4th of July in The Texas Caribbean

You may not believe it, but we have our very own Caribbean Paradise just hours off shore from Freeport, Texas. Katherine and I boarded the M/V Fling (that's "Motor Vessel Fling" for all you landlubbers) for a weekend adventure to Texas' own Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. That's a mouthful, huh?



We left port on Friday evening July 4th and were underway all night arriving at our first dive site, The East Bank, on Saturday morning. This was Katherine's first experience at living on a boat for a few days and she was quite the trooper. Me, on the other hand had a new experience. I've spent a few years at sea and never, ever, not even one time got sea sick....until Friday July 4th. Note to self: Do not eat an Angus Bacon Blue Cheese Burger just hours before boarding a boat, especially when weather reports indicate 3-6 foot seas. After the offending burger crossed my lips for the 2nd time, it was smooth sailing the rest of the weekend :)

We dove every 2 1/2 hours and in between we ate and slept. We did lots of eating, sleeping and diving! Every time we came out of the water, the crew had another meal or hearty snack ready to go. When we boarded the boat after our Saturday night dive we were greeting by the sights and smells of warm brownies and Blue Bell Ice Cream...not a bad way to end a great day of diving. If you are charting this, we dove the East Bank, an Oil Rig (designated HI389) and West Bank. I'd recommend this trip to anyone looking for great blue water diving without boarding an airplane!

I didn't take my underwater camera on this trip, so thanks to Mario for letting me borrow a few of his underwater images from this trip.





HI 389 Oil Rig


Here's what an Oil Rig looks like underwater!


Aboard the M/V Fling (didn't I say we napped a lot?)


"GRRRRrrrrr"?? Apparently I look like this....


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