We have been skipping the junk food but, today after our hike through the “glades” a cold root beer and a bag of potato chips just seemed right. Just outside the Marina store is a good place to watch the crocodiles troll the waters so we took our chips and root beer out to watch. I was watching the croc and nibbling when a gull came down from behind and attacked the chip in my hand. He got part of it by breaking it off on the fly. That was all of mine he got but, I have no doubt he moved on to the next unsuspecting mark. Clever little devil.

I guess I looked more like a manatee in the wet suit, or I looked more relaxed or… I don’t know but, I seemed to get more close encounters than Lynn.
I had one big fella that came up slightly under me and gave me a pretty good chest bump. Guess he has been watching sports or something.
I had a baby (300-500 lbs) that seemed to be mesmerized at my mask and face. He kept getting closer and closer and smiled with the big toothy grin they do when they open their big upper lip and you can see their teeth. Not scary teeth but, after the chest bump I flinched and put an arm out to shield off the face to face impact. He gently moved on.
A third one just pulled up alongside and brushed my arm and sat there for a while. Him/her surfacing for an occasional breath and me sucking hard to draw air through the snorkel like it was too small of bore.
Another one came up from the depths and rolled over on it’s back as it went past. Don’t know if I was supposed to scratch his tummy or not but I held fast to the rules and did not move as he twisted and turned. The captain said he had never seen one do a head out of the water spiral before.
The encounters went on for about an hour before it was time to go back to the boat. Even with a wetsuit an hour of nearly stationary immersion was starting to chill or was it the adrenalin causing the trembling? In either case this is a definite “You gotta try this” adventure. We went out with Captain Pete at River Safaris and Gulf Charters in Homosassa, FL. Great guy and a well run operation. Sorry, it will be a few weeks before we get pictures since I used a real film camera underwater.