I step on to a rickety boat with the rest of the pack and there we meet our guide and the boat pilot. I'm very nervous as I had never been diving or swimming with manatees, and the half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel's finest in the bridge doesn't help. The boat takes us a couple miles down Crystal River. Everyone but Kelli was cold and silent. Even the manatees are still sleeping this early. We motor around until we find two of the mammals, who just happened to be awake and eating. We wait and watch as the instructor approaches the first manatee to see if they are playful or just into their food. As it turned out, we were okay to go up to them.

As if I wasn't miserable and cold enough, I had to get into the water. I'm a beach girl; I hate cold, dark, murky water. We zip up our wet suits and file toward the front of the boat. I again watched as the first few people entered the water. Seeing that everything was a 'go', Kelli grabbed my hand and pulled me into the water with her.

My first feeling was that the water is too dark and cold. But Kelli pulled me forward. We got accomodated to the water and the feel of our suits, snorkels and flippers, and headed for our group. In order to not kick up more murk in the water, we were instructed to swim slowly and close to the water's surface, which isn't easy for a novice. As I fumble toward the group I bump into a large mass, and thinking it was someone from the boat, I look up to find a manatee staring me in the face. His expressionless eyes terrify me at first but I find that he is calm and docile. As I back off, I see that he is about 9 feet long and probably weighs close to one thousand pounds. I pull out my underwater camera and take some pictures of the gray beast. As I swim backwards I get some shots of his whole body and of the grazing area. Continuing back, I run into yet another manatee. She was a smaller, though obviously pregnant.

Once the entire group is aboard, we tour another part of the river. After we set anchor, I make my second attempt in the water, this time, with a much better view. My first site was a sanctuary with 12 manatees huddling near each other for warmth. The size of the gathering makes them look like a low-density clump of clay.

We took a ton of pictures along the canal, and right at the end, there is a mother and a baby born last spring. The mother is eating and seemingly unmoved by the gathering of people, but the baby is a show off. She plays and swim around people, thoroughly happy with, and clearly already accustomed, to the rubbing and attention. She is so small and lively compared to any of the manatees we had seen that day. I fell in love with her and wished I had a backyard that I could keep her in.

We return to the boat by around 9 A.M. and I can't remember ever having such an interesting experience within three hours. The instructor brought us back to the main river and drove along searching for more manatees. Sadly we didn't find any. He told us that the prime season to see the manatees is in the spring when they haven't migrated South.

Back at the bait shop, we watched our underwater movie. It was so indescribable. It is not everyday that I get to be so in touch with nature, or photograph it. The manatees were so graceful and quiet. As the tour guide explained the how they became endangered, it felt as though we were disruptive to be amongst them. That feeling changed my perspective on how invading human life can be on fragile ecosystems.