Chassahowitzka Manatee Kayak Trip

"My, they are frisky today" she said as she dabbled her fingers in the water. The young manatee was gently nibbling her digits as she talked to me.

"Just wiggle your fingers like this..." she demonstrated ... " and they will come up to you."

Floating ten feet away, I dabbled, I wiggled ... nothing ... although they were all around me, nobody was coming up for a finger munch. A sirenia snuggle seemed unlikely for me even though the youngster next to her boat was practically devouring her hand.

She was pretty cute.

Her husband/boyfriend was in a nearby kayak yakking on the cellphone about the poor economic situation ... his back to both his partner and the frisky manatee.

"Oh, look, he wants his bellyrubbed." She gave him a gentle pat as the young manatee rolled next to her kayak.

Apparently, I had stumbled upon some sort of manatee whisperer ... this woman in the blue kayak seemed to have a strange affinity for the gentle beasts.

We were sitting not 10 meters from the Chasshowitzka River boat ramp in clear water flowing from several nearby springs. The manatees were up in the spring basking in the 72 degree water after a week of record setting cold.

I had barely slid my kayak into the river when a manatee surfaced just off my bow.

So, while I was not actually munched upon by a manatee, I did have wonderful close up views of their antics as they fed and cruised about the spring.

A manatee cruises deep below my kayak.

Another passes just beneath me.

Above, three in one shot ... I believe there were 4 in the spring area while I was there. I spent a lot of time just floating about, watching and photographing them.

The Chassahowitzka is fed by a bunch of springs that gush warm fresh water from the Floridan aquifer. It flows through one of our older National Wildlife Refuges on it's way to the Gulf of Florida and is wonderfully clear.

The clarity and shallowness makes for great fish watching too. After I left the manatees, I paddled upstream a little and then down river for the rest of the day. I saw more saltwater fish species than fresh.

My list ... mullet, mangrove snapper, sheepshead, pinfish, pigfish, needlefish, redfish, blue crabs...you know ... the euryhaline gang.

It was a beautiful day and I even had to shed the long sleeved camo T-shirt I started the day wearing.

This time of year you can be freezing in the morning and hot in the afternoon. In fact, by late afternoon when I finally pulled myself away from the river, the long sleeve shirt was a welcome friend again.

That's how winter goes here in Pure Florida.

(I did finally make it to Home Depot, but they didn't have what I needed ... oh darn. I guess it was a wasted trip ... heehee)