June 4 - 8 2007 Dry Tortugas Report by Captain Frank

We arrived at our first dive site, “Gungan” at 7AM Monday for an 8 AM dive. Conditions were slick calm for the trip out, 2 days after TS Barry kicked our butts crossing from Louisiana. Gungan is a large patch reef, 52 feet to the bottom, 42 feet to the top, and the locals seemed surprised to see us. The locals included Black Grouper, Jewfish, Blue Parrotfish, including supermales, lots of lobster, a nurse shark, and a Nassau Grouper. 2 dives were completed. Water temp 79, Air 82, 40 foot Vis, seas slick calm.

In the afternoon, we moved on to “Brickhead”. Brickhead is a long slender reef that you would not see all of in two or three dives. The bottom is in 70 feet, and it tops out in 50 feet. Wildlife included a tiny (dinner plate sized) hawksbill turtle (seen on the surface), a green sea turtle, Nassau grouper, Tiger grouper, Tons of small reef fish, and yours truly saw a little brown seahorse. No one else saw it, though, so I don’t know if it can be counted. Seas were slick calm, Vis 50 feet, water temp 77, air temp 92,

While we were on Brickhead, Officer Friendly of the Florida Wildlife Commission (the fish cops) boarded us for a safety inspection and permit check. He asked if we knew where we were (Well it sure ain’t Texas, Toto), didn’t quite know what to say when we told him we didn’t fish, and you knew he was just itching to ask us for our fishing licenses. After determining that boats from Texas did, in fact, carry flares, life jackets, and fire extinguishers, and that all of our permits were in place, I, personally, received a warning citation for not carrying a written permit. There are no written permits, but Officer Friendly was undeterred, so a warning was written, with the statement “FIX IT” at the bottom. I am unclear as to what to fix, so I expect another visit next week. Especially after he reads this.

We woke up on Tuesday morning and moved to a Dry Tortugas signature dive site, “Sherwood Forest”. Sherwood Forest looks a lot like the East FGB without the sand, and with more grouper. It is a deep, flat bottom sort of reef, with tiger, red, and black grouper, a very curious AJ, nesting ocean triggerfish, and lots of small stuff. The top is 70 feet, and the bottom is 75 feet deep, Water temp was 78, Vis was 80 feet, air temp 86, and seas were slick calm.

Tuesday afternoon, we moved on to “Mushrooms”. Mushrooms is comprised of two relatively small patch reefs, mushroom shaped, and the other end of Brickhead reef. As the reefs were so small, I decided that we would only do 1 dive here and move on. Of course, the customers loved the place and wanted to stay the rest of the day. So we did. The site has, of course, many skittish grouper, lots of hogfish, and a few garden eels out in the sand, but it is a macro photographers and fish counters dream, being covered with small reef fish. Many large dome ports went into the water here. The bottom is 72 feet, 55 to the top, water temp 81, air temp 92, Vis was 80 feet, and seas were slick calm.

Captain Kenny was on watch when we all got up on Wednesday, and, as he doesn’t know how to control the weather, we were in squalls. All around us. We moved on to the dive site Patti’s, which is 84 feet to the bottom, but most of the dive is in 60 feet of water. There were lots of red grouper, moray eels, and lobster everywhere. One diver counted 8 individuals. Water temp was 80, vis was 40 feet in the rain, air temp was 78, seas 4 feet,

After lunch, we moved on to Steve’s Reef, where it continued to rain. That didn’t stop the jewfish from greeting the divers, and I mean lots of jewfish. Big ones too. This site makes a great night dive site with all of the nooks and crannies, arches, and other weird coral formations. Brittle stars and eels were sighted, as well as big black grouper. The water temp was 80, air temp was 80, vis a lousy 40 feet, seas were 2-3 feet in rain and squalls.

Thursday we moved on to Hogfish Heaven for a single dive. The group wanted to do a deep dive for advanced training, and with a 95 foot sand bottom, it’s deep and students won’t hurt it. This site held some awesome coral formations with swim-troughs, big pieces of healthy black coral, mutton snapper, yellow snapper, mangrove snapper, jewfish, black grouper, aj’s, bar jacks, big hogfish, yellow-headed jawfish, and lots of french and gray angelfish. Water temp was 81, vis was 50 feet, air temp 89, seas 1-2 feet.

The next site for the day was Billy’s Ridge. Billy’s Ridge is a low profile large area reef with lots of gorgonians, yellow-headed jawfish, grouper, and a small sandbar (?) shark was sighted leaving the area at high speed during the dive. Other inhabitants included mantis shrimp, and angel fish of all varieties. Water temp was 81, Air was sunny and 95, seas 1-2 and choppy, vis was 40 feet.

After the rest of the day on Billy’s Ridge, we moved to 8 Fathom Rock. The night dive was cancelled in favor of a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville party on the sundeck. Many Margaritas were consumed, and a good time was had by all. We woke this morning to dive 8 Fathom Rock. 8 Fathom Rock is 90 feet to the sand, and 73 feet to the top. This is the first dive this trip with dolphins, 2 moms and a baby. There was a big grouper cleaning station under the boat, with maybe 15 individuals lined up for cleaning. We also saw a reef shark on the reef. For the last dive of the trip, we decided to do a liveboat dive at new ground, near the Marquesas. The depth was very shallow, around 15 feet and the dive was completed as a drift dive. Some loved it, others said it was just OK. Many juvies were sighted, including grouper (what else?), cubyu, hogfish, fairy basslets, blueheads, blue chromis, as well as others.

The customers had a great time, and many vowed to return next year.

Capt. Frank
M/V Spree
Stock Island, FL