Saturday, March 6, 2010

Paddling With The Manatees

An e-vite from the Tampa Bay Sea Kayakers:

    Lisa and I had joined the Tampa Bay Sea Kayakers club (TBSK) from our home in Troy, New York in January in anticipation of the month we would spend in Dunedin in March.  Dunedin is small, quiet old Florida town just north of the very busy cities of Tampa and Clearwater.  Information on the TBSK website led me to believe that the TBSK group was very active with many activities planned each month.  This proved to be true, as the March calendar showed several paddling opportunities for all skill levels scheduled every week. 

We responded to the announcement above, our first experience with the group.  We got an early start for the hour plus drive to Hunter Springs Park, as Crystal River is more than an hour north of Dunedin, above Homassasa.  We wanted to be there early enough to meet people before getting on the water.  Hunter Springs Park was very pretty and the day was sunny for a change.  (We had been plagued by cold, windy and rainy weather since leaving Troy.)  On the road, we spotted several kayak laden boats heading north with us.  We guessed they might be part of the TBSK group, so we tagged along, forming a small convoy.  We easily found the group.  As it turned out, we were correct about this as we all arrived at the park together.  Just ahead of us was Richard (a kayaker) and his wife Evelyn (a biker) who quickly became friends.  After greetings in the parking lot and the formality of signing the usual liability paperwork, we prepared the boats for the water and launched on to the Crystal River. 

The river is beautiful.  Soon we were seeing what we had come for – manatees!  There were dozens of them, usually swimming in ones, twos and threes just under and around our boats.  We saw many cows and calves, and some really large solitary animals, which I assumed were males.  Eventually we arrived at a place called Three Sisters Spring.  The passage into the spring is very narrow and blocked by pilings to only allow kayaks, canoes and swimmers to enter.  After a few hundred feet the spring opens up into three pools fed by the three springs.  It is an absolutely beautiful, pristine place where manatees gather in the winter to stay warm.  The spot had been saved from a developer’s cockeyed vision of surrounding the springs with highrise condos by a determined group of local conservationists.  Thank god for determined folks like that! 

As luck would have it, most of the manatees had moved out onto the river, but the crystal clear spring allowed us to see the

few that remained.  I was able to take a video of one, a rescued and recently released manatee that was lounging on the bottom in the sum with my waterproof video camera (follow the link to see the video).  It had a loose fitting collar around its flipper with a line attached that towed a floating beacon.  The beacon beamed information on the animal’s location, water temperature and other data to the scientists tracking its behavior. 

The current was giving us a pretty good push on the way out of the springs.  I gave myself a good push to get between the pilings and snagged my paddle blade on an overhanging branch.  This spun the paddle around to where it caught on the pilings.  I wisely let it go and coasted through the opening.  Within seconds I had grabbed one half of the spare paddle I keep on my front deck and was headed back for the lost blade.  However, another paddler had grabbed it and returned it to me.  I have carried that paddle on my fore deck for years.  This was the first time I had a reason to use it.  I was glad to see that I could access it so quickly.

Shortly after noon we were back at Hunter Springs Park.  With lots of help from club members, we all loaded our boats and headed for Crackers restaurant for a wonderful and relaxing lunch, with great conversation.  Special thanks go to Marv and Rachel, our trip leaders, and to Susan, Richard, Evelyn and so many others who made us feel welcome.

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