- Messages
- 5,120
- Reaction score
- 1,969
- # of dives
- I just don't log dives
Last week during the recent cold snap, we headed to Crystal River, FL to swim with manatees. It seems the colder it gets, the more manatees come up into the warmer water springs and we were stoked at that the reported numbers of manatees. So Netdoc, MarkSM, and I agreed to meet up at o’dark:30 for a quick breakfast and hit the water before sun-up. This is Mark’s turf and he does know it very well. So we geared up in the cold dark (me cursing my dry suit) and Mark and I slipped into the water. Pete stayed as land support due to a missing fin (Pete has a story). I was nervous and a bit scared of getting in unknown waters in pitch black, even with a small light, but my excitement to see manatees won out. We swam down river about 200 yards and suddenly I swam into a boulder…oops, a very surprised manatee was avoiding my light. I switched off the light as I got closer and daylight breaking. When we got close to the roped off area, there were more manatees than we could count. These huge, slow-moving, and very curious creatures where surrounding us; nudging our fins, sideling up along side us and moving us around. I was trying to keep quiet, still, and move my fins as little as possible, but the manatees were moving us and we were trying to avoid making contact with them. We swam up Three Sisters Creek which is closed off to boats. We had to pull ourselves along the rocks against the flow. We entered a basin often frequented and saw only one manatee. We drifted back down creek and spent the rest of the time around the roped off area. After about an hour, Mark and I got separated in the crowd of snorkelers from the local dive boats, so I head back to our entry point (and my drysuit was leaking). Mark was about 10 minutes behind me. We got out and boy was it colder now that we were wet. As we rushed to dry off and get warm, Mark realized his car keys were missing. We spent the rest of the morning dealing with that, only to find them stuck in an axle spring after the car had been lifted onto a tow truck (major palm plant to forehead). Life is always an adventure, some planned, others are surprises.
Last edited: