In response to a question in another thread (http://www.scubaboard.com/t40941/s.html) I replied about 3 tour operators in the area of Crystal River/ Manatee Springs for snorkeling with the manatees and diving in that area. I thought I would start up a new thread just in case anyone else might like to comment or join in with their experiences of these types of trips. We went with American Pro Diving on their Americana package this past weekend. The package was around $110 each for the weekend, we rented BCs and regs for $14/13 respectively and also took on a night dive for an additional $35, tanks were an additional $8 per day and $4 refill. We also stayed at the River Rendezvous accommodation that is suggested, but runs independently of the diving operation. Below is a review of the diving, snorkeling and how we found the accommodation to be. Some general info as well, we are pretty new divers, only recently certified, the dive shop told us that each of these dives are novice dives, neither AOW or Cave Certs required. The air temp was around 60-65F during the day and 45-50F on the night dive, water temps were around 70-72F most of the time, and up to 75/76F in the spring vents.
We left Orlando at around 5.15am on Saturday morning to drive up to Crystal River to get to the store around 7am for the early morning dive. When we arrived, a short video briefing was given to us about the manatees and we fitted up (picked up) our BCs and regs. There were 8 of us on the boat, only a short 2-3 mile ride down the road in car convoy that went to Crystal River, but only 2 of us (myself and my girlfriend) who were diving with the DM. We thoroughly enjoyed the first part snorkeling, the water temp was around 70-72F (on most of the dives) and there were loads of manatees around. We saw plenty of other boats including Birds U/W, which is another suggestion for this area, but we found their prices were a little higher. It was a little crowded around the King Springs where there is a manatee reserve, but I think everyone got a couple coming near them and a chance to pet them/tickle their tummies. We brought a cheapish disposable U/W camera with us, havent seen the pics yet though. The water silted up quite a bit after 30 mins as people were standing on the rocks around the spring, so viz near the surface dropped from 50+ to maybe only 15, that increased again once the other groups left!!! Due to the number of snorkelers there, it was at times like fighting in the sales to get to the manatees, we just tried to hang back and let them come to us rather than charge after them I didnt try to count the number of times I was charged over by over-enthusiastic snorkelers. It was a great experience, my hardest time was trying to get a descent angle for a photo of my girlfriend with the manatees one we got one out with us. There might have been approx 20-30 that swam out of never never land (roped off area which you cant swim into) and another 20 or more we could see resting inside the reserve area.
So after approx 30-40 mins snorkeling with the manatees, we went back to the boat for our dive. As we were getting near to going under I realized the my tank was leaking (o-ring probably), so we had to swim the short distance back and switch out tanks in the water. We then swam back to the dive site and descended. Near the reserve, in fact part of the King Springs is a small cave, a simple route in and out, no branching maze of caves, but a couple of enclosed rooms and a chimney. We swam back to near the manatees, descended to about 30 for the cave entrance, a little spiral staircase like entrance, along a short tunnel at around 48, looked up a chimney, swam into a small room and around this tunnel a little and out a different similarly spiraling exit. Although it was an overhead environment, we were at no time unaware of the way out, you couldnt see the surface, but we had primary and secondary lights (our own) and the DM with us. It was a little warmer in the cave and once we left the thermocline of only those few degrees was a little surprise! We then swam over to a plaque that had been placed about preserving the manatees and hung around 20-30 for a few mins before surfacing to go back to the boat. On the boat we had the usual hot chocolate to warm up.
A few hours of surface interval and a quick check in to the accommodation and lunch at the seagrass pub on site and we went back to the store for our next dive. Due to someone phoning up last minute and being alone, we agreed to change our plan from the Rainbow River drift dive to the two tank dive at Manatee Springs we had already got back to group A and so it was like a fresh dive for us. The park is about an hour north of the store, we had to hike about 2-300 yds to the pool from the parking lot. I realized at the time that I had left my mask on the boat from the first dive and so I borrowed the DMs spare, however my original mask wasnt found, so that is a pain and another purchase soon! The pool was covered in duckweed, which just covers everything! We dove to 75ft for about 2 mins to the edge of a siphon and then looked quickly into some caves around there, followed by an exploration of the bowl itself around 55-60 for a little time and slowly worked our way back to the surface, including at least 5 mins in the 20-30 range. We switched up tanks and explored another swimming pool, used also for public bathing and where the siphon comes out with considerable force! Explored that a while. Neither pool was that exhilarating, but still its always fun to check out the wildlife none of which I can identify only look at. We swam into towards the siphon to feel its force and then popped back out riding the flow.
Another hour drive back, and dinner before leaving around 6.30pm for our night dive. Again as I had no mask, the DM from the first trip lent me his spare for that night and the dive on the Sunday. We drove about 30 mins to Rainbow River and boy was it cold in the 40s after diving a lot of the day. There were 3 of us on this dive as well. Got suited up and drifted with the 1 knot current downstream. We each had a primary light and my girlfriend and I again had secondaries and location lights (like glowsticks but on batteries). We followed a light shone from the boat to show us the way and interesting spots. The depth range was around 5-20 averaging around 10 and undulating constantly an equalizing pain for some. The bottom was a mixture of limestone like dead coral (so we were told), eel grass, reeds and sandy areas. There were occasional boils where springs rush out into the river which is part of the reason it is so clear. The visibility in the dark was probably well over 50, occasionally stirring up of sandy/silty areas sometimes reduced that the girl we dove with was a little hesitant and kept fining all the time rather than just drifting! We had about 35 mins in the water drifting. There was a surprising amount of life out at night, but a lot of it swam for it when we shone our lights on them, plenty of turtles and little fish. At the end of the dive there was a small cavern which was a spring with moderate flow, we each took turns swimming in and looking around this 8x8x6 room. After that we got back out and it was chilly in a 3mm at that time, particularly after spending over 2 hours in the water so far that day! This dive had a DM on the boat leading us by light, but not in the water like the other 3 dives, seeing as the site was at most 20 deep it wasnt really too much trouble if something were to have happened not to mention we all tried to stick close together!
Finally got back to bed around 9.30, absolutely shattered! The night temp dropped down to mid 30s, although we had extra blankets, the heater part of the AC unit wasnt really giving anything warm, so although we washed and hung our stuff out to dry, it really didnt in the cold!
On the Sunday afternoon we again drove out to do Rainbow River, it took us over 50 mins to drift the same area and we had a little over an hour in total (we started a little further up river). With daylight there was a lot more to see, more fish, turtles, other divers and we could swim across the river width to check out various areas. We checked out a bunch of mini springs and boils, some of the deeper scours like holes behind the eel grass covered rises and a large area where all the gar hang out. We again went into the little cavern/room, as it was dimly lit from the surface, at the end of the drift. It was a nice relaxing dive, however for some reason my BRV was higher in the day than the night, maybe I was swimming against the current more to go across it and backing up to see things.
All in all, we had a good time with these dives, felt the two main DMs were very helpful and trips were a good deal of fun. We are going to go back up to that area another time, to do Paradise Springs, Silver River, Devils Den and Blue Grotto, but that may not be with them, due to driving distance more than anything. However when or if we decide to go swim with the manatees again and dive that area, we will probably go with them.
We left Orlando at around 5.15am on Saturday morning to drive up to Crystal River to get to the store around 7am for the early morning dive. When we arrived, a short video briefing was given to us about the manatees and we fitted up (picked up) our BCs and regs. There were 8 of us on the boat, only a short 2-3 mile ride down the road in car convoy that went to Crystal River, but only 2 of us (myself and my girlfriend) who were diving with the DM. We thoroughly enjoyed the first part snorkeling, the water temp was around 70-72F (on most of the dives) and there were loads of manatees around. We saw plenty of other boats including Birds U/W, which is another suggestion for this area, but we found their prices were a little higher. It was a little crowded around the King Springs where there is a manatee reserve, but I think everyone got a couple coming near them and a chance to pet them/tickle their tummies. We brought a cheapish disposable U/W camera with us, havent seen the pics yet though. The water silted up quite a bit after 30 mins as people were standing on the rocks around the spring, so viz near the surface dropped from 50+ to maybe only 15, that increased again once the other groups left!!! Due to the number of snorkelers there, it was at times like fighting in the sales to get to the manatees, we just tried to hang back and let them come to us rather than charge after them I didnt try to count the number of times I was charged over by over-enthusiastic snorkelers. It was a great experience, my hardest time was trying to get a descent angle for a photo of my girlfriend with the manatees one we got one out with us. There might have been approx 20-30 that swam out of never never land (roped off area which you cant swim into) and another 20 or more we could see resting inside the reserve area.
So after approx 30-40 mins snorkeling with the manatees, we went back to the boat for our dive. As we were getting near to going under I realized the my tank was leaking (o-ring probably), so we had to swim the short distance back and switch out tanks in the water. We then swam back to the dive site and descended. Near the reserve, in fact part of the King Springs is a small cave, a simple route in and out, no branching maze of caves, but a couple of enclosed rooms and a chimney. We swam back to near the manatees, descended to about 30 for the cave entrance, a little spiral staircase like entrance, along a short tunnel at around 48, looked up a chimney, swam into a small room and around this tunnel a little and out a different similarly spiraling exit. Although it was an overhead environment, we were at no time unaware of the way out, you couldnt see the surface, but we had primary and secondary lights (our own) and the DM with us. It was a little warmer in the cave and once we left the thermocline of only those few degrees was a little surprise! We then swam over to a plaque that had been placed about preserving the manatees and hung around 20-30 for a few mins before surfacing to go back to the boat. On the boat we had the usual hot chocolate to warm up.
A few hours of surface interval and a quick check in to the accommodation and lunch at the seagrass pub on site and we went back to the store for our next dive. Due to someone phoning up last minute and being alone, we agreed to change our plan from the Rainbow River drift dive to the two tank dive at Manatee Springs we had already got back to group A and so it was like a fresh dive for us. The park is about an hour north of the store, we had to hike about 2-300 yds to the pool from the parking lot. I realized at the time that I had left my mask on the boat from the first dive and so I borrowed the DMs spare, however my original mask wasnt found, so that is a pain and another purchase soon! The pool was covered in duckweed, which just covers everything! We dove to 75ft for about 2 mins to the edge of a siphon and then looked quickly into some caves around there, followed by an exploration of the bowl itself around 55-60 for a little time and slowly worked our way back to the surface, including at least 5 mins in the 20-30 range. We switched up tanks and explored another swimming pool, used also for public bathing and where the siphon comes out with considerable force! Explored that a while. Neither pool was that exhilarating, but still its always fun to check out the wildlife none of which I can identify only look at. We swam into towards the siphon to feel its force and then popped back out riding the flow.
Another hour drive back, and dinner before leaving around 6.30pm for our night dive. Again as I had no mask, the DM from the first trip lent me his spare for that night and the dive on the Sunday. We drove about 30 mins to Rainbow River and boy was it cold in the 40s after diving a lot of the day. There were 3 of us on this dive as well. Got suited up and drifted with the 1 knot current downstream. We each had a primary light and my girlfriend and I again had secondaries and location lights (like glowsticks but on batteries). We followed a light shone from the boat to show us the way and interesting spots. The depth range was around 5-20 averaging around 10 and undulating constantly an equalizing pain for some. The bottom was a mixture of limestone like dead coral (so we were told), eel grass, reeds and sandy areas. There were occasional boils where springs rush out into the river which is part of the reason it is so clear. The visibility in the dark was probably well over 50, occasionally stirring up of sandy/silty areas sometimes reduced that the girl we dove with was a little hesitant and kept fining all the time rather than just drifting! We had about 35 mins in the water drifting. There was a surprising amount of life out at night, but a lot of it swam for it when we shone our lights on them, plenty of turtles and little fish. At the end of the dive there was a small cavern which was a spring with moderate flow, we each took turns swimming in and looking around this 8x8x6 room. After that we got back out and it was chilly in a 3mm at that time, particularly after spending over 2 hours in the water so far that day! This dive had a DM on the boat leading us by light, but not in the water like the other 3 dives, seeing as the site was at most 20 deep it wasnt really too much trouble if something were to have happened not to mention we all tried to stick close together!
Finally got back to bed around 9.30, absolutely shattered! The night temp dropped down to mid 30s, although we had extra blankets, the heater part of the AC unit wasnt really giving anything warm, so although we washed and hung our stuff out to dry, it really didnt in the cold!
On the Sunday afternoon we again drove out to do Rainbow River, it took us over 50 mins to drift the same area and we had a little over an hour in total (we started a little further up river). With daylight there was a lot more to see, more fish, turtles, other divers and we could swim across the river width to check out various areas. We checked out a bunch of mini springs and boils, some of the deeper scours like holes behind the eel grass covered rises and a large area where all the gar hang out. We again went into the little cavern/room, as it was dimly lit from the surface, at the end of the drift. It was a nice relaxing dive, however for some reason my BRV was higher in the day than the night, maybe I was swimming against the current more to go across it and backing up to see things.
All in all, we had a good time with these dives, felt the two main DMs were very helpful and trips were a good deal of fun. We are going to go back up to that area another time, to do Paradise Springs, Silver River, Devils Den and Blue Grotto, but that may not be with them, due to driving distance more than anything. However when or if we decide to go swim with the manatees again and dive that area, we will probably go with them.
