Under Pressure

102 miles offshore and negatively buoyant at 130 feet, we stood as the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th people to visit this underwater site in 10,000 years. I paused for a second to take in the alien landscape then quickly got back to work.

Andy and two other archaeologists dove here in 2009, and David, Dee, Andy, and I returned this past week to do some prep work for the upcoming NOAA research cruise. Basically our goal was to use a 15lb slide hammer to bang 4 stakes into the ground at 130' at the T-shaped intersection of two rivers. One of the rivers is the historic Suwannee River before extreme sea level rise caused this site to go from a prairie to 130' underwater, 100+ miles off the coast of present-day Florida. The T-shaped (rather than Y-shaped) intersection of the rivers is one of 3 found so far in Florida and signifies a different type of underlying rock called chert. Since chert was the material of choice for making tools, it is a promising site for finding artifacts, most likely from the Clovis people who lived there over 10,000 years ago. 

At this point I have completely lost track of time, but today when I realized it's already Friday, I did not think 'TGIF'. Actually, I found myself wishing it was Tuesday again when the adventure began…

Day 1. 

387 Feet.

Unfortunately 387 feet is not how deep we dove. I have neither the skill nor certifications required to do so... yet. Fortunately, it is the length of “Fisherman’s Paradise”, the 4-star floating hotel where we stayed. So let me just preface this by saying that this week was certainly not real life.

The trip started on Tuesday morning at David and Dee's house where we set up and loaded all of our gear. In this picture, I had just finished analyzing all of the tanks. They had between 27 and 28% oxygen as compared to the 20.9% in air. Basically this gave us longer bottom times and shorter surface intervals, because we were exposed to less nitrogen in our breathing gas.

We left the house at 2 and made it to the dock in St. Pete just after 4. Here we were loading all of our gear and getting ready to head out to Fisherman's Paradise.  

The 15 mile ride out to the boat was beautiful and reminded me how much I miss the ocean. The air was humid and salty and the breeze was hot. In the no wake zone of the winding channel we saw dolphins and a mock pirate party ship. After we left the inner channel and hit the ocean, we spent the boat ride with our hair down and going crazy in the wind as we bounced over the waves.

Our first up-close view of Fisherman's Paradise :) It's 387 feet long and has a 90 foot beam!
http://fishermansparadise.com/ 

We came around the back of the ship to dock at their mini marina. It is a foreign ship... technically we were in Bolivia all week!

 As we docked, we were greeted by a very friendly and welcoming crew who helped us with our bags and then showed us the amazing ship.

Our rooms were off this hallway on the main deck. Not exactly what I have come to expect for living arrangements, but I could certainly get used to it...

Pool bar! Not open quite yet but still awesome. Good thing the boat can desalinate its own water.

After a little explore onboard, we couldn't resist jumping in the water. Back at the little marina, there were massive schools of baitfish and there was talk of a huge Goliath grouper on the anchor line, so we grabbed our masks and fins and went for a swim.

Looking up at David at the edge of a school of bait fish. Sometimes when you looked up, all you could see were fish. All of a sudden, something would spook them and it appeared as if the whole sky was falling or moving. We spent a while playing with the schools and being engulfed in thousands of fish. I kept half expecting them to form an arrow or a crab or some other crazy shape just like they do for Dory in Finding Nemo. 

We made our way through the bait fish at the stern towards the bow and the mysterious Goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara). At the surface, I could barely make out the outline of something big, so I held my breath dove down. As I approached about 20 or 25 feet, the Goliath took shape! Unfortunately he was shy and didn't let me get any closer than this after briefly swimming towards me. He doesn't look that big in this picture, but each of the anchor chain links actually weighs 100 lbs!!

One of the massive schools of baitfish (most likely some type of sardines) engulfed the anchor chain as the sun began to set.

After a long snorkel with bar jacks (Caranx ruber), sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda), and a little sneaky cocoa dameslfish (Stegastes variabilis) that was too quick to let me get a picture, we showered and headed upstairs for dinner while we watched the beautiful sunset over the ocean. After dark we called an early bed time so that we could rest up for our big diving day...

Day 2.

All for 18 minutes.

By the time my 530 a.m. alarm went off, I was out of the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in and in my swimsuit. I was ready for what most people do not consider a normal day of work.

After a quick breakfast and necessary dose of caffeine, we headed down to the 36-foot catamaran motorboat. Equipped with 300 gallons of fuel and all of our gear and tanks, we pushed off by 7:15, headed for the Middlegrounds.

We pushed off the dock at 7:15 with a beautiful sunrise in the background.

 If you enjoy roller coasters, the ride out to Thor’s Elbow is fun. Although I do love roller coasters, they tend to last for less than 2 minutes, so the 4 hour journey covering 77 miles of wide-open ocean had about 3:58 minutes of too much bouncing and pounding through the waves. Any potential butterflies in my stomach were immediately shaken and squashed, and we quickly learned why we were about to be 4 of 6 people to visit the site in 10,000 years.

After many attempts to get comfortable, I ended up finding a squishy seat in the middle of the boat and chatting with our nice captain Che. I then attempted to read my DiversAlert magazine but it was moving around so much that I couldn't seem to make out any words. Instead,  I spend the better part of an hour staring out at nothing but blue water and watching our only visitors – flying fish! They would pop up right next to the boat and keep up with us for a few seconds then plummet right back into the water. It must hurt if they land wrong at 20 knots, although I'm sure they have it perfected. 

9 minutes.

What can you do in 9 minutes? As a sailor, I’m inclined to say 3 rolling dinghy starts. You could also run a little over a mile (or 2 if you’re really fast) or drive about 9 miles on the highway. There’s a lot you can do in 9 minutes, and for us that’s all the time we had.

At 130’ breathing 27% oxygen (as compared to the 20.9% in air), 9 minutes is the no decompression limit (NDL), the maximum time you can spend at depth without going into decompression diving. This is a limit we are required to stay within for scientific diving. Had we been breathing air at this depth, we would have been able to stay down for only about 5 minutes. So breathing 27% instead of 21% oxygen allows us to have about 4 more minutes of precious bottom time. 

Finally jumping in the water just before noon (after our
4-hour journey!).

The science, math, and theory behind diving is something that is beginning to fascinate me. It's something that Harry first introduced me to in my beginning Nitrox class and I am learning more and more from David. Only now am I beginning to gain a true appreciation for what my computer is doing and what is happening in my body while diving. There are so many complexities but also a large amount of safety built into the formulas; there are also a number of different algorithms and formulas to choose from. But back to the story... 

We began our first descent at 11:50 after sending the stakes and slide hammer down the anchor line. At about 60-70’ we hit the thermocline and there was a 6-8 degree decrease in temperature and also a change in visibility. At the surface, the water was a crystal clear blue, but nearer the sandy bottom the visibility dropped to about 15-20 feet (or less when we’re stirring up the bottom). Fighting the effects of nitrogen narcosis (often called being 'narced'... similar to being drunk underwater at depth), we accomplished our task of getting the stakes unwrapped and 2 stakes banged into the ground with the slide hammer. All of our tasks were accomplished under pressure... literally 5 times atmospheric pressure!

As we made our slow ascent, I watched our bubbles make their way towards the sunshine but knew I could not follow. It’s weird looking up and seeing the surface but knowing that you cannot go up right away. This is ironic because it makes deep diving in the ocean much like being in a cave or cavern which have physical overhead environments. But in the ocean there might as well be a brick wall above your head and below your feet - in fact, there are two depths called the 'ceiling' and the 'floor'. If you ascend above the ceiling, you are at risk of getting "the bends". Below the floor, you will not offgas nitrogen because you are too deep - the optimum zone is between the ceiling and floor and your computer tells you (using arrows... or beeps if you're going too fast) where this optimum zone is located. We also discussed this in pre-dive safety talks just in case a computer failed during the dive. Essentially you are in a box even though you are in wide-open ocean, the sides of the box being the space around the anchor line, which we used to descend. There isn't much else to hold on to if you get far away from the boat! 

In the picture above, David is checking on our oxygen bottle during our surface interval. At the end of each dive, we did a 1-minute deep stop at 60 feet and a 3 minute stop at 15-20 feet breathing 62% oxygen. It is added comfort when you come up and see the upside-down blue oxygen bottle hanging at the safety stop with 3 regulators – it looked like a spider or big sea creature. We breathed the oxygen as a safety precaution to decrease our exposure to nitrogen.

During our 2.5 hour surface interval, we snorkeled with filefish in the sargassum - still in the process of figuring out if I found a new species! Little jacks that looked like mini amberjacks, sheepshead, and bar jacks swam around the boat too. A school of brilliant blue marlins and a few moreys gave us hope for some tiger sharks but we were only lucky enough to see 1 barracuda on the 2^nd descent.

For a while we thought that we had discovered a new species of filefish but upon further examination, it appears to be a   juvenile Monacanthus hispidus or plane-head filefish. Their camouflage is amazing... the fish in this picture is in the upper middle part of the sargassum. In some clumps there were about 10 fish, many about half the size of the one shown here. This picture is a frame grab from David's GoPro camera.

Trying out David's awesome freediving fins :) This picture is also by David.

Dive 2 was quick and efficient, using only 6 minutes of bottom time. Andy and I descended first, finished banging in one of the stakes, then tied a line to the stake, swam a distance, and pounded and tied the new stake. David and Dee descended just as we were ready to go up and did the same with one other stake after we passed them the slide hammer. Andy and I began our slow ascent, did our 2 safety stops and took another hit of oxygen and ended with a dive time of 20 minutes. David and Dee surfaced shortly after and we were ready for the journey back - mission accomplished!!

Me and Captain Che getting ready for our journey back to Fisherman's Paradise after a great day of diving, this time going with the wind and waves. Photo by David. 

We started our trip back at 4:15, going with the wind and waves this time. This allowed us to average about 28 kts instead of 20 kts and cut an hour off the originally 4-hour trip.

Cruising along at 28 knots and reading my dive computer manual. Had to figure out a few abbreviations and make some notes about the day... I was apparently so into it (and spaced out from the long day) that I didn't even realize David was taking pictures! 

Day 3.

A dive off Bolivia.

Before leaving the next day, we decided to do a dive off the ship (and technically a dive off of Bolivia) into the Gulf of Mexico. Andy's ultimate goal was to check out a tangled fish trap on the anchor and mine was to practice launching a lift bag.

We jumped off the stern of Fisherman's Paradise and hit the bottom at 50 feet. David passed me the lift bag and I am practicing deploying it here. I am about to attach my inflator hose to the bag and grab the reel (which is hanging from the lift bag in my hand) to let it shoot up to the surface and keep away fishing boats. Photo by David.

I found a sand dollar!! This ended up being the first of hundreds that dotted the sandy bottom along with crabs in conch shells and starfish. They were all alive and at least the size of the palm of my hand. Photo by David.

Dinner plate sized starfish on the bottom; this is nearby the sand dollar I'm looking at in the picture above but much much bigger :)

Andy being consumed by a massive school of baitfish under Fisherman's Paradise.

The body shape of the Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) closely resembles that of a shark... I was really excited for a minute!

But I wasn't disappointed that the Cobia weren't sharks for long! Found this little nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) resting by the anchor. They are very shy and he was spooked right away when we all swam over.

After about an hour long dive, we came back aboard and hit the showers before starting our voyage home. It was sad to leave floating paradise but certainly necessary to come back to cell and internet reception and perhaps inform worried parents where I had been for the week. 

We even took a trip back in time while above water! This awesome party pirate ship replica was headed out to sea as we were headed in to St. Pete. The people on board looked like they were having a blast... most likely drinking rum like pirates.

Pigs?! What is a pig doing at the end of this story?! I asked the same question when Andy was loading up a little crate full of hay into the back of David's truck on Tuesday... a bit of a stark contrast between the crate and our dive gear. We had a little country adventure off the highway on our drive back to Gainesville to pick up a little piglet for Andy and Kathleen to breed. Seeing the country pig farm with 70+ pigs was unlike anything I'd ever seen in the north. The piglet was an absolutely adorable little black squealing bundle of joy, but I had to include the photo above because he's pink and looks like Babe. And was very interested in getting his snout near my camera. Thankfully their pig is going to be a pet and won't be killed for meat :)

3 Devils

They say "the devil is in the details," but in Florida the devil is in the springs. I like to think that each of the springs is a bit of heaven on earth but Ginnie Spring's Little Devil, Devil's Eye, and Devil's Ear don't seem to give the same impression. Neither does "Devil's Den" down in Williston (Devil's Den and Diving with the Devil).


Anyway, the devil was certainly in the weather on Saturday when we set out to dive at Ginnie. Planning on a night dive in the cavern, we left at 1:30 to enjoy a dive or 2 before dark and maybe float the river. But the onset of the rainy season and some storms changed our plans a bit that afternoon. As we turned right at the big Ginnie Springs sign, the skies opened up, but we didn't let it turn us around... a bit of rain only makes the diving more fun. Thankfully it also made the Saturday crowds a lot smaller than usual, although there were still some diehard campers and day-trippers running around in swim suits and balancing tubes in jacked-up pickup trucks blasting country music. While balancing a beer in the other hand, of course. But this just adds to the atmosphere and entertainment.

This is a google earth view of our first three Devil spring system dives. Little Devil is at the orange arrow, Devil's Eye is at the purple arrow, and Devil's Ear is at the yellow arrow where the run meets the Santa Fe River.

This is the representation of the 3 devils as seen on the Ginnie Spring website...  basically a close-up cartoon view of the google earth image above.

This is the first thing I saw when I got in the water. It's just to the right of the stairs that are only feet from Little Devil. Despite the length of the roots, it doesn't seem like the water could get any lower without some serious consequences. 

Looking up from the bottom of Little Devil (~30 feet), before the rain started. Little Devil is a thin crack running only as long as you can see in this picture. It's not much of a dive but does make for a cool picture or two of snorkelers swimming overhead. 

Next stop after Little Devil: Devil's Eye. This is the view looking back towards the eye from the farthest point back you can go in the cavern without reaching complete darkness. The park does not allow you to bring lights into either of these sites unless you are cave certified - this prevents open water divers from ending up in places where they could get in trouble. The cave entrance is about 15 or 20 feet behind me in this picture. 

Usually springs seem quite species poor compared to coral reefs. Sunfish, turtles, eels, and bass are common, but I had never come across a crayfish before! This is a Spring Crayfish (Procambarus speculifer) that Kate found at the entrance to the Devil's Ear cave.

1, 2, 3, JUMP! Even though Austin is just floating over the surface of Devil's Ear, it appears that he is about to jump off a cliff. Silhouette views from the bottom are still one of my favorite shots and the rain at the surface adds a whole new dimension to the flying swimmer. 

More raindrops at the Devil's Ear cave buoy. The yellowish-brown color in the bottom right of the photo is where the tannic river meets the spring run. At this point, it was around 4:30 and we were done playing in the high flow of the rushing spring water. I had my hood on and could hear some low grumbles but was far to intent on taking pictures to think twice about what was actually happening. As soon as I surfaced, the rest of the crew waved me towards shore and we made a run from the thunder that was quickly approaching.

But soon after the thunder started, it slowly became more distant and there was a break in the rain. Austin and Jennie headed home while Kate, Will, and I geared up for a dive in the main Ginnie cavern. We were originally planning on doing a galaxy dive with glow sticks, but we decided to jump in earlier while the weather was still ok. There were so many clouds that it was basically a night dive anyway. This is the main basin, and the entrance to the cavern is the dark area on the far right.

Keep out! These bars are welded over the cave entrance in the main Ginnie cavern. The cavern is open to open water divers, so the park does all in its power to keep people out of trouble... unfortunately it took an accident or two before these bars literally held people back.  One of my favorite things to do in the cavern is kick with all my might to swim up and hold onto the bars then let go, close my eyes, and let the strong flow push me back towards the middle of the large room. 

There is one spot in the back left corner of the cavern where you can swim up from below and pop your head up in a circular rock. The only way to get out is to go back down the chimney-like swimthrough because all around you it's a tight squeeze. In the picture above, there is only about a foot between the ceiling and the sand. The pools on the cavern roof are trapped air bubbles that have no path to the surface.

The american eel (Auguilla rostrata) is one of the only forms of wildlife you will find in the cavern - this one was all the way at the bottom in about 65 feet of water. They have an amazing life cycle, originating in the Sargasso Sea (read more here: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/american_eel.htm). 

Pending thunderstorms underwater? As we swam out of the cavern and towards the stairs,  sand at the surface took on the appearance of a big thunderhead. Runoff from all of the rain that day caused sand from the banks to rush into the spring and spread out, suspended at the surface and waiting to get trapped in our gear.

Not bad for a rainy Saturday afternoon... I was happy after 3 dives and 238 pictures. More pictures are here (in the same album "Gills" with photos from Madison Blue and Troy Springs).

Red and Green

"Red and green" was the theme of the day... but not for Christmas spirit or early holiday celebrations. 

The "Red" part of the day began at Amigos Dive Center in Ft. White, Florida where we met Jim to film Wayne showing off one of his new fancy gas mixing sticks. Jim had a beautiful RED camera to film the commercial. It was the first time I'd ever seen one.. it's absolutely beautiful!

Maybe some day I will actually operate the RED camera. Just standing in its presence is pretty intimidating right now... it's a beast of a camera! 

Wayne and I after filming...  hahah I think the heat got to us at this point. After a long morning of sun and 100 degree temperatures, he brought out his hillbilly teeth!

I spy with my little eyes... a camouflaged tail-less lizard! Andy somehow spotted this little guy at Amigos after we were done filming. It's pretty amazing how well he blends in with the bark... I wonder how he lost his tail?

After lots of fun filming and learning to fill air, nitrox, and oxygen tanks (30 tanks total!!), we were all ready for a refreshing swim, so we took some crazy muddy back roads, and after a few adventures along the way, we ended up at Troy Spring. This is where we started the "Green" part of the day - the water had a very green color from all of the algae... not the best for taking pictures but it was still a neat dive! The hot weather attracted quite a few curious spring-goers who were pretty fascinated by our dive gear and what we were doing diving "all the way to the bottom" (~70 feet). 

Looking up at the sun from about 15 feet underwater. The water was so green! And sadly it was also down about 10 feet despite the past few rain storms that have passed through. Still hoping for more!!

Looking out into the main spring basin from the small cavern.  Even though the water has a greenish tinge, it is still clear enough to see 70 feet up to the surface.

Kids cooling off in the spring near the bottom of the stairs. I love all of their colorful tubes!

There is also a ton of green algae on the rocks where the spring run starts, but in the shallower water, it appears crystal clear. Sadly you used to be able to swim over this rock and snorkel out the spring run and explore the sunken boat. Now you can go under this rock (it's fun to get sucked out through the small passageway by the current), but when you get out into the spring run it's only about 1-2 feet deep max. I bet it was amazing when it was 6+ feet deep.

Despite the 100 degree temperatures, we were pretty chilly by the end of the dive. The 70 degree water gets to you after a while of little movement. So, we decided to go freediving and swim around ... the perfect end to an awesome day.

Warming up at the surface... going for a swim in the sky :)

A few more pictures are in my album Gills on Facebook.

Forty Fathom Fish

Ten foot visibility does not lend itself well to photography, so I was forced to dive "naked" today. This is referring of course to how I feel without a camera underwater, not the lack of a 5mm wetsuit and booties, which were completely necessary.

The world felt different 115 feet underwater. Since the visibility was so bad, there was no natural light but it wasn't pitch black. It's more of a greyish color when you're looking down towards the bottom and it looks how I'd expect the surface of another planet to look. And you really feel like an astronaut as you hover weightless and descend. Shining our lights towards the bottom as we approached about 95 feet, objects started to appear. Everything looked grainy and almost out of focus due to the low light and particulate matter floating in the water. When I flipped over to watch my bubbles make their way to the surface, everything took on a greenish yellow hue from the far away sunlight.

The bubbles escaping from my regulator were the only sounds. It's one of my favorite sounds in the world. It doesn't sound like bubbles in a hot tub or even somebody blowing bubbles underwater in a pool. It's more crisp and clean and each bubble seems to make a distinct noise as it comes out of the regulator and rushes to the surface. The only other occasional sound today was David laughing through his rebreather. Since it's a closed-circuit system, no bubbles escape. He took the time today to show me how it works and answer my million and a half questions about the foreign looking underwater breathing device. The large tubes going in and out of the regulator carry air and oxygen in one side and catch each exhaled breath on the other side and scrub out the carbon dioxide. The whole apparatus looks kind of like an astronaut suit or a jet-pack since all that's visible on the diver's back is a shiny box with big tubes coming out of it. The big tubes are also what cause a laugh to carry so much more underwater than it would for an open circuit scuba diver.

The world also looked different at 115 feet in 40 Fathom Grotto because there are all sorts of crazy things on the bottom. Today we explored 2 planes (one has the torso of a dummy wearing glasses in the cockpit), a boat, and an upside down car all around 100 feet.

After our deeper explorations, we made our way up the wall and swam around at 40-60 feet checking out the sand dollars that are millions of years old. It brought back a lot of fun memories of many dives in 40 Fathom when Kate and I first started diving with Harry back in November. On the way up, we also looked at the bedding planes and the unconventional yet appropriate big red STOP sign marking a cave entrance.

By the time we got out of the water it was already 5, closing time for the Grotto. We had the whole place to ourselves and were happily chilled for only a few seconds before stepping back out into the 90 degree Florida summer.

Just as we pulled out of the grotto, we spotted these horses near this duck weed-covered pond that looks like a grassy pasture. There were a few adorable little foals and one white mare (in the middle of the picture) standing in the water eating the duck weed off the surface. If you look closely, it looks like the brown horse on the far left is walking on water!

This is what 40 Fathom would look like if it didn't have air bubblers to keep the duck weed off the surface... which makes me wonder what is underneath the green layer in this picture. Perhaps another great diving spot? There's only one way to find out...

P.S. Despite the number of awesome dives I've done at 40 Fathom Grotto, I realized today that I have no idea what fathom or grotto even mean, and after a bit of research it seems that the entire name is an oxymoron. One fathom is equal to about 1.8 meters or 6 feet. This is an accurate representation of the site because it is in fact about 240 feet deep (I know this from other more experienced and adventurous divers, not personal experience). So this validates the first 2/3 of the name, but the most common definition of "grotto" is "n. 1. A small cave or cavern. 2. An artificial structure or excavation made to resemble a cave or cavern". There are associated caves and pretty significant overhead environments in 40 Fathom Grotto, but it's more of a seriously deep hole in the ground... in no way, shape, or form encompassing the word "small" suggested by the definition. So, basically the name sounds fancy, but it's more appropriately represented and easily understood by a name like "240 foot water-filled hole in the ground". This is obviously a less elegant name for such a fun place to dive. But I digress.

Madison Blue Goats

Madison Blue Spring does not have goats, but this past Saturday did involve snorkeling and goats (and other farm animals like piglets, big pigs, turkeys, and chickens). And Madison Blue is also a 1st magnitude - #11 to be checked off my list! 

We started the day in Gainesville attempting to fill tanks at Water World, but despite the 9am opening time listed on their site, they do not open until 10. We instead decided to hit the road and put Plan B into action: stop at Amigos to get a fill along the way. But an hour and 30 minutes and many stories later, we were cruising down I-10 with an empty scuba tank... oops. But David being the super cave diver he is happened to have Plan C: stop at Cave Excursions to fill the tank. So we got off I-10 and instead of heading north towards Madison Blue, we adventured south for about 20 miles to find the little cave diving store basically run out of somebody's garage but fully equipped with cave supplies and a tank filling station. One tank fill and hot pink knife purchase later, we hit the back country roads again and headed north to Madison Blue. 

It is one of the more recent additions to the Florida State Park system and seemed to be quite the popular spot during the middle of a Saturday. A few brave wetsuit-less teenagers were swimming in the spring when we arrived and a whole slew of southerners dotted the riverbank to bathe in the warmer but tannic Withlacoochee River water. Upon arriving we also discovered that they do not allow open water divers or solo diving, so I couldn't dive sans cave certification (to be started soon!) and David couldn't go by himself, so we took out the masks and fins and hit the water for a snorkel - I guess it's easier to keep warm diving up and down anyway!

The spring water wasn't perfectly clear but it did have a beautiful blue color.  The much needed rain that came last week probably made it a bit more cloudy (that combined with the high nitrate levels and overgrowth of algae in the basin).

Picture of David from the cavern entrance about 25 feet down.

The water in the spring run appeared crystal clear as it flowed out to the river. It was quite shallow, making snorkeling in the current quite difficult but lots of fun in a wetsuit when you don't have to worry about being cut up by the rocks. 

Hanging on for dear life while trying to capture the water swiftly flowing over the rocks and out to the river.

David in action on the river bank :) The reverse of this photo is HERE.

After swimming out the spring run, there is a very distinct line where the spring water meets the Withlacoochee River. The river water is tannic (dark) and it's harder to see. It is also at least 10 degrees warmer so was a nice treat until you had to swim back into the spring run. The colors in the river are generally brownish green, but this little crack on the bottom stuck out because of its brilliant green color. There was no flow coming out of the crack but I assume there was in the past when there was more groundwater.

Drifting in the warm river water - there was some nice flow!

Looking out the spring run at the Withlacoochee River.
You can see where the tannic river meets the clear
spring water.

Floating in the river... part above water and part below. Beautiful day for a swim (as always...)

After a long snorkel in the spring and river and an interesting swim back up the shallow, swiftly moving spring run, we hit the road to visit K & A on their farm up near LaCrosse. This is me feeding on of their adorable little goats. We also played with huge turkeys, ducks, piglets, and a momma pig named "Christina Hogulara". We picked some blackberries and tomatoes and ate fresh organic vegetables that they had left over from their stash they brought to sell at the farmers market that morning. A perfect, refreshing snack after a great day :)

The rest of my pictures are in my album "Gills" on Facebook