Thom_Piper once bubbled...
Sorry, as a newbie, I originally posted this in the wrong forum.
I would like to dive the Flower Gardens with either the MV Spree or Fling this October or November. My buddy and I are novice divers and newly certified (this summer in Cayman) but are fit and strong swimmers. I have read that this dive is only for advanced divers but I have also heard from others that novice is fine as long as I will be hones with myself about my abilities, skills etc. Advice?
You heard correctly, the Flower Gardens aren't for novices. It's 100 nmi. offshore and that's no place to have an emergency! Some of the charters are beginning to require Adv. certifications to go. But since most of the trips are scheduled through dive shops only, their only interest is in selling the spot. I have seen new divers out there who never should have been allowed.
You'll be diving in the Gulf. Conditions can and will change very quickly. The currents are usually considered moderate. And this time of year you have raging storms to deal with that can pop up after you get out there. Since it take 8+hrs to get out that far in good conditions, coming back in with high seas is alot worse.
You need to have good navigations skills and understand how to navigate in the open ocean. It's not the same as the simple out and back you did in class. You need to be in control of your bouyancy and able to make your safety stops. The reefs start at 75ft at the FG so you need to be comfortable in deeper water. You need the strength to swim against a current if needed and to pull yourself to and down the anchor line against a current. And even in 2-3ft seas, which is normal, you'll need to get back on a rocking/rolling boat. You won't win an arguement with the ladder! Being strong swimmers will help but there is so much more to it than that. I haven't even mentioned the seasickness or trying to sleep in small bunks on a rolling boat. Being on a dive boat in the Caribbean is no comparison to being 100nmi. offshore where the motion never stops and it can be hard to get much needed rest.
I'm not trying to tell you that you can't or shouldn't go. But over the years I have seen so many novice divers who were told by the dive shop (and other divers) how simply great the trips were, paid their money, and at the very least were sick the whole time. Yes, there are times when the seas are flat as a pancake and the diving as easy as falling off a six-pak boat in Cozumel but it's rare.
If you feel like you can be honest enough with yourself to skip a dive when you are ill, fatigued, and just not prepared then that's a call only you can make. But my honest, experienced opinion would be to wait. In the spring, make some one day trips out to the oil rigs 30-60nmi. out and learn to dive the conditions. Then in July, August and the first two weeks of September, get on a trip to the FG when the conditions are the most dependable.
Just my 2¢ worth
