#109 Visiting with the Manatees at Crystal River

Snorkeling with Manatees was so cool, the night before our dive there had been a cold front rolled in. All the manatees came to get warm at Crystal River. The guide said the day before he only saw one all day. When we got in the water there were like 30 of them and also some Mamas and calves.

Well, we were supposed to arrive at I think 11 a.m. so we got on down there and happily, we were a little early and we got into our wetsuits and waited for stragglers. About 30 minutes or later or so they had us watch a video on how to behave around manatees which means you don’t abuse them or do stupid stuff. We got on the boat and went into this Creek/river and we're told about the behavior of the manatees. They will stay towards the ocean unless it turns cold and when it turns cold, they will come running in to get warm. I don't know how we could’ve had any better luck. The last several weeks saw overnight temperatures of 65 or so. The night that we were going to be there it was about 40 degrees so they all came in. Twenty or Thirty of them huddled around at their little hangout place and the guide said we hit it on the money because yesterday he had only seen one or two at the most.

We put our snorkeling gear on and we were within inches of them. We needed to resist the temptation to touch them because humans have not always been good stewards around these creatures and they're quite protected now. They said don't touch which means just don't touch them. I really enjoyed it but we got really cold at some point. I say the first 20 minutes of the half an hour you’re ok. After a while, you just realize the core temperature of your body is crazy cold. Your fingers are cold and when I got on the boat and headed back I don't think I warmed up for like an hour after that. While we were out we met some people from Canada and Germany. The people from Canada were very cordial and we realized they were RVrs. They mentioned they were at the state park but they had to move on because there was no more vacancy. I said well I found a free one up the road and I gave him the coordinates for it. Sure enough, they came wandering up and we had guests for a night. We ended up staying just one night so I have to admit it was a little weird that we invited them and then kind of left. We shared contact info and later in the year when we were in Canada we contacted them for a visit. Claire and Daniel were kind enough to give up some great RV stops while we in their part of the world.