Six am is too early for most things. But there I was standing in the bait shop, waiting to get into my group. It was so cold which is what you usually exspect at the beginning of January. I was also on the water, and half of me is in a wet suit.

My best friend Kelli, flew in from Denver to spend the remainder of winter break with me. I picked her up at the airport Friday night. We drive up to Crystal Springs, Florida and check into our hotel. The local seen here is minimal to say the least, so we went to Denny's for dinner. It actually turned out to be the hot spot of the town. Imagine our luck! We returned to the room an hour later and crashed, preparing for the next morning.

The dive instructed starts running over the rules. Obviously, as I can tell from what she describes, there have been some interesting accidents in these waters. She proceeds to explain the route each group will take and then directs masses toward their respective boats.

I was fairly certain, I had never been more cold. I stepped on to a clumsy boat with the rest of the pack and there we waited. I was very nervous as I had never been diving before, nor swimming with manatees and I was about to do both.

The boat took us out a couple miles down Crystal River. It is almost like a waiting game. That early in the morning, manatees are still sleeping, especially in cold waters. We motored around for an hour until we came upon two of the mamals, who just happened to be awake and eating.

Now I had to get into the water, and there is one thing I do not like, cold, dark, murky water. We zipped up our wet suits and filed toward the front of the boat. I waited and watched as the instructer approached the first manatee to see if they were playful or more into their food. Turns out, we were okay to enter. I again watched as the first few people entered the water. Seeing that everything was a 'go', Kelli and I decided to enter as well.

My first feeling was that the water was too dark and too cold. But Kelli pulled me forward. Snorkeling around, we warmed to the water and the feel of our suits and flippers, we headed for our group.

In order not to kick up more particules in the water, we had to swim slowly and close to the water's surface. As a novice, this is not easy. So as I fumble toward the group I bump into a large mass, thinking it was someone from the boat I immediately look up to find a manatee staring me in the face. Not the best first impression. I was actually quite terrified and the poor guy was no better.

As I backed off, I could see he was about 9 feet long and probably weighed in close to one thousand pounds. I pulled out my under water camera and took some pictures of him. Swimming backward I got some shots of his whole body and grazing area. Continuing back, I ran into yet another manatee. Obviously this was not my sport. She was a tad smaller and quite preganent. After a few pictures of her, I took my leave of the water and retired to the boat.

Once the entire group was aboard, we moved on to the 'crystal' portions of the Crystal River. After we docked, I made my second attempt in the water. This time, with a much better view. My first site was a sanctuary with 12 manatees piled on top of each other for warmth. I was stunned at the size of the gathering and the collective weight. It appeared gargantuan. Further down the stream, we reached an open space usable for swimming, I learned to control my flippers thankfully.

We took a ton of pictures along the canal, right at the end, there was a mother and a baby born last spring. The mother was feeding, seemingly unmoved by the gathering of people. But the baby was a show off. She played and swam around in between people, around the cameras, throughly happy with the rubbing and attention. She was so small compared to any of the manatees we had seen that day and so springy. I fell in love with her.

We returned to the boat. 9 am. I can't remember ever having such an experience within three hours. The instructor brought us back to the main river and drove along searching for more manatees. Sadly we did not find any. I was told that the prime time to see the manatees is in April/May when the climate is temperate and before they migrated north.

Back at the bait shop, we watched our under water movie. It was so undescribable. The movie alone was moving, but having just experienced such life. It is not everyday that we can be so in touch with nature, or photograph it. The creatures were so graceful, and so quiet. It felt disruptive to be amongst them, and that feeling brought into perspective for me, how invading human life can be on these ecosystems.