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24 adventurers set out from Freeport in
the face of hurricane Dean to go dive the
Flower Garden Banks. Granted, Dean was 1000
miles away, and had absolutely no effect on
the diving, but it makes the intro to the
story much more interesting.
We arrived on the West Bank to find 2 foot
seas, and reef sharks. The water has cooled
off a little bit (good news!) and did I
mention we saw sharks? We also saw grouper,
rays, conch, and sharks. The water temp was
86 with a distinct thermocline at 70 feet,
current was minimal, and we saw sharks. We
moved to HI-389, where we saw silky sharks!
We also saw turtles and amberjack and ling,
and roughnecks and blennies and sharks.
After the rig dive, we moored up on EFG #4,
and set a new buoy on EFG#5. During the
search for the pin, I saw a 8 foot nurse
shark as well as a silky. There were grouper
and a cero mackerel and amberjack and
snapper and a large metal structure that
some scientist had left behind, but I guess
he’s allowed. There was another thermocline
at 70 feet, the temp went from 88 to 86.
Seas were calm and slick, and the current
was noticeable but minimal. On Stetson the
following morning, there was the cutest pair
of small reef sharks (about 18 inches long)
that tried to look tough, but couldn’t quite
make the cut. The lobsters were missing from
their condo, let’s hope we see them this
weekend. Some had eggs last week, so maybe
they went someplace private. I also saw a
cero, a school of grey snapper, lots and
lots of mantis shrimp, the usual angels, and
no current. Water was 86, seas were less
than 2 feet. Captain Frank
M/V Spree
Freeport, Texas |
