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Author: Beth C. |
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Author: Beth C. |
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All text and images copyrighted by Beth and Ed C., as attributed. They may be borrowed for non-commercial use only, provided credit is given to us and/or this web page
Friday morning rolled around and I had already figured the trip would be canceled when I get a call from my better half. "Dave just called, and the trip is a go" ...Seems that Rinn had called the individual shops to check out the "dive clientele". Once satisfied that all were seasoned and ready for a rough ride, Rinn decided the trip was a go!!!
About the time "Whoopee" was leaving my mouth, Ed let me know he wasn't feeling well, and thought it would be a good idea if, before heading out to the middle of the Gulf, he got the ok by his doctor. My hopes were dashed however when he called me and let me know that he wouldn't be making the trip. With Ed's blessing, I was to team up with a good friend of ours, Dave Read and his friend Scott G. for the weekend event.
I said a sad "so long" to Ed as we left the parking lot of Scott's Surveying company for the four-hour ride down to Freeport. The car ride went quickly as we talked about how we all knew each other, and diving, and Dave filled first-time Flower Gardens visitor Scott on what we would see on our dive (including, of course, the 4 whale sharks and 3 mantas that are guaranteed on every trip!) With just a brief stop for bungee cords (a must for a rocky trip in the gulf!), bug spray (a must for Freeport's shark-tooth mesquitoes), and driving through for some "Grease in a Box" , we made our way to Freeport, arriving about a half hour before boarding time!
We unloaded our gear and quickly applied the shark repellent as those bugs were big-time biting. Before long we were greeted by Jay, a diver from the Rodale's trip last summer, who had made his way from Tulsa via California for the weekend of diving!
We were diving on my favorite (and the better in my opinion ;) of the two Rinn boats, the Spree. Captain Frank would be in charge, with Captain Randy as back up. Melanie was our Divemaster of the weekend with her two trainees Ken and...oh shoot, what was his name?? Email me if you remember..:) Anyway, John and Fuzzy were Galley help. All in all one of the best crews we've had to date!
Melanie came out to give us the pre-dive briefing, and the ok to board. I kept the tradition by being the room reservationist and headed down to secure a cabin for Dave, Scott and myself. I was joined by Jay, and ended up sharing a stateroom with 3 fine divers and my buddies for the entire trip! We loaded our gear, filled out the paperwork, set up the gear, and settled in for the wonderful and exciting "Captain Frank and Melanie Briefing Evening!" For a change, The Spree wasn't filled to capacity, so we all easily filed into the galley area. Frank got his usual chuckles for his "head" and "bag fluffing" procedures.
About halfway through the briefing I started wondering why we were still docked and really started wondering when the Fling took off ahead of us (there is major competition between the two boats of the outfit)! It seems that the two researchers slated to join us for the weekend had still not shown up. Frank vowed to leave the dock at 11pm if they didn't show by then. Luckily Joel and Kevin made it with about five minutes to spare.
We cast off at 11 PM and started the long trek to our first dive site. Sleep did not come easily that night. Putting aside the fact that it was my first night away from my newly acquired husband, I was airborne more than once during the night. All I can say is thank goodness I took my Dramamine!!!!!
May 19, 2001
I ascended the stairs at 6 AM ready to dive, and was greeted by more than one person who was not feeling well. As I sat down for breakfast I was also very surprised to learn we were at Stetson Bank. Whoopee!! Due to the late start and rough seas, Frank decided that rather than lose dive time, we would start our weekend at the Bank. No problem in my book! I love Stetson and if we had stayed there the whole weekend I wouldn't have complained!
Dive One - Buoy #3 Stetson
Bank-94ft./40 minutes
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So
nice to be back at Stetson! For those of you who have never been, it is
difficult to describe.
"A ranch in West Texas", "Like being on the Moon", "Weird". These are a few quotes I've heard from first-time Stetson divers! The ranch description fits best to me. It's like being at an underwater OK Corral. |
Dive Two - Buoy #4 Stetson
Bank - 78ft/40 minutes
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After replacing a fin strap (thank you to the mysterious dive saver!) I joined Dave, Scott and Jay once again to explore Buoy 3. We had a slight surface current but the rest of the dive was laid back and enjoyable! Lots of eels again... They seemed to be in every crevice! Saw a "cliff" that had three different spotted eels! Wild!! We also saw a marbled grouper that has been known to the area and a stingray! |
Rig!
Our next dive was Rig H.I. A453A, a rig that was slated to be knocked down the following week!
Dive #3 - H.I. A453A 84ft/40
minutes
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Nice rig dive without too much of that annoying current! Saw all the normal rig critters, blennies and gobies galore! Also a school of BarJacks and juvi Filefish! Also Dave had a close encounter with a beautiful young turtle. Check out the pic he took which includes not only the turtle, but his three buddies as well!! That's me in the upper right hand side! |
The East Bank
Dive # 4 - Anonymous Buoy
(didn't write it down, sorry) 74ft/41 minutes
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Back to coral! Another great dive (ok, so that's a given!). I worked on my camera skills, but looks like I still need allot more practice! Oh well,practice makes perfect, guess I'll just have to keep diving, and shooting..;) Saw lots of wonderful critters. A Rock Beauty that I chased for a bit, a Queen Angel, a humungous Triggers, Parrotfish, Yellowtail Damsel and more! A shark was seen, but not by me... *sigh*! |
The night dive was also done at this site. Due to the fact that Ed was not there (call me chicken) I decided to forgo this dive, as did Scott (tired) and Dave (not feeling well). Jay (diehard... :) went and said it was a blast! Dave and I joined a fun group to eat our brownie and ice cream and watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You know...it's amazing how many men can recite that movie!
May 20, 2001
Dive #5 - Buoy #2 West Bank
- 85ft/37 minutes
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West Bank! Dave decided to sit this one out and enjoy the warmth of the bed a bit longer as he wasn't feeling so hot. Scott, Jay and I did our giant stride into some rough waters and started our descent. Had a bit of a prob equalizing, but Scott and Jay were patient and I finally cleared and we arrived at depth. Saw a trumpetfish! *L* Refrained from pictures as we have many, many MANY pictures of them from Bonaire. Saw some beautiful file fish, and more yellow-tailed damsels. |
Dive #6 - Buoy #1 Stetson Bank
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Back to Stetson! The fish just tend to be larger than life here! Saw more teenage french angels and spent lots of time just playing with them! More eels, and lots of beautiful landscape to enjoy! Good photo ops and this is where I took most of the pictures that I've displayed. |
This was to be my last dive of the trip. The shallow water rig just didn't seem as appealing as a shower and nap before arriving back in Freeport.
The Ride Home
We arrived back in Freeport
without a hitch and piled our gear in Scott's SUV and headed home. We hit
some bad weather as we drove into Austin, but before I knew it I was home
giving Edward a big hug! Although the trip was a winner, it was nice to
be home!
Trip Report #2 -- D2D's 2nd
Annual Flower Gardens Trip
or "How many camera mishaps
can you have on one trip????"
Overview
Received my new A35 for primo photos at the Gardens and was ready for the great three-day dive trip with the Rodale's Crew. Always a great group to dive with, I knew this trip was going to be the best!! OK, great...well the people were wonderful, my husband a saint...but I had my moments.
The ride out was typical, great weather as we headed down to Freeport. We got down in time to see the group as Dave finished his annual Nitrox class. We met some new friends and saw some old ones! What great friends and divers we've met in the past 2 D2D FG Trips!
We boarded the Spree at 9 PM and I headed down to secure bunks for us. Ed, Dave, Jay and I bunked together for the weekend. Ed brought up the gear and we set up, checked in, presented our C-Cards and safety sausages ( a new "must have" for the trip).
Rinn was going through a rough season and gave us a thorough briefing. We were to pay strict attention to our gauges and present our computers to the DM upon exiting the water. The humor was still abundant and got laughs from the first timers, and groans from those who have heard Frank explaining the does and don't of "bag procedure". After the briefing we headed down to our bunks for some shut eye.
The night was pretty quiet
and I slept decently (hard to get a good night's sleep on the first night
on a rocky boat) and was up and ready to dive early the next morning!!
Dive #1 - West Bank Buoy #3-83fws/38 minutes
"Nope, not bringing my camera", "Not this dive, maybe the next", "Not on the first dive"....
OK, so I was being a hot shot, an over-achiever.. Basically I was just too eager to try out the new camera and brought it with me to try it out. No sooner than I got to depth and got situated, did I realize I was missing something...I signaled to Ed, asking him if he saw my camera... I knew by the look in his eyes that I hadn't just placed it where it was behind me... It was gone. So the dive basically ended for me there... I wonder if you can see someone's face turning red under water???
I did notice a few critters.
A huge Grouper along with a few Long Nose Butterfly Fish!
Dive #2 - West Bank - Buoy #2 - 87ft/40 min
Funny how dives change when you don't have a camera, which both Ed and I realized on this trip. Seems we had left the "camera" part of Ed's rig at home... Oh well, now we would see what diving the FG was like for the "non photographer".
Funny how much more I seemed
to notice. We saw some interesting coral, a soft coral that was bright
red and pink. Shaped like a flower... I have yet to identify it. Also saw
a very large french angel, orange spotted filefish, many scallops hiding
in the nooks and crannies. Also witnessed an underwater "gang war" as 2
damselfish fought it out with a yellow head wrasse! Also caught a glimpse
of a spotted moray.
Dive #3 - HIA376A Rig Dive 64ft 33min
Deep water rigs are so beautiful. The silhouette of the rig against the deep blue background of the ocean. I spent most of this dive with Ed behind a staunch out of the current observing all the day-to-day activities of the sea life! Watched a family of Hogfish, along with Blennies galore. One of the divers caught some footage of a shark on this dive, but alas, I didn't see it!
Dive #4 - East Bank Buoy #2 - 70ft/40min
This was one of the first dives where I saw noticeable coral bleaching, although minimal. Saw both goldentail and spotted eels, both were pretty tiny! Also saw a couple of beautiful French Angels!
Dive #5 - East Bank #2 NIGHT DIVE!! -67ft/33min
Great dive! Ed decided to
sit this one out as he was pretty pooped, and to tell you the truth I think
this is the first time I have ever done all 5 dives offered in one day
at the Gardens! Dave and I buddied up and started off the dive with a squid!
The first one I had ever seen! There was more than one puffer out and
about. Dave pointed out a Slipper Lobster, and was about to move on when
I signaled to him as I saw a tentacle sticking out of the shelf above the
lobster. After checking it out further we saw all of the shells discarded,
and realized we were interrupting his dinner! Pretty awesome, my first
Octopus' Garden..and in the Shade (well, dark) too!! This dive was cut
short as I forgot to reset my computer for Nitrox, and my lovely Data Plus
was nice enough to reset it for me... To 50%!!!
August 21, 2001
I missed the first two dives of the day due to my computer mess-up the night before, and this was to be the trend of the rest of the trip...:(
Dive #6 - A571C Rig
Important lesson learned on this dive. Ankle weights just don't work on a rig -- too much work! Spent most of this dive hiding from the current and playing with a soapfish in one of the crannies. I just sat and watched as it would inch its way out to catch a glimpse of me and quickly move back once it saw me! Very relaxing, just basically hung out on this dive!
Dive #7 Stetson Bank - Buoy #3
Back at the ranch! After
a rough entry I spent most of this dive checking out the nooks and crannies
with my flashlight! Saw the cutest little juvi Queen Angel, and more teenage
French Angels! Ed saw quite a few eels, but I just missed them every time
he caught my attention!!
Decided to skip the night dive and relax for the evening!
Dive #8 - 75ft/21 min
Most of this dive was spent ascending and descending as I, once again, forgot to reset my computer. I did have time, however, to catch a glimpse of a couple of adorable juvi French Angels, though!!!
That was it for our FG diving
for 2001, and we hope to do at least two trips in 2002 -- one in April, and
the third-annual D2D trip in July!! Check back for reports then!!!
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