Just got back yesterday from a 3 day trip on the Ultimate Getaway to the Dry Tortugas. I’ve taken the photo trip into the sanctuary every year for about 12 years now and cannot remember the last time the conditions were as good as they were. Mother nature cooperated in a big way with calm seas and a few thunderstorms around, but not over us. This made for a beautiful light show at night as we anchored near Ft. Jefferson. Clear skies above us made for an awesome display of stars and a very visable milky way.
We did 6 dives on Friday and an awesome night dive on a reef called bat cave. Day two provided us with like conditions and we did another 6 dives with an unusual second night dive on a reef called, fish bowl, before heading back to Ft. Myers. The conditions under the water were just as good as above, with top to bottom visibility on all dives and in some cases 100’ or better. The current was negligible and there was no need to hang onto a mooring line during the accent and safety stop. This was very helpful since we had 20 divers in the water on some dives.
Being that we did all our dives inside the 196 square mile sanctuary, where you cannot even drop a fishing line over the side, the diversity and size of the fish we saw were noticeably bigger than other places I dived in Florida.
Many thanks to Captain Rick Pitts and the crew of the Ultimate Getaway for a very memorable trip.