Yesterday at the pool session I informed my three open water students that we would do a 300 yard snorkel swim instead of the 200 yard pool swim because the pool is pretty small (715 laps required to do 200 yards) and because we would have the chance of seeing manatees if we did a snorkel swim at the bridge. I figured we at least had a chance of seeing manatees because the water temperature has been in the low seventies. BUT, (dopey me!) it didn't occur to me to bring the CAMERA while we snorkeled. I know what you're thinking. (Yeah, sure he saw a manatee, but didn't get the picture. Yeah right.) But we DID see a manatee AND her CALF! They were swimming very closely together. The water temperature was seventy-two on my computer. They were not at all alarmed by our presence or they were too cold to react. We were with them in the swimming area for several minutes. Made my day right there and we hadn't put on the dive gear yet. The vis was 15' or so. It was better than I thought it would be. Several southern rays were looking for breakfast. A batfish under the fishing pier (nobody on the pier, imagine that) was cooperative for the camera. I had to take the picture of the butter hamlet; I love them. I was in a 5mm suit with a 3mm hooded vest. For our 54-minute dive I was comfortable. My students in 3mm suits were chilled. I was pleased to exit the water into no breeze at all. That made breaking down the gear and putting it in the van much more pleasant than it is to do when the wind is howling out of the north. The bottom line is that winter conditions, although more challenging in terms of comfort, do provide opportunities that we do not have during the warmer times of the year. So, brace yourself and get in the water, Ham
