Tarpon Basin

Day 182, February 8th, 2010

Having got totally sold on the wetsuit idea, we set off again in the morninig to Divers Direct. This time Reg kindly dropped the three of us off in the canal at the other end of the town from the municipal dock, hoping to cut off some of the distance. It was still a long walk!! However, we managed to find some coupon books on the way ($10 off for every purchase of $79.00 and over). John and I fitted ourselves out with these fancy wetsuits. I made a bit of a fool of myself - I somehow managed to squeeze myself into this suit but it was so uncomfortable and nearly throttled me. I emerged out of the change room and told the salesman. He didn't even crack a smile but just said "You've got it on backwards, it zips up at the back." Oh well! Back to the change room, struggle out and then back in and guess what - it felt pretty good!!!

I wasn't looking forward to the hike back at all but then the very nice woman at the desk offered us a ride back in her car!! How kind! We had the $5.00 lunch at Paradise - roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and mixed veggies. Very good.

In the afternoon, we had great fun. We took the dinghies up the canals looking for manatees.
We found a mom andher baby at the end of one of these canals, and visited with them for at least 10 minutes. We shut off the engines and just paddled gently up to them. Could have reached out and touched them they were so close. They both came up to the surface and took little puffy breaths, watching us all the time as we watched them. It was so lovely. Guess what - I forgot to take the camera!!!

Then we scooted across the bay and went dinghying through the mangrove tunnel. It was cool. The mangroves with their long fingers reaching into the water. Very pretty when the sun came out and dappled through the leaves. We followed the tunnel to a little lake where boats can hide out in a storm. I'd read about boats hiding out from hurricanes in the mangroves and could imagine how safe it would feel!

We were getting pretty tired by the times we got back to Periwinkle but after a sit and a cup of tea, John and I got our wetsuits on and went for a trial swim! Lots of jelly fish, although we were told at the park that the little clear ones don't bite!! Good thing, there were lots. The sun was going down so visibility wasn't good. John felt 10lbs. of weight in the weight belt was good for him. I kind of gave up at 8lbs. Will have to try again another day. 8lbs. wasn't enough though. No appreciable difference between 6 and 8!!! Too many adipose cells I think!!!