I had two dives on Sunday; the first time in the water since last September,
which was really driving me nuts as I¹m usually diving at least once a week!

The trip was organised through Aqua Pro Divers in Bradenton. Mike Hays, who
runs the operation is an affable guy who found a friend to buddy with me: a
commercial diver called Joe. Mike was finishing off the training of three OW
students so Joe and I did our own thing.

Crystal River is about a two-hour drive from where I live and we were in the
water by 10.15am. The first dive site was opposite the Port Hotel & marina
facility. The site was very crowded, with about 30 divers in a 30m diameter
area, like a bowl cut into the limestone river bed. Down at about 8m, in
between slabs of rock, there were two or three fissures that allowed access
to small caverns which went down to about 16 or 17m. Not having a light
(still in a container in Miami!) I stayed within visual contact of the
surface, and watched Joe poke around the rocks below me. The dive was very
crowded, mainly with trainees on their first or second OW dives. And as was
to be expected they were mainly unaware of their surroundings and other
divers. I nearly had my mask kicked off and a young lad managed to hook up
his first stage with my BC hose. His instructor was oblivious of what was
going on but I managed to calm the poor kid down quite quickly and free
ourselves. There was a large shoals of snappers hanging around completely
ignoring the infestation of divers. Not much else flora or fauna apart from
some petrified (as in dead and ancient) barnacles. Interesting dive but I
was bored after about ten minutes. It was strange, though, diving in fresh
water without that tang of chlorine!

The second dive was at a site called the three sisters. This was like
swimming in a river ­ which was exactly what it was! The site comprised
three holes, about a metre in diameter, in small depressions at about 4m
depth, about 30m apart in 100m stretch of the river, where spring water
rushes out at an alarming rate. The extremely clear water was unlike
anything I¹ve ever seen, except in a bottle of gin. As we were getting out a
manatee and calf were spotted just a few yards away but it began to pour
down and a thunderstorm was overhead bringing the light down to almost
nothing, so I didn¹t bother following the others in harassing the poor
creatures.

I don¹t think I¹ll bother diving there again but it was interesting and
certainly great to get wet again.

This Friday I¹m off (with my Gates dry suit) to dive an artificial reef and
a shrimp boat off the coast of Venice. I can¹t wait!!

Fred