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12 divers jumped on the Spree for our second
sport trip in the Dry Tortugas of 2008.
After another meal at the Rusty Anchor that
couldn’t be beat, we boarded the Mighty
Vessel Spree for a briefing, and got
underway for the North Reserve for 4 days of
diving. We tied up on Wednesday morning on
Alex’s Mountains. Seas were less than 1
foot, wind about 5 knots, current slack, vis
about 50 feet. We completed 2 dives at
Alex’s Mountains where we saw a couple of
red grouper, small black grouper, and a very
shy southern stingray. After that, we moved
onto Dante’s Inferno. Dante’s is one of my
very favorite sites out here, and I was not
disappointed by the nurse shark, groupers,
and a few permit swimming around. CP saw a
big crusty old loggerhead turtle there, and
got some fantastic video of her. Thursday
found us with a little more wind (5-10 kts)
and seas (less than 2 feet), on Dragonfly.
Dragonfly treated us to African pompano, and
the other usual stuff. We also recovered
parts of a shrimp boat that had been leaving
trash in the sanctuary. We moved over to
Cooper’s Reef in the afternoon, a crew
favorite. Seas were picking up more there,
but still less than 3 footers. We saw a
school of permit, some small black grouper,
and a bazillion dog snappers, and a big
green moray. We spent the night on Coopers
in building seas.
Friday we moved into the park to dive on
Shutterbug, a hit with the passengers. I saw
a red grouper, a spotted moray in a cleaning
station, a monster male hogfish, and we also
saw a goldentail moray. We visited the wreck
of the Avanti in the afternoon, where we did
not find the big goliath grouper, but did
see myriads of small reef fish. We paid a
visit to the fort that evening in lieu of a
night dive.
Saturday morning, we dove a new site to
us that I’m calling Big Bommie. This was
absolutely the best dive of the trip,
unfortunately we only had time for one
there. The top of the reef is 43 feet, the
bottom is in 80. Everything available to see
in Dry Tortugas was there to greet us,
including dolphins, big and many lobster,
big black grouper, reds beyond counting, and
lots of other cool stuff. On the way home,
we did a drift dive on Tailend ledge, where
we saw a goliath, and lots of other small
stuff. Once again, everyone had a great
time, and was surprised at the ease of
diving and the great stuff to see in Dry
Tortugas.
Capt Frank
M/V Spree
Stock Island, FL |
