The Flower Gardens National Marine Sanctuary
Mon-Wed; July 26-28, 1999

Description:

The Flower Gardens, one of the newest National Marine Sanctuaries, are located approximately 100 miles southeast of Freeport, Texas, one hour south of downtown Houston. The twin coral reefs rise from a surrounding depth of 400 feet to a depth of 55 feet below the surface. The area hosts a wide variety of deep water critters such as Manta Rays, Hammerheads, Eagle Rays, and Whale Sharks. There are over 175 species of tropical fish, 250 species of invertebrates, and at least 18 known species of coral. Visibility averages 100 feet.

The three-day excursion (cost: $395) was aboard a 100-foot live-aboard dive vessel. On the trips we dove the Flower Gardens (both East and West Banks), Stetson Bank, which is also a part of the Flower Gardens National Marine Sanctuary, and one oil rig.

Report:

With only 5 dives under my belt - 4 cert dives and 1 OW dive (remember Lake Travis?!), I signed up for the Flower Gardens trip. And, although I had a blast, I wouldn't recommend it to a newbie unless they have an innate ability, a high comfort level, and a really short learning curve. All others, this is a "great-bang-for-the-buck-don't-miss-whatever-it-takes-to-get-there-must-do" dive trip!

The MV Spree had great safety procedures in place and followed every one of them every time. Their dive methodology also included a wonderfully helpful system of guidelines to facilitate decent, ascent, safety stop, and reboarding. These lines were a mooring line, a sideline attached to the mooring line about 30 ft down, down lines for the safety stops, ladder lines, and a 300 ft trail line.

In general, I saw a wide variety of fish, creatures, and coral. I'll list some of them here to avoid repetition later in my report and mention special sightings in the individual dive notes below. I don't know enough yet about coral to individually list types but suffice to say they were abundant, varied, and absolutely gorgeous. Fish and creatures that I could identify included cowfish, spanish hogfish, blue angelfish, fire worms, moon jelly, reef butterfly, trumpet fish, ocean triggerfish, spotted moray, spotted goatfish, smooth truckfish, black urchins, barracuda, sea bass, yellowtail damsel, parrot fish, and chub.

All my dives were wondrous adventures in their own right but a few were particularly noteworthy and are listed here...

Dive 1 - I was a little daunted to see ocean as far as the eye could see with no land in sight. With nerves in high gear, I decide that my buddy and I are going in last so I can see if the other divers fare well prior to my taking the plunge. Once in the water, I latched onto the side line and did a hand over hand to 30 ft and free descent with hand on the mooring line from there. Under water, the sights were awesome. A manta ray and a silkie shark within the first 15 minutes!

Dive 2 - I'm first off the boat this time! Sideline down and back is a wonderful idea. I'm getting spoiled.

Dive 4 - Most excellent dive! On entering, I see a silkie shark not 15 feet away, on descent I see moon jellies up close and personal, on the bottom a 4 foot sea turtle is having a nap, then a manta ray visits for a while, I turn around and now the sea turtle is cruising by. All this before I even have a chance to cruise around looking at all the fabulous coral.

Dive 5 - First night dive ever. I fight back the panic for the whole 32 minutes. I don't recall viewing much as my sole focus was concentrating on slowing down my breathing, and staying with my buddy. I felt out of control and didn't feel my normal sense of balance and buoyancy control. However, my buddy says I looked just as fluent as earlier in the day, so he didn't hold back. Once back on the boat, I cleared up that little misconception, and we planned the next night dive at a much slower pace, with a lot more communication.

Dive 7 - Saw large brick on the bottom. Don't think it's native to the area!

Surface Interval of Note - Capt Kenny needs a brief bathroom break and requests a volunteer to hold the boat to 305 degrees. I happily take the helm. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly know where the compass was and while looking among the array of instruments, I quickly let the heading go to 270. My buddy finally points out the compass and I turn the wheel right to get back to 305, only to over shoot the mark. At this point we're heading 320-ish and I'm correcting again while hoping we have enough fuel to zig zag to Stetson. Fortunately, the capt returned quickly. Even better, we were only in idle! Even so, I had a blast!!

Dive 9 - Ok, this night dive went better...somewhat! On the sideline, I take the lead and take as much time as I need to adjust on the way down. On the bottom, we meander slowly around. Tore checks on me often. It was very peaceful and serene (if you didn't look out into the inky void!) I saw wondrous things in the night. It's my best night dive yet. All is good.

Then the ascent from hell! We run into my first current, a strong current, in the dark. A school of jelly fish come through, stinging me as they go. At the safety stop the current is worse. I whipping around like a flag and I'm starting to panic. Thinking it will be better on the down line, I fight my way over only too aim to high and end up at a point where, with each rock of the boat, I can touch either the ladder or the back corner of the boat. I knew I needed to move FAST. Unfortunately, I didn't think to move DOWN the line. My thoughts were focused on being ON the boat. I grab the latter line (actually cutting in front of someone), yank my fins off (almost losing one of my $150 bio fins), and almost jump out of the water!

I think I like night dives in small doses and with perfect conditions. I'll have to take adv OW and get a little night dive training 'cause although I like it, I'm not really good at it...yet.

Dive 10 - Jumped back in at 5:15 am. Second night dive in one night. Wow! Dive went well. Current and low vis near top made it a little nerve racking, but we ascended in stages. When required to free swim between lines, Tore held my hand for moral support, and was willing to go with me if I missed all the lines. We made it just fine. Very challenging, but WAY COOL!

Dive 11 - Wow! What an adventure. It was a hard fight and slow going against the current to the wall. Tore crests the pinnacle first and in an effort to spur me on and demonstrate the lack of current on the other side, does a slow flip. I stop finning to watch him. BIG MISTAKE. The current took me back in the blink of an eye. Once out of eyesight of my buddy, I wisely ride the current back to the mooring line to wait for him to find me. I don't have enough air left to try again, so when he finds me we head back. Never made it over the wall. Maybe next trip.

Dive 12 - Last dive of the trip. I couldn't have asked for a better last dive. Nice soft current, wide open space, fabulous fish, even a moray eel. Nice slow meandering free ascent. What an ocean send off!

Another Surface Interval of Note - Dolphins swimming along side the boat as we pull back into the channel of Freeport, TX.

Did I mention that this is a "great-bang-for-the-buck-don't-miss-whatever-it-takes-to-get-there-must-do" dive trip?!

Dive Shop/Dive Operation:

Lone Star Scuba, Dallas, TX - I saw no professionalism on the part of this dive shop. A disorganized mess at best, inept at worst! They provided absolutely no pre-trip information and when contacted were unable to answer the simplest of questions about the trip, while acting as if I were inconveniencing them by calling.

RINN Boats, Freeport, TX - Excellent, well run operation with great safety procedures in place (and followed) and wonderfully friendly, helpful staff. Big kudos to RINN!

Trip Tidbits:

If motion seasickness is not a problem, the place to be on the Spree is in the forward berthing area because it has its own head with a shower, while the midships area is within easy reach and utilizes the two galley heads which have no showers and are usually quite busy.

Photo:

M/V Fling and M/V Spree Underway to the Flower Gardens
(Photo by Russ Wilkins)