1. Manatee Springs & Blue Grotto Dive Trip November 2006 Here are some pictures of our latest dive excursion to Manatee Springs and Blue Grotto in Florida. We hope you like them.

2. Our humble tent camp We had two armadillos chasing each other at night. And three raccoons invaded as well – they were hilarious, sneaking up behind our camp – completely calm and calculating like a trained military strike force. They managed to eat all the cheese from the cooler. Very clever.

4. Suwannee River Of Stephen Foster fame. At least that’s the consensus in this area. There is a Stephen Foster Cultural Center near by. Per locals that proves this is ‘the one”. Who are we to question that logic?

6. Manatees Lurking below the surface were manatee snouts. One would come up every few minutes for air.

8. Walk this way, nothing to fear… Dozens and dozens of black vultures were around the river. They lined up on the dock. We wondered, if a row of crows is called a murder, is a row of vultures called a homicide?

10. Manatee Springs First magnitude spring – huge discharge. You can “fly” in the current, and when you let go it shoots you out like a bullet. There is a swim-thru Quinn (our guide from American Pro Dive) did several times. We could hardly even enter it ourselves, the current would just push you out and whip up gravel and shells on the bottom in popcorn like torrents. Visibility was 100’ +, water constant 72 deg. Saw some flounder and a turtle in the river as we drift dove it after playing in the head of the springs.

14. Catfish Hotel “We are supposed to dive in THAT?” came to mind as we approached this site. Duck weed covers the surface of this 60’ sink hole. It pushes away easily, your bubbles can penetrate through letting beams of light pierce down into the sink. Amazingly good visibility once inside. Dropped down to large side entry cavern descending to about 60’. This site actually connects to the head of Manatee Springs via a 150’ +/- tunnel, which of course is for certified cave divers only. Lots of fish in the upper section of sink with catfish hiding in the back of the cavern. Very unique site. Diving in a salad bowl.

18. Blue Grotto http://www.divebluegrotto.com/ http://www.divebluegrotto.com/ Very cool cavern dive. It descends to 100’, but we only dove the upper 70’ – after that descending holes drop into the bottom and you can do a swim thru. Absolutely beautiful looking up at the entrance from 70’ – vibrant turquoise blue water. We lucked out completely—though normally a very busy site there were never more than 2 other divers in the entire cavern with us. The first dive the vis was close to 100’; practically no sediment had been disturbed. Made two dives here, one Nitrox and one air. Saw a few catfish, but the most interesting thing at this site is the geologic formations in the cavern itself – small ledges and holes you can shine your light into, very cool. There is an air bell at 30’ you can surface and talk in and an underwater light system provides excellent illumination of the top section of the cavern.

21. Not us – just some pics from the Blue Grotto web site.

22. Happy divers No underwater pics this time, but here are some of us on land. Had two days of great diving, excellent conditions and no crowds. We both now have the number of dives which qualify us to be able to take the advanced course!

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