Manatee Spgs. trip report

[DEEPSEAWOLF]

Gibbon and I arrived at 9:15 on Saturday to find twenty divers already in the water. That was stunning since usually Sunday is their big morning. It was 42ish degrees in the air and reading 73ish in the water as usual. I say ish because I use analog gauges. The disconcerting thing was arriving at the main spring to find approximately 70-80 Florida Vultures (buzzards) filling the trees around the basin! I think they were waiting for one of the classmembers or one of the cavers. At least I was hoping it wasn't for me! One bird landed on a thin branch already supporting five others and the branch broke, falling into the water. The birds all flew to other spots, undoubtedly cursing the stupid member of the flock.
The dive was nice, not real silty even though there were about 8 people in the main with us. The flow from the spring seemed more intense than usual. There were some very large black eared bream, and we only saw one large bass. I was getting squeeze problems from a tooth and Gibbon was getting cold in spite of the suit and shorty. We climbed out after only about twenty minutes in the water total. Only about 15 minutes of bottom time. It wasn't a long dive, but it WAS getting back into the water after a month away. It was also cool to see the high water marks on the trees from the flood. All in all, short but welcomed , and a much needed dive event.