Manatee Trip and Drift Dive January 30th

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MRXRAY

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Pensacola, FL
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Bay Breeze Aquatics the LDS in Gulf Breeze, FL (Just South of the 3 Mile Bridge) is offering a Manatee trip in the Crystal River and a Drift Dive in the Rainbow river on January 30th and 31st 2009.

The details are below, if you have questions you can contact the dive shop at (850) 934-8363 or PM me and I will forward the details to the sho and reply back.

We will drive down on Friday, Jan 30 and snorkel with the manatees on Saturday, Jan 31. The snorkel will be done in the Early Am. After lunch we will drift dive down the Rainbow River. We are only spending 1 night so we will drive back after the drift dive.

Prices include taxes and are as follows:
Days Inn price per room with tax for 1 night is $97.12. (if you share a room with someone then that would half your cost of the room).

Snorkel with the manatees is $29.15 per person
Drift dive on Rainbow River is $34.98 per person.

We will be diving with Watersports and they have been doing these trips for 16 years. Snacks are furnished on the snorkel trip.
Total price for this trip and the activities is $161.25.
Equipment such as wet suits, tanks, etc are not included in the above.
We need a minimum of 10 people to be able to get these prices and do the trip.

If you are interested in going then you will need to pay a non-refundable deposit of 50% at the shop no later than Dec 31, 2008. The balance for the trip is due no later than Jan 18, 2009.

We can talk later about carpooling down.
 
I am planning on going with Barb and Josh. We've really been looking forward to snorkeling with the Manatees!
 
I took my first manatee snorkeling trip on Monday. What a great experience. The water was temp was low 70's and the visibility was very good most of the time. There were about 100 manatees moving in and out of the santuary, bay and springs. Having those curious creatures seek you out for contact is amazing. I suggest getting there early before it gets crowded.
 
What do you call early?

I took my first manatee snorkeling trip on Monday. What a great experience. The water was temp was low 70's and the visibility was very good most of the time. There were about 100 manatees moving in and out of the santuary, bay and springs. Having those curious creatures seek you out for contact is amazing. I suggest getting there early before it gets crowded.
 
Seeing the sunrise across the bay early. I used Bird's Underwater for the trip and had a great experience. My perception of the company over some of the other boats I saw was that they seemed to emphasize respecting the manatees over making profits. We left the docks at about 0630 local time and had a couple of great hours of the manatees before the other tours showed up. I just received my dvd of the trip in the mail today compliments of Bird's. I'll try to get some captures posted soon.
 
Yeah, try getting on an operation that respects the animals first, an foremost. I'd also recommend trying to find an operation that limits the people on the boat. When I went, the pontoon boat I was on limited its numbers to 6 people, which kept us on the boat with a ton of room.

Oddly enough, my most rememberable experience with manatees, wasn't in Crystal River, or any spring in Florida. We were out goofing around at the beach in Destin on 4th of July weekend and go buzzed by a herd of seacows. Totally unexpected, and totally less stressfull. All but my buddy thought they were sharks and high-tailed it to the beach, I've never seen so many people clear out of an area so fast(keep in mind, a huge 4th of July crowd)!

You guys keep up with the beach dives, you'll likely eventually get a manatee experience unexpectedly. They are spotted every year going through the pass in Destin :)
 
Well I have just got word the price has changed a tiny bit mainly due to hotel costs. The prices are now $30.00 for the Snorkel trip, $35.00 for the Drift Dive and $107.00 for the room. That would be a total of $172.00 per person if you pay cash or $180.00 with credit card. Not a big change but a change that needs to be noted. Let me know if you have questions.
 
Great Pics SRT!

Hey the trip is filling up fast so don't miss out!!!
 
After much thought about my manatee experience, I have decided that I will make one change on my next trip. I dove in a 5 mil full wetsuit. I found the extreme bouyancy to be very uncomfortable. Even though free diving is discouraged on the trips, I still think I will wear a weight belt next time. I felt like I was fighting against the wetsuit and the water the whole time. Perhaps I'm just spoiled by the whole weightlessness of diving.
 

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