Our August 2002 Texas Flower Gardens trip was a great success.  Due to a mechanical problem, we found out the MV Spree wouldn't be leaving the dock until around 10:00 pm.  While the captains diligently repaired the ship, most of our group met at On The River Restaurant and had a nice dinner.  We introduced ourselves to those not from Bloomington and had a grand time learning about each other.  We had others from Colorado and Evansville, IN.  They all had dove with Gulf Diving before and had joined us on our trip.

On Sunday night, with 21 passengers and six crew, we left the Freeport, Texas dock aboard the MV Spree and headed 120 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.  We received our briefing inside the Galley with Captain Frank Wasson, while Captain Randy guided us out.  We then proceeded to our bunks and bedded down for the ride out.

Our first stop was the West Banks.  Six o'clock a.m. came early but we were all ready for more boat and dive breifing from Divemasters Melanie and K.C. in getting ready for our 8:00 a.m. dive.  The galley crew, Sharon and Janette, had the continental breakfast waiting for us with smiling faces.  Coffee, juice, danish, and fresh fruit were on the menu.

We geared up and giant strided from the side of the boat into the crystal clear water with no current.  Grabbing the side line we followed it down to the mouring line and then to the bottom a 68 feet.  We followed the coral patches and watched the fish play hoping to see the elusive Manta Rays and Whale Sharks.  We found triggerfish, butterflyfish, chubs, and barracudas investigating us.  Time for lunch.

The meals served on the MV Spree were exquisite.  Examples are:  scrambled and eggs in a frame, french toast, pancakes, toast and jelly, biscuits, gravy, bacon, sausage, and fresh fruit, chili dogs, lunchmeat sandwiches, and tortillas, beef brisket, Shrimp a la Spree (YUM) and spaghetti and meatballs.

We stayed on the West Banks until Tuesday morning when we moved to the East Banks.  We dove there and while doing our safety stop were blessed to encounter a medium Manta Ray.  It's 8-foot black and white wings and its mandibles unfurled the manta flew gracefully underneath us.  It passed behind unsuspecting divers and swam out of sight.

We surfaced and shared our experiences with the others on the boat.  Still excited we entered the Galley to the wonderful smell of lunch.  Sharon and Janette always had wonderful food waiting for us.  No matter when we came through the galley we always had something to eat and/or snack on.

Early Tuesday evening Mark and Kim celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows.  Captain Frank performed the ceremony and Melanie Wasson, Sharon and Janette, and Cristina decorated the top deck and helped serve the cake and punch.  Cristina, Mark and Kim's daughter, served as their Maid of Honor, and Matthew, their son, served as Mark's Best Man.  Sharon Bush made the beautiful wedding cake that tasted wonderful.  After the toasts were made, a manta ray surfaced and flapped its wings only to dissappear again under the surface.

With their permission, we dove on 3 oil rigs.  Very exciting!  Silky sharks swam amongst the divers as they descended to the rigs.  Mark even had one bump the lens of his camera, TWICE!  He had a yellow eye with a black slit.  The picture didn't come out because the camera couldn't focus correctly.  It just turned out blurry gray.  Inside the structure of the rig at a depth of about 70 feet, tiny bliny's poked their noses out of their barnacle homes on the legs and cross bars.  Damselfish darted back and forth bullying everyone who swam by.  Various colors and types of sponges glimmered in the sunlight streaming from the surface.  A female hawksbill turtle danced it's ballet as it swam up to one of the rig's legs and ate the tasty sponges.  Small fish darted around the turtle's head gobbling up the extra sponge pieces floating in the water. The turtle swam amongst the divers without fear.  She seemed to know we wouldn't harm her.

While the diver's were down, a large pod of dolphins swam past in the distance.  Some were even leaping playfully out of the water.

The night dives were fun.  We were able to see the fish in their night states.  Shrimp were out, some fish were sleeping, while the sharks were darting in and out of the divelight streams.  Back on the boat, Janette and Sharon were preparing the warm brownies and/or chocolate cake, with ice cream on the side.

Friday, our last day, we moved to Stetson Banks.  The current was up and the last two dives were more technical than earlier in the week.  Many people worked their way down the lines, hung on, looked around and worked their way back to the boat.

We had a perfect week.  Everyone in our group made it back to the boat safely after every dive without having to be picked up by the Boat of Shame.  Everyone had a great time sharing with each other, even Lil' Furball who kept showing up in different outfits (click here for Lil' Furball's personal homepage).  Lil' Furball is a tiny stuffed monkey given to George Connolly, Furball, as a joke by Roman, Jen, and Jim when they picked him up at the Houston airport. Little did they know that Lil' Furball would become the life of the trip.  Even the galley crew got into the act of hiding him.  He appeared in the most unsuspected places.

George says keep an eye out for Lil' Furball to make an appearance on more of our upcoming dive trips.

Many thanks to George Connolly and Roman Stark, this years trip leaders, for always keeping our tanks filled.  Thanks also goes to our ship's divemasters, Melanie Wasson and Ken (K.C.) Cantor for keeping us safe on our dives by updating us on the diving conditions.
 

Mark you calendars for next year's trip.  You won't want to miss all the fun and excitement.  We need your feedback, though.  The possibilities for the next Texas Flower Garden trip is either a five day excursion, a three day excursion, a two day excursion or a combination of a three and two day excursion.  A five day trip consists of being at sea the entire five days.  If we put a combination of a three day and a two day trip together, we will come back to land for about 4 hours and miss 2 dives versus a five day trip.  Another change that has occurred is on Gulf Diving's booking policy.  Full boat charters has caused Gulf Diving some problems this year.  In the past two years, Southern Indiana Scuba has had full boat charters.  This has allowed us to name places to dive and has made sure that the boat only consisted of SIS patrons.  We would like to book another full boat charter for August 2003 but due to these changes, we are going to require a $100 non-refundable deposit by January 2003.  For more details, stop by the store, call us at (812) 336-2627, or e-mail us at info@southernindianascuba.com .