Time for the annual Rodale's Gang's Third Annual Flower Gardens Trip! Dave Read organizes this trip every year and some of our friends from the Rodale's Scuba Diving Board always join us. It's a hoot!
I was there as a trip leader, filling tanks every third dive, assisting and watching divers in the water, and helping with any equipment concerns on the surface. It's a bit of work but I do love helping others - that's why I'm an Instructor!
This trip sure was better than our April trip (which we didn't write up - it was a rough one). That one a bit chilly, O-ring problems, some heavy currents, a miserably rough ride out that made many people seasick, and everyone had to work pretty hard at it. This trip, though, was quiet and wonderful!
We had the ever-impressive Captains Frank and Randy, and Divemasters
Ken and Denny. We had galley crew Melanie and Blaise, who kept us well-fed.
Ken's briefing was long and a bit over the top, repeating such phrases
as "ubiquitous", "socio-political important" and "ergo" - and if not
strictly grammatically correct, at least kept our interest.
At the West Bank we were moored to Buoy #1 by 6 AM, so thereabouts they came down and rousted us out of bed. Beth and I both left our cameras on board, as we always do on our first dive, so we can concentrate on acclimating and learning the dive conditions.
We hit the water at 7:12 AM and saw an Ocean Triggerfish guarding its territorial hole in the coral. We met a pair of cleaning Shrimp waving to us, but when I approached they ducked in their hole. There was a Black Grouper, a school of Chub, 3 Rock Beauties together, a Yellowtail Damselfish, a large Dog Snapper, and plenty of Barracuda. (Remind me again why we don't bring our cameras? :)
It was a nearly perfect dive, some minor gear adjustments we made
on the fly, nothing significant. I stuck close to a newbie diver swimming
along with a loose Octo and a tank band that threatened to slip off,
until his buddy noticed and helped him with them. (I was ready to
assist but this way, the buddies were able to be self-sufficient
without having me get involved.)
