Swimming with those 1200 pound sneaky ninjas

Dec 11, 2021 Crystal River / Kings Bay, FL

This is the only place in the good old state of Florida (never mind the US) that allows you to swim commercially with manatees. Even Florida respects them enough not to put them on the menu 😜. We decided, last minute, that a swim with these massive sea creatures, was a “not to miss”. The tour company fit us in easily enough, and provided the wet suits, snorkel masks and boat to find the manatees. Our muddy water guide stood at the helm like Ahab, and instead of a spear, tossed us all at the creature. It felt wrong getting in with all the other masked and noodled touristas chasing a lone manatee while it tried to eat a tenth of its weight in sea grass. I won’t recommend or do it again, but to be inches from a thousand pound gentle giant is a memory I will not forget!

PS: the Sneaky Ninja term comes from our guide and her adjective for when the manatees come out of the dim waters and surprise you, then take off at incredible speed…

Before we swam with the dugong, we looked for them at the beautiful and clear Rainbow Springs. It would have been an ideal place to see and swim with them, except that they don‘t like the 72 degrees of the springs water when the river is warmer than that. Silly sirenian, we rented paddle boards and everything…

I couldn’t resist, and 72 is warmer than Cali!