit this platform is striking! Cobia (Ling) and some other larger fish were seen here as well as a loggerhead turtle.
Fourth dive was at East Bank. Viz 100+, seas gentle swell, temp about 86 degrees. The surface current was somewhat stronger here than it had been at West Bank.
Fifth dive was a night dive. Conditions were essentially the same as the fourth dive (except at night). I decided not to do the night dive, rather choosing to enjoy some of the great libation available on the Spree.
During sleep time, the Spree was moved to the Stetson Bank. Dives six and seven were made there. Viz on the first dive was limited a little by low sun. The second dive had viz at 100'+. The current was much less on the surface and negligible on the bottom. I did shoot a few pics at this site.
The nice thing about Stetson is that the eels, fish and creatures are easier to see because there is not the coral formations for them to hide under. However, there is plenty of growth and formations to provide ample protection.
Some larger crerature were seen here....at least one manta ray was seen and filmed and a school of amberjacks to about 80 lbs. were seen crusing the area. Also a few reef sharks were seen. Not to mention the thousands of Vermillion snapper present, along with the plethora of reef creatures.
All told, this was a great trip! There were a number of photographers onboard and all had plenty to keep them busy. The food was out all the time...if you got hungry it was your fault! One could not expect to meet a better bunch of people than were on this trip.
Most important....This is a well run operation. The dive briefings are thorough, no-nonsense and straight forward...as they should be. No points were overlooked. Individual diver safety checks are redundant and charted. Great effort id made to make this a safe diving operation and it is apparent! The boat is clean and everything is in it's place! 'Cause if it's not it'll end up in the freezer!
It is no surprise that this is one of the highest rated livaboard operations in the world.
If you've never done a Flower Gardens trip, crunch some numbers. Simply take the number of dives you get for your bucks and compare it to any other dive trip on a tropical reef. You may find that the Flower Gardens on a livaboard is the best bang for your bucks. Oh, and did I say the food was great,,,ice cream too!!
Regards,
