sccaleb
Guest
Well, it was a LOT of diving packed into a couple days. We started out by team driving all night Thursday night into Friday morning. We got into Williston, Florida about 8 a.m. We went straight over to Blue Grotto (had not planned to dive it) and my good friend Robbie and I said, "What the heck, we have a few hours till we have to be at Rainbow River." We pulled in, paid, and we were in the water by 9. At 98', it is my deepest dive to date (but only till the water around here warms up). Blue Grotto was very, very neat and definitely something everyone should do once all relatively expensive, especially compared to the better diving at Ginnie Springs (in my opinion).
We spent our couple hour surface interval in transit to Rainbow River where we drifted down the river. Spent most of the time on my snorkel (actually reattached it for the first time since my OW class) but did two dives, one down into a small cavern (just big enough for me and my buddy) and another just
looking at fish and shells and such. Was very nice, and very relaxing. Something someone could do if they were bringing a whole family as most of it can be seen with simply a snorkel.
Then we spent the next couple hours on our way to Ginnie Springs. By this time we were getting tired but determined to get Ginnie Springs in. We did the main cavern and also did Little Devil, Devil's Ear, and Devil's Eye. All were very neat and very much enjoyable (when you go: neat thing at Devil's Ear is that when you get down towards the bottom of the cavern and look up, the current from the river and the spring create a red swirl that looks like blood or something... weird but neat). We did two night dives at the main cavern. Someone went down near the grate where the current flows out and broke their glow stick open and green stuff went everywhere. We all turned off our lights and enjoyed the now sparkly cavern walls. It was comparable to star gazing and kind of neat (all though I am glad I wasn't personably responsable for the glow all though I understand the people who own Ginnie due it for special events).
The next day (Saturday) was spent at Crystal River (King's Bay and Three Sisters). I was very dissapointed actually as there were TONS of people around and thus, the manatees were shy and visability was low. Finally got to see one as I was exploring around with my buddy at Three Sisters... he came up and let us pet him and then a group of people came around, so he didn't want to be bothered anymore and that was fine with me. At King's Bay in the morning, some older gentleman was snorkeling with his kids (not wearing a snorkel vest) and started having some serious health issues. He was really pale and hurting... started panicking as well which didn't help. I grabbed ahold of him, over inflated to help keep us both up and calmed him down. Once I got him calmed down enough, my buddy and I swam him quite a ways back over to his boat. It was a little bit too exciting for my tastes.
Finally, Sunday we woke up and went over to Devil's Den. My buddy and I did two dives there, completely exploring most of what we could find. Saw some really, really huge cat fish and it was a very neat place. Then my friend Jon who was with us (missed Blue Grotto on Friday), decided he wanted to see Blue Grotto, so we packed up and went across the highway and dove Blue Grotto one more time.
It was an absolutely awesome weekend and I loved the clear spring waters of Florida! I can't wait to go back, all though I love our diving around here.
The water as pretty much the standard 70 degrees every where we went. I had a great time and logged a bunch of dives. Now we need to plan a Dixie Divers trip down there to tool around!
Caleb
We spent our couple hour surface interval in transit to Rainbow River where we drifted down the river. Spent most of the time on my snorkel (actually reattached it for the first time since my OW class) but did two dives, one down into a small cavern (just big enough for me and my buddy) and another just
looking at fish and shells and such. Was very nice, and very relaxing. Something someone could do if they were bringing a whole family as most of it can be seen with simply a snorkel.
Then we spent the next couple hours on our way to Ginnie Springs. By this time we were getting tired but determined to get Ginnie Springs in. We did the main cavern and also did Little Devil, Devil's Ear, and Devil's Eye. All were very neat and very much enjoyable (when you go: neat thing at Devil's Ear is that when you get down towards the bottom of the cavern and look up, the current from the river and the spring create a red swirl that looks like blood or something... weird but neat). We did two night dives at the main cavern. Someone went down near the grate where the current flows out and broke their glow stick open and green stuff went everywhere. We all turned off our lights and enjoyed the now sparkly cavern walls. It was comparable to star gazing and kind of neat (all though I am glad I wasn't personably responsable for the glow all though I understand the people who own Ginnie due it for special events).
The next day (Saturday) was spent at Crystal River (King's Bay and Three Sisters). I was very dissapointed actually as there were TONS of people around and thus, the manatees were shy and visability was low. Finally got to see one as I was exploring around with my buddy at Three Sisters... he came up and let us pet him and then a group of people came around, so he didn't want to be bothered anymore and that was fine with me. At King's Bay in the morning, some older gentleman was snorkeling with his kids (not wearing a snorkel vest) and started having some serious health issues. He was really pale and hurting... started panicking as well which didn't help. I grabbed ahold of him, over inflated to help keep us both up and calmed him down. Once I got him calmed down enough, my buddy and I swam him quite a ways back over to his boat. It was a little bit too exciting for my tastes.
Finally, Sunday we woke up and went over to Devil's Den. My buddy and I did two dives there, completely exploring most of what we could find. Saw some really, really huge cat fish and it was a very neat place. Then my friend Jon who was with us (missed Blue Grotto on Friday), decided he wanted to see Blue Grotto, so we packed up and went across the highway and dove Blue Grotto one more time.
It was an absolutely awesome weekend and I loved the clear spring waters of Florida! I can't wait to go back, all though I love our diving around here.
The water as pretty much the standard 70 degrees every where we went. I had a great time and logged a bunch of dives. Now we need to plan a Dixie Divers trip down there to tool around! Caleb
