Happy New Year's Eve! and Part II of Mom's Adventure

Now I know it's party time...

So I want to encourage you to

HAVE FUN!

and

BE SAFE!

 

Let's PAW-TY!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

EVERYONE! :D

Turning it over to Mom.

It's time for Part II

The Grand Finale

of her and the Grandfolks Crystal River adventure!...

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Roo's Mom here :)

When we last left the story,

Roo was so kind to start for me,

we had donned our wet suits and

were headed to Gator Hole...

  When we arrived at Gator Hole,
we were given some last minute reminders
to swim using only our hands
(no flippers were allowed)
and to move slowly and calmly.

Then we were handed our masks, snorkels and
pool noodles to help us float and entered the water.

The river is fed by springs and remains
a constant 72 to 74 degrees all year long
so it wasn't cold. Cool but not cold.

Mom, Dad and myself slowly hand paddled away
from our boat and then paused and floated...

and then they came...

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MANATEES!!!

You see Crystal River, FL is the only place

in the entire USA where you can legally 

swim in the wild with these amazing creatures :)

  

Each year, after the first cold snap that takes

place around the end of October, the manatees

come in mass numbers to Crystal River where

they winter until the gulf water temperature

rises again in the spring. 

We enjoyed several hours in the water with

these gentle, curious, sometimes playful

incredible sea grass eating mammals.

As my camera is of the surf and turf variety,

I was able to capture our once in a lifetime experience

with them in their underwater habitat...

(Remember you can click on the images to

biggify if you wish.)

Here is one tickling Dad's toes with its whiskers...

And another that visited Mom for some

good scratchies...

They love scratchies! 

Here's one waiting its turn...

 One of the young ones and Dad bonded big time

and they spent a very long time with each other...

The grey hump is its back.

Dad's scratching its head.

He said it was so fun to see the manatee

close its eyes in pleasure during the 

good head scratching it was getting from him.

After a couple hours in the water at Gator Hole,

we needed to get back on the boat to warm up.

Good ol' Captain Mike gave us hot cocoa

and poured warm water on our feet and down

our backs. Took the chill off rather quickly :)

We decided to leave our new friends and 

head off to Three Sisters (called so because

of the three fresh water springs that feed it) 

and make some more manatee friends...

Because of the close proximity of the springs,

the water was clearer here than at Gator Hole.

There was also a bit of a current that made

floating in one place with just your hands as paddles

somewhat difficult but not impossible :)

Here is a Momma and Baby resting on

the river's floor...

You may have noticed that noone has

been diving down to the manatees.

The reason is you are not allowed to do this

as you may disturb them when they are sleeping

like this one...

and these...

If disturbed too much, they may

leave the warm waters of Crystal River

and go back out into the gulf.

As they cannot withstand temperatures below

68 degrees, this can cause them to

suffer hypothermia and can die.

So the rule is, they must come to you.

You are suppose to remain at least

6 feet away and wait for them to close the gap.

Many of them do :)

Here's one that came up to Mom

for some special Mom scratchies...

This next photo is a surface shot of

one of the sanctuary areas created

just for the manatees. 

No boats or swimmers are allowed inside

the roped off area.

There are several of these places along the river

where the manatees can sleep and rest in safety...

If you biggify the photo above, 

you can make out the sleeping manatees

under the water. They look a bit like sunken logs.

Here is a manatee coming up for a breath of air...

Unless sleeping (they can stay under

for about 20 minutes then), they come

up for air about every 4 to 5 minutes.

On the surface, this is what you usually see...

just a cute snout sticking out :)

On my way back to the boat to warm up again,

I saw these two taking a nap together.

Almost choked by laughing under water as

one was upside down and the other was on top...

Silly guys :)

Speaking of silly,

this one was using a rope hanging

off the side of the boat as dental floss

to get the sand from between its teeth...

I took several video clips as well as the stills.

I only edited out the really rough spots so

you could share in our experience as realistically

as possible :)

In the video you will see a small school of fish

and then a fresh water bass in the beginning.

I like fishies and couldn't help but include them too :)

The video lasts about 4 minutes.

You can view it at full screen size by
clicking on the lower right corner of the video screen.

You can watch it here or on YouTube.

 

I gave one of our friends one last head

scratchy from the deck of our boat...

And then it was time to head home.

I hope you enjoyed sharing this very

special experience that my parents

so kindly treated me to and shared with me.

If you would like to interact with the amazing

manatees in the wild yourself,

I would highly recommend Captain Mike's VIP Tour 

They have the only heated boats in town and

the hot cocoa is great! :)

They are very knowledgeable about the manatees

and really care about protecting them.

The instruction they give you on how to interact with them

not only protects the manatees but provides you with

the information you need in order to have the 

best interaction experience.

Thanks Roo for my posty pressie! :D

Roo and I wish all of you a fun filled,

happy, healthy and prosperous

NEW YEAR!