In February 2005, Eve and I spent a long weekend in Florida, USA staying at the Seagrass River Resort, by the Homosassa River.

We began our short stay with a manatee snorkel tour, snorkelling in the Homosassa River from a fully enclosed pontoon boat. The visibility was quite poor and the water cooler than we had been led to believe but this manatee encounter was every bit as good as we had hoped. There is something very special about "interactive snorkelling/dives." I will always treasure my memories of diving with seals in the Farne Islands, UK and this was every bit as special. I will never forget finding myself alone with a manatee, it insisting firstly that I rubbed its back, then its tummy. And this was a pattern that was to repeat itself over the weekend.
 
After this snorkel, Eve and I joined an American Pro Diving Center dive group and travelled north to Williston for two afternoon dives at Blue Grotto & Devils Den. The first dive site, Blue Grotto, is well known locally for its clear blue spring water and large cavern chamber. It is Florida’s largest accessible clear water cavern, a huge open chamber, with a depth of 70 feet. It offers a variety of fish and fossils. Highlights of this dive for Eve and I were a turtle (the first freshwater turtle we have seen) brim and catfish. A permanent guideline at 50 feet depth led Eve and I and our dive group from the chamber into a crescent shaped cavern which had a maximum depth of around 100 feet. Looking up, we could watch our bubbles run up the side of the cavern like an upside down waterfall. We returned back into the chamber where an Air Bell located in the ceiling and supplied with compressed air from the surface, offered an opportunity to stop and talk 30 feet underwater. Our second dive of the day was at Devils Den - Florida's only underground prehistoric spring. Eve decided to give this dive a miss. Entry to the site is by means of walking down a long narrow staircase to a large air filled cavern with a 50 feet deep spring at the bottom of the stairs. Devils Den has lots of small swim-throughs and air pockets. It also has many catfish and these went into a feeding frenzy after our dive guide, Mike Lovullo, began to feed them.

After two further morning Homosassa River manatee snorkel tours, Eve and I enjoyed an afternoon shallow drift dive down Rainbow River. This river is the third largest spring system in the world and boasts 200 feet visibility. Highlights of the dive were bass, blue gill, brim and garfish.

The following morning, after two final Homosassa River manatee snorkel tours, we drove back to Orlando airport, wishing we could have stayed in Florida longer.