Trip Report MV Fling Texas Caribbean 2 Day Flower Gardens Live Aboard Trip Report

[txdamselfish]

MV Fling Texas Caribbean 2 Day Flower Gardens Live Aboard Trip Report

DIVE SHOP – Gigglin Marlin in Houston Texas. Booked the trip and registered for our Deep Dive Certification course through this shop. Dean, Barbie and the entire crew answered many questions on multiple calls & emails.

FLING CREW -
Captain Mathew was so funny; he could have his own comedy show. He gave a great boat overview & safety briefing. All divers were provided a Deluxe hands-free Regurgitation Containment Systems or RCS to keep with us while on the boat. He did his best to keep the white cap ride home at 15 knots less bumpy and more of a nice roll.

Night Captain - Michael B: Did most of the driving to the next dive site while we slept.

Galley Crew - Tiffanie C, Christi: These ladies were lovely cooks & hosts, accommodating our dining needs. We all went out to the bow with them to feed left over buns and veggie scraps to the Chubs at HI-376A. Tiffanie took an amazing video of a Manta Ray. The galley was always a breath of fresh air due to the “No wetsuits allowed; they stay on the dive deck. Dry off before coming inside” rule.

Dive Masters – Todd, Aaron C: Aaron played us some tunes for about 15 minutes counting down to the dive briefing while we prepped our gear. He provided an accurate map and new safety protocols for each site & current. Todd is part of the CHUM dive club, and he checks your Nitrox logs for all your dives.
You will need to test your Nitrox & log it in a binder on camera table before each dive and give your Dive Time & Max Depth to the crewman at the ladder after each dive. Great bunch of guys who were knowledgeable and supportive to our questions and needs.

Tank Filler – Chris: Always prompt with Nitrox refills after the dives, just be sure to remove your 1st stage after the dive if you want a full tank on the next (they tell you this in the DM Briefing, pay attention). This keeps things moving efficiently and gives you plenty of time to test your tank, fill out the nitrox form with percentage, MOD & pressure before the next dip. Up to five dives in one day.

Our PADI Deep Dive Instructor from Gigglin Marlin Dive Shop – Andy L.
(4 Dives – Day 1 (# 1, 3, 4) Day 2 – (# 2)
We hit the C-Card lotto in our SCUBA learning journey with Andy, he was a phenomenal instructor, re-enforcing what we learned from our Deep Dive PADI booklet. We had an overview of what to expect, discussed our diving experience and any concerns, then with each cert dive we had a 2nd side briefing to discuss the Cert dive plan & skills we will perform with hand signals for each. He made sure on dive 1 that we could achieve neutral buoyancy to demonstrate our skills, confirmed proper weighting. In the after-dive briefings, we discussed our dive, wildlife, and things to work on moving forward. Andy would show us interesting marine life, a barracuda tilting down for a cleaning, an arrow crab & camouflaged scorpion fish He provided history tidbits of how the Flower Garden sites were made with ancient Corals building on top of each generation in the East & West banks, how Stetson Bank got the iconic ridges and how this one-of-a-kind marine life oasis was designated a Marine Sanctuary. Each dive with him was not only for the certification, but also came with tidbits of knowledge to improve our skills, such as giving us the confidence to performing swimming safety stops in the open blue (current allowing) which confirmed our buoyancy and weighting.

FLING ACCOMODATIONS & FACILITIES
4 bunk beds per room with clean sheets, pillow, and a blanket with a bunk light & privacy curtain. Space under bunk bed to put your travel bag with your dry clothes & toiletries.
2 open warm water showers on dive deck
2 clean and tidy bathrooms in galley
3 booths large enough for 6 divers each, 1 side booth for 2 divers in galley.
Place to hang wetsuits and a shared camera table on the dive deck.
1 mutual charging station in the chartroom near the wheelhouse for safety.


FLING FOOD & DRINK
Gatorade, Coffee, Iced Tea, Lemonade and Ice Available all day.
1st Breakfast with Instant Oatmeal & Fruit, Cinnamon Rolls for the Gluten Blessed.
2nd Breakfast with Eggs, Sausage, Bacon, Flour Tortillas Day 1 and Biscuits Day 2.
Lunch with Hamburgers Day 1 and Tacos Day 2. Made salads w/ meat & toppings.
Snacks with charcuterie board, veggies & dips; hummus and sliced fruit.
Dinner with pasta & a side salad. Made a big salad for me.
Desserts with peach cobbler, cookies, fruit tarts, brownies, ice cream. – I had cantaloupe, strawberries, plums & bananas plus found the CHOCOLATES above the ice bin and Peanut M&M’s were presented at snack times.
(I think guests are 1st, then the crew eat so get only what you will eat, then go back for seconds; there is always snacks & fruits available.)

Edit - Spelling

 

[txdamselfish]

DIVING OPERATION

Reading the FAQ, finding a M-V Fling Deck Views graphic online and pinning the bouys from the FGBNMS website in google maps and last but not least reviewing almost every Flower Garden video published on Youtube with This Year and This Month Filter gave me good overview of what to expect. At the same time, my brain seemed to kept skipping over the part in the FAQ about “BRINGING YOUR OWN WEIGHTS”. (Thanks DM Aaron and diver James from Corpus Christie for helping us out because the closest Dive shop is in Houston.)

Operationally from the guest POV it was smooth as butter on warm cornbread, all the crew knew and performed their roles and responsibilities to the highest standards. All procedures were explained and demonstrated in the briefings. We understood where the oxygen kit and bunk alternate exits were located, we were brought to the life jackets and IBA’s location and told how to use them. We had an alarm demonstration and told where to go in case of a fire. The only slight negative is most of the initial DM & Captain briefings occurred in the galley during the 8:39 PM CST sunset.

DIVE SPOTS

West Flower Gardens Bank buoy #1 (Day 1 - 1st & 2nd Dive)
1st Dive – 8:02 AM CST – 1st Certification Dive
Depth – 95 ft.
Visibility – 95 ft.
Current - mild
Wave Height – 1 ft.
Temperature – 82-93°
Summary – There was huge Stony Corals such as Mound, Boulder and Meandroid (Brain Corals). Our Gulf of Mexico gets a bad rap, she provides us with food and energy but usually there is not too many compliments floated about her beauty. It was love at first dive site with the huge corals as far as the eye could see. For our 1st Deep Certification Dive, Dive Instructor Andy executed a descent using a reference line, compared changes in color like blue, green, and red on the surface and at different depths. Took the rest of the dive to take it all in. Then we used our dive computers depth gauge and ascent-rate indicator to measure ascent rate.

2nd Dive – 11:03 AM CST
Depth – 69 ft.
Visibility – 69 ft.
Current - mild
Wave Height – 1-2 ft.
Temperature - 82-91°
Summary – We were on our own this dive, it was very meditative to be underwater with nothing to do but to work on my breathing while I let my eyes wonder around this salt dome oasis filled with colonies of coral. The Queen & French angelfish, damselfish and parrotfish doodling around, Christmas Tree worms chilling on the huge ancient Stony corals. I stayed about 5ft off the coral while my neutral buoyancy is improving, I did not want to hurt the coral or myself. There will be many more trips to get even closer to explore every nook & cranny of this amazing dive destination so close to home. The sea felt good in board shorts & long sleeve rash guard.

HI-376A (Day 1 – 3rd Dive) - 2nd Certification Dive – 2:08 PM CST
Depth – 101 ft.
Visibility – 80-90 ft. when we started our dive…
Current - slight
Wave Height – 1-2 ft.
Temperature - 84-87°
Summary – Entering the structure reminded me of the rectangular metal jungle gyms of my youth with Festival of Color explosion! Your situational awareness needs to be on point for this dive or you could hurt the marine life above, below, sides and hanging on ropes for this site. There was a gorgeous site flying in the current, our Lone Star Flag. The Orange Cup coral was there in all its glory with amazing bright orange, pink and purple colors. I realize it is an invasive species, but it’s here now and it’s cute. The tiny fish were everywhere including my damsels and lots of chubs, jacks, huge barracudas and even seen one reef shark with a hook on the side of her mouth. We were out the weekend before July’s full moon and there was a coral spawning party all over HI-376A, it was clear when we entered the structure and cloudy with orange spawn goo as we left. Good times! For our 2nd certification dive with Instructor Andy he compared the thickness of his 3mil shorty on the surface vs at depth. We viewed the compressed empty water bottle and the full one with colored Gatorade to visualize the amount of pressure at depth. High pressure at depth forces bigger amounts of gas to dissolve in my blood & tissues than my body is accustomed to on the surface.

East Flower Gardens Bank #4 (Day 1 – 4th & 5th (Night) Dive)
EFGB buoy #4 - 4th Dive – 3rd Certification Dive
Depth – 65 ft.
Visibility – 65 ft.
Current – slight
Wave Height – 1 ft.
Temperature – 84-91°
Summary – Another amazing carpet of boulder star, blushing star, mountainous star, lobed star and mustard hill coral and some large sand pockets from parrotfish poop. This certification dive was focused on performing a navigation swim with 50 kicks. Andy gave us our bearing and away we went. My husband of course nailed it, but I was not holding my compass correctly and got us off track, but I was on the money with my 50 kicks, just needed to point my compass in the correct direction, find a permanent placeholder to swim to, then take another compass heading when there until we reach 50 kick cycles. This detail slipped by me like the BYO Weights in the FAQ.

EFGB buoy #4 5th (Night) Dive – 8:32 PM
Depth – 68 ft.
Visibility - NIGHT
Current - slight
Wave Height – 1 ft.
Temperature – 84-86°
Summary – EQUIPMENT NOTE - Bring a tank light, but NOT a WHITE one or you will need to purchase a glow stick. This dive site is where the purchase of the Tovatec UV Light paid off, it was a whimsical and out of this world experience, no mushrooms needed. The Stoney corals light up in purple and green depending on the species. This dive was past my bedtime, I was tired and wanted to get some shut eye. We called it at 25 minutes. When we got to the line, I thought there was a diver descending since we cut our dive short. Well, it was another diver going up too. But I wanted to get out of the way for the descending diver and let go of the line. I did not realize the line was drifting up and when I swam around the diver, I went back for the line, but it was above the 15 ft. safety stop. Swam down to my buddy, we finished our safety stop then got to the line, My precious. It was a little disorienting and I realized that my tiredness played a part in my confusion. If there is such a thing as an early morning dive. I would love a 4AM or 5AM dive before Sunrise, maybe one day when we charter our own boat.

Stetson #3 (Day 2 – 1st & 2nd Dive)
1st Dive - my hubs and I did not go, but Diver Jacob recorded a bottlenose dolphin.
2nd Dive - CERT #4 DIVE
Depth – 105 ft
Visibility – approx. 100 ft
Current - mild
Wave Height – the biggest in my experiences so far, 2-3 ft. Took a bit of coordination and wave timing to hop on the ladder.
Temperature – 85-89°
Summary – Still not over the fact the Gulf of Mexico Flower Gardens Marine Sanctuary is as beautiful as St. Croix (which is my only saltwater experience so far). The water was clear, the Stetson ridges were out of this world cool, the edge was bustling with life before we dropped down to 105 ft to hover for our skills. Andy was tough with his math problems. There is a reason I find joy and contentment working with in the soil with my hands.

NATURE, WILDLIFE, TIDBITS -
Queen Angelfish, Blue Angelfish, French Angelfish (my next fav after the feisty lil damselfish), Blue Tang, Crevalle Jacks, Great Barracuda, Groupers, Chubs, Princess Parrotfish, Stoplight Parrotfish, Butterfly fish Wrasse, Squirrelfish, Scorpion Fish, Smooth Trunkfish, Triggerfish, Arrow Crab & lots more I don’t remember because Garmin Dive log app is NOT available without an internet connection (Pfft and grr). I was amazed at the large amount of marine life all up & down the HI-376A, the colorful Orange Cup Coral was reminiscent of Resin in the game, Astroneer. HI-376A had a helicopter land and take off when we were leaving! It was pretty neato, I kept looking to see if Liv Tyler was there to give foreign investors a tour of the rig. We need an Armageddon 2, not sure it would be the same without Willis. Speaking of meteors! Early in the morning while waiting for the sun to rise, I saw a shooting star otherwise known as a July Pegasid. The dark sky is breathtaking in the gulf, it is a star gazer’s paradise.

Edit - visibility, husband & dive partner said it was clear all the way down. I was adjusting my gear and looking at Andy & him before I noticed the vis. It was very clear, I did not expect that.
wrote nurse shark instead of reef shark on rig de-brief

 

[drrich2]

Great to see a recent trip report of a Fling trip to the Flower Gardens. I've never been; the chance of trip cancellation is high enough I haven't committed to booking airfare for a trip. I keep some links in my Notes app. to share with people who might be interested in it, from others' past reports; I'll add a link to your report.

Alert Diver Online 2010 - Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, Texas - Alert Diver - Divers Alert Network
Undercurrent Sept. 2014 - MV Fling, Flower Gardens, Texas - MV Fling, Flower Gardens, Texas: Undercurrent 09/2014
Alert Diver Online 2017 - Flower Garden Banks - http://www.alertdiver.com/Flower_Garden_Banks

CHUM's Flower Gardens Primer - CHUM's Flower Gardens Primer

 

[Eric802]

Great write-up! A trip out on the Fling is definitely something I'd like to do.

 

[GameChanger]

Flower Gardens is one helluva place for a cert dive! Nice trip report!

 

[agmason]

Thanks for the great write-up been meaning to do a Flower Garden trip for awhile!

 

[scubadada]

Hi @txdamselfish

I did a Florida trip on the sister ship, the MV Spree, in 2015, not too long before it was sold. It was a really great trip, very nice boat. If I lived within striking distance in Texas, I would certainly dive the MV Fling.

Thanks for the great report.

 

[softgrapes]

you were the couple with the colorful halcyon bp/w, yes? I was on that trip with you. Great write up and I am glad you had fun!

 

[txdamselfish]

Hi Softgrapes, yes colorful. Lol. Thanks, we had a blast. Were you one of the divers that geared up across from us? All the guests were a lot of fun. We plan on making the Flower Gardens an annual event.

 

[Wookie]

Hi Softgrapes, yes colorful. Lol. Thanks, we had a blast. Were you one of the divers that geared up across from us? All the guests were a lot of fun. We plan on making the Flower Gardens an annual event.

You make me wish I were home. No one has more time in the FGB than me, no one has more dives than my wife. I’ve spoken to Dennis about sponsoring a trip, but we never got it put together before booking closed for 2022, Maybe I’ll try again in 2023.