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Well, we loaded a group of Single
Divers (singledivers.com) in
Freeport for a three day Flower
Gardens trip. The weather in July is
supposed to be better than this, but
we persevered through the 3-5 foot
seas anyway. Since most of the
divers had not been to the Flower
Gardens before, we all survived
through the long version of the
briefing, and got underway for the
west bank. We arrived at the west
bank at 0600 to be greeted by
thunder, lightning, and 5 foot seas.
The water is pretty warm for this
time of year at 84, and it was
cloudy and cool topside. Down below
the current was running strong,
which was to be the theme for the
entire trip. Critters spotted
included a monster black grouper,
crevalle and horse-eyed jacks.
After two on the west bank, we
moved on to HI-376A. There was a
huge school (100 individuals) of
silky sharks displaying mating
behavior (shark bites on the sides
of the females), but no mating was
actually witnessed. There was a
large friendly loggerhead turtle and
a shyer hawksbill. The sergeant
majors are defending their nests,
and all of the usual small blennies
were there also.
After 376A we moseyed over to the
EFG where we saw the Manta rays,
mating creole wrasse, reef sharks,
and the ever present dog snappers on
the night dive. The next morning,
the seas had not calmed down, so we
did a dive on the east bank then
went straight to Stetson.
Stetson was a big hit, as always,
and never fails to excite. Lots of
southern stingrays were spotted, as
well as slipper lobster, spiny
lobster, free swimming eels, Mantis
shrimp, displaying Sailfin blennies,
and every angelfish under the sun.
The weather didn’t really change the
entire trip, but we hope for better
on the next one.
Capt Frank
Freeport, Texas |
