The Manatees
&
Springs of Northern Florida, USA
Crystal River, Florida
January 13 -15, 2006
Trip Report
 After
such a fantastic trip in 2005 it was hard to imagine that it could get any
better. We are happy to report that it did. This years trip
far exceeded any expectations we may
have had.
The trip started out with everyone
meeting at the hotel in Crystal River. Some people were flying, other
driving and we got together in the evening to talk about our plans
for the weekend and to let everyone get acquainted. The group was
dynamic and everyone had a camera that they were eager to use when we went and
sought out the Manatees.
Friday morning the day started out
perfect. We all met for Breakfast and the weather was warm. It
was a little overcast but that did not dull our excitement. We
loaded the boat and headed out on the river without delay. We went to
three sisters spring first to see if we could see any Manatees there since we
knew that the Big Spring would be very crowded. On the way up the
canal everyone was excited to see the manatees that were there swimming near a
bridge that crossed the canal. At the spring itself, there were not
any Manatees that we could see so we headed back out
 towards
The bigger spring. At King Spring we saw a bunch of boats all
anchored with groups of young snorkelers. We got in the water and were
almost instantly greeted by a Manatee who seemed to be there just for us.
Everyone got to pet him (her?) and we spent
 some
time taking picture. It started out great and just got better.
When the tour boats left to go pick up another "load" we found that the Manatees
came out of the shelter of the sanctuary to spend time warming up near the
spring. The crowds were gone and they seemed to like to interact with the
few individuals that were there.
Later that
afternoon w e
went back over to Three Sisters Spring to do a scuba dive. There were no
more Manatees around since they went off to look for food during the day. We all
decided as a group to skip the dives at Ginnie Spring the next day and come back
out for more interaction with the Manatees.
That evening it looked like that was all
we were going to get. The weather turned really nasty and there was a huge
storm that blew through. We were not sure what the next day was
going to bring but we would wait and see.
  Saturday
morning the wind was howling. The weatherman said
that there were
20 - 30 mile per hour gusts reported right in our vicinity.
We were not sure if we were going to be able to get out on the river. When
we got to the dive center to pick up our boats they were telling
people that they were not letting people out on the river until later.
Since we were a group that they were familiar with they made an exception for
us, gave us a few pointers and sent us on our adventure.
Once we got out on the river it was
amazingly windy. There were large waves in the main bay and we were hoping
to find shelter near the big spring. We wanted to go there since we
did not see any Manatees at the other spring the day before. The
cool thing about bad weather is that it brings the Manatees in to more
concentrated groups by the springs and gives us more of a chance to see them.
At the spring we were surprised to see a lot of boats at anchor near the spring.
We tried to anchor but it was too windy. We weathered the bay again
and headed up to Three Sisters Spring. What an exciting ride the
trip across the bay turned out to be.
Turning the corner up into Three Sisters
Spring we were amazed to see about 20 - 30 boats all crammed into the canal.
What a site it was. As it turned out the Manatees had made their way
up into the spring area itself and there were about 50 animals up there.
We spent the day intermingling with them, taking pictures, having them
come up to us like they were starved for attention. We spent nearly 4
hours in the water with them. One of the little ones took a liking to our
group and would chirp and squeal for attention if one of us stopped petting and
scratching him. If you could imagine a 200lb swimming puppy
who just wanted attention you would get an idea of how much fun they were.
When it was all said and
done in two days the group had taken over 1000 pictures including digital images
and some video. Everyone was looking forward to next year when we
could do the trip all over again.
More pictures will be
coming soon!
See our Past Trip Report for
the 2005 trip for more details and pictures.
Click Here to See the Details of
the upcoming 2007 Excursion!
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