683: Swimming With the Manatees

Where: Homosassa Springs, FL

When: December 27, 2010

With: Mom, Bobby, Sister

As a Christmas present to my family, I booked us to go swimming with the manatees in Florida (was I being completely self-serving in my quest to complete this list? If so, at least I paid). It was only an hour from my mom's house, and thus, it would be completely silly to not check this one off the list.


Since I was younger, manatees were always my absolute favorite animals in the aquarium. I was so fascinated and felt such an affinity to the sea cows that when tasked to make an effigy pot in senior year art class, there was no question that the manatee was the animal that "captured the essence of my soul": gentle, peaceful, and slow. Therefore, I'd really been looking forward to checking this one off the list.

While you would assume that Florida would be the ideal place to hop into some warm springs with the big guys, Florida had been in a "cold snap" that lasted for a few weeks prior to our journey. The temperature when we got in the car was reading 28F. As we moved west from my mom's house at 7am, and the temperature did not move at all, my mom kept saying "it has to get warmer", "when we get closer, it will get warmer", "when it gets later, it will get warmer". I had to keep reassuring the family (and myself) that regardless of air temperature, the springs have to be at 72 degrees for the manatees to survive.

Here is my sister in the car. She's either really excited,  really bored, or just psyching herself up for some cold water: 

The place where we chose to complete this task, Captain Mike's Manatee Tours:

  

Gearing up in our wetsuits. My sister does her stretchy pants dance (and hopefully doesn't pull a muscle...because oh yes, she has done so in the past), and Mom and Bobby insisting their suits are too tight.

Finally on the boat, and the temperature doesn't feel like it's improved. But we're smiling anyway:

We're getting close! Steam was actually rising up from the water - while that means the water is warm, it means the air is really cold.

Bracing to get in the water! Mom was the first one of the whole group to volunteer. As she said, she didn't want to hear anyone else gripe about how cold it was.

A few cold-induced panic attacks later, we all ended up in the water on the hunt. 

Mom, looking like a Navy Seal in her attempts to speak to us only in hand gestures while quietly keeping only her eyes above the surface of the water.

After 30 minutes of seeing nothing, and panicking at the complaints I may hear for it later, I finally found a manatee! I stayed in the water until the Captain called for me to come in (just about time, as I'd lost feeling in my feet and hands).

Their skin feels like soft rubber, with little pinhead sized barnacles all over them.

It kept happily floating up and out of the water. 

They are just as curious about us as we are about them, so once you start petting them, they are all over it. This guy kept rolling on his back so I could rub his belly.

Who couldn't love this face?

All in all, an excellent experience. I found out later that as soon as Bobby put his head in the water, a manatee was staring him in the face. As he said, "I wanted to find it, I didn't want it to find me." So everyone had their encounters, and we were very happy to be back on the boat drinking hot chocolate.