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Once again, our intrepid divers met the
crew at Chico’s Cantina for an unbeatable
Mexican dinner. This seems fast becoming a
habit, but an easy one to live with. The
manager of Chico’s, Jeff, came over to find
out if we were going to continue our Sunday
evening visits, and I made reservations for
30 for next Sunday. We boarded the Spree,
and, after much discussion of safety rules
and potty training, headed off towards Dry
Tortugas North Ecological Reserve to do some
diving We arrived at 0700 at a site known
as Steve’s Reef. As you may recall, we dove
Steve’s reef as a night dive site last week,
and I wanted to try it during the morning.
The site was great, with Goliath Grouper,
blacks, yellow-headed jawfish, and Sailfin
Blennies, and dolphins. There was one big
male, 5 females, and 2 babies. Steve’s is a
much better night dive, so we will adjust
our diving accordingly.
After lunch, we moved to Bat Caves. The draw
of this site is the wild coral formations.
There are lots of swim-throughs, caves, and
a mind-blowing current. I jumped in slack
current, and by my safety stop, it was
blowing 2 knots, at least. We set a side
line for the rest of the day to make it
easier on the divers. Melanie and I spotted
a pure white Mantis shrimp. Others saw a
nurse shark, and numerous grouper. Tuesday
morning, we moved onto Hog Heaven, where the
divers saw and heard a pissed off Goliath
Grouper. He (she?) was booming and generally
making a racket, although by the time I got
in, it was gone. Critters included lots of
big Hogfish, and numerous blacks and reds,
lots of cleaning stations, and the dolphins
came back. It was too cool. Black coral
abounds at this site. After lunch, we
moved to Billy’s Ridge, where the current
again picked up. Billy’s Ridge is low relief
hardbottom, with lots of sandy spots. In the
sandy spots are Yellow-headed Jawfish, these
with eggs. There are lots and lots of small
critters, including blennies, cleaning
stations, Purple Reeffish, tangs,
surgeonfish, and lots of gorgonians and soft
corals. The night dive was cancelled due to
high current. Wednesday morning found us
liveboating on Bob Graham’s Wall, which is
not a wall, and Tricia described as Sherwood
Forest tipped on its side. Critters spotted
included a big free-swimming green, spotted
eels, the usual black and red grouper, and a
yellowmouth grouper too. After Bob Graham’s
Wall, we moved to Sherwood Forest so that we
could dive Sherwood Forest on the flat.
Critters included groupers, ocean
triggerfish, Amberjacks, Bar Jacks, and the
other usuals. After lunch we moved to
Brickhead. Melanie saw a spotted eagle ray,
the divers saw a loggerhead turtle, and a
good sized school of horse eyed jacks, as
well as midnight and blue parrotfish, and
bunches of hogfish. The current was again
smoking, so the divers chose not to night
dive Thursday morning we dove Mushrooms.
We spotted blue and midnight parrotfish,
garden eels, Creole wrasse, yellowtail, dog,
and mutton snapper, permits, brittle stars,
and we know that there is an octopus, but
can’t find it. Thursday afternoon we moved
to Dragonfly. Dragonfly was the hit of the
week. All divers loved the site, with
critters spotted including a Hawksbill
Turtle, Black-tipped reef shark, tiger
grouper, goliath grouper, yellow-finned
grouper, all of the terminal phase
blue-headed wrasse that were missing
everywhere else. The site included a
combination of rubble and profile, offering
habitat for every taste. We actually set the
boat up for a night dive, but there were
again no takers due to the high current.
All of the conditions for the week were the
same. Water temps were 78-81, air temps
85-90, winds less than 5 knots, seas calm
(like, slick calm), current slack in the
morning, and howling (1-2 knots) in the
afternoon and night. Visibility ranged from
40 to 60 feet. Friday we went exploring.
The first divesite was a hump just offshore
of tailend buoy. The reef was a mixture of
low relief hardbottom, rubble, and huge
sponges. Goliath grouper, green morays, and
reef butterflyfish were the main critters
spotted here. Depth ranged from 70 to 130
feet. We then moved on to Coalbin Rock. The
final dive of the trip took place at Coalbin
Rock. A squall came in during the dive and
cut visibility to less than 20 feet. The
bottom formation was spur and groove, and
critters spotted included a very surprised
school of Jack Crevalle. With the wind
blowing like a hooker at a convention and
the visibility reduced to yuck, and no
possibility of finding any more treasure, we
headed back to Stock Island for a libation
and a whole new group of passengers.
More next week…. Capt. Frank
M/V Spree
Stock Island, FL |
