Flower Gardens (April 19th and 20th)

[LVX]

I will be leading a trip for Tom's on April 19th and 20th. I am just curious if anyone from the board will be going out on this trip.

thanks

Layne

 

[k-valve]

A little too early in the year for me. I know someone who was other there last weekend in 8-9 foot seas. They had quite a ride on the ladder when they were reboarding the boat! Yippee!!!! Hopefully, things will calm down a bit for ya'll.

 

[LVX]

yeah, hopefully. I will also be leading trips in May and June so if this one doesn't go out, I have other chances.

layne

 

[k-valve]

Let us know the weekends when you have more info...

 

[redacted]

A little too early in the year for me. I know someone who was other there last weekend in 8-9 foot seas. They had quite a ride on the ladder when they were reboarding the boat! Yippee!!!! Hopefully, things will calm down a bit for ya'll.

I don't think it was quite that bad when we reboarded from the last dive, but it was over 5 ft. At the extreme, the back platform was going about 1 ft UW and putting so many bubbles in the water that the ladder was obscured for 10 of 15 seconds as you hung on the blue ladder line. I probably hung there for about 4 minutes, backing off each time the ladder disappeared, before I saw my opening and scrambled up it. I do believe it was the fastest trip I ever made up that ladder. There were a number of rescues where the divers were fairly new and not sure what to look for. The DMs definitely earned their tips. One boat left its sideline on the mooring buoy so it didn't have to put a DM in the water again.

Seas on the way back to port were in the 7-9 ft range and very erratic blowing in from the NNE giving us lots of roll. They had to break out a new box of bags but there was plenty for lunch for those who could eat.

But it was a great trip with a steady flow of silky sharks on the rig dive. Stetson had night dive like activity in the daytime with spotted morays swimming about and big lobsters walking around. Divers who headed for the flats rather than the drop off ran into a hammerhead and an eagle ray.

Water temps were about 70 but still body soaking cold after multi dives to 80 - 100 FSW. If you are not diving dry, you will want at least 5mm and then some (hoods, vests, heaters).