I got back from the FG trip about 2 am this morning. Great Trip! Twelve dives, all of which were over 80 feet deep, in two and a half days. That included two night dives (SPECTACULAR), a dive on platform HI 389 (ALSO spectacular), and a full day on three sites in Stetson Banks. Saw plenty of sealife, although something really strange...with the exception of two really large turtles, we saw NO large animals. No mantas, no eagle rays, few sharks (much less a whale shark)...nothing. What's especially strange about that is that we're only two weeks or so from the coral spawning. Usually, the megafawna start showing up a bit early in anticipation of the "banquet" that ensues when all that coral puts a LOT of protein into the water. That wasn't in evidence on this trip. The coral are ready to spawn, for certain--we had a marine biologist on board who was taking specimens (yes, she has a permit). Out of all the dives, we only saw one lionfish. Otherwise, the system looked GREAT! The coral was healthy and benthic cover was amazing. Fantastic populations of a really large diversity of species. It was just completely awesome!
We were blessed with stunning conditions, particularly on the first day. Wind was low, waves were about a foot (less at times), and currents were almost completely slack. We actually dropped straight down from the boat without using the lines. Day two, the current and waves picked up a bit...waves were 2-3, and the surface current was pretty stout, but it was much less on the bottom. Day three was about the same, though the current slowed just a little on the surface.
The crew of the Fling was fantastic. Great food (and lots of it), a jovial atmosphere (we went with a group of Cajuns...what else could you expect?), and everything worked just like clockwork.
All in all, a fantistic trip. Hey, gds1278 ! Let's plan on doing it again sometime!
Bill
