January
12-17, 2004
The stay: Vacation rental in Crystal River
Three couples rented the house together. The house
was on the boating channel and we watched water birds passing by from
the backyard. We launched rental kayaks from the house and went to
bird and manatee watching to the King Bay area. Crystal River was a
sleepy and quiet retiree town, and it was
colder than in California. We also visited Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park.
Focus of the trip: snorkeling
with Manatees
Dive Sites: King Springs,
Three Sisters Springs, Crystal
River National Wildlife Refuge
Water Temperature: 70 F
(21 C)
The
cold spell we had was good to observe Manatees. In the winter months
they migrate to these fresh water springs for its natural warm water,
and the colder it gets the more animals stay close to the springs. We
got up before the dawn and the captain took us to the Manatee
snorkeling. 70F water may be warm enough for the manatees, but 50F air
is
freezing after you get wet. We still took two tours and petted bunch of
them. Unless the animal is nursing the baby, they liked to be scratched
and came right to us.
 |
The boating channel
from the rental house. Most of the properties were
on the channel
and had water access directly from their backyard. |
