Went to Crystal River today

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

RedBull

Guest
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Since the viz at Venice Beach is so bad lately, my wife and I made the 3 hour drive up to Crystal River today to dive springs and snorkel with the manatees. Wow, what an experience. Where do I begin.......

We get there and stop in to one of the operations where we get the rundown of where to go and what to do. The folks in the shop were very nice and helpful. My wife and I decided to rent a Jon boat as we had seen mentioned on here. We were told that we should stop over at snorkeling area first, then head down south of Banana Island to Kings Spring for our diving. So far so good.

Next we head over to find out which boat is ours, and the gear guy comes over to help us out. He seems like a nice enough guy, but my wife and I both could smell a very heavy odor of booze on him. This was a bit troublesome since this person is the one who is filling the tanks. We loaded up the boat, and headed towards the snorkelling area.

Once at the area, we dropped anchor.....which turned into a series of trial and error to get the anchor to secure. Once finally secured, we got into our suits and slipped over the sides. Another group of people had already found a young manatee, so we worked our way over to take a look. For having a name like "Crystal" River, the viz was anything but. We practically bumped into the manatee before even saw it. At best, I would say the viz was about 5 feet. That being said, it was fun swimming alongside the little manatee and rubbing his stomach when he rolled over onto his side for us. I must say that it was fun, I just wish we could have had a bit better visibility underwater.

Now done with that, we got back into the boat to begin our diving adventure. I fired up the motor and pulled up the anchor, and as we started slowly pulling away, the motor died. I tried pulling the rope to start it, and it wouldn't start. On the 4th pull, the handle came off and the rope went back up inside the engine. We were stuck. Fortunately for us, a tour boat from another charter was getting ready to head back and the captain gave us a tow back to the docks. I wish I remembered his name because my wife and I cannot thank him enough for his help.

Once back at the docks, we informed our shop what happened and they offered us another Jon boat. At this point, I'm hesitant to take another for fear of going through the same thing again. We ended up deciding to take the other Jon Boat out, and switched our gear to the new boat. Right off the bat I noticed a decent amount of water in the bottom of the boat. It definitely wasn't going to sink, but it most certainly looked as though water was slowly leaking in. On top of that, there were cigarette butts all over the bottom of the boat along with old plastic wrappers. It was very unprofessional, but at this point, we just wanted to get out and dive.

So we begin our journey back out to the spring, seeing some interesting birds and more manatees along the way. Once we get back behind Banana Island, my wife dropped anchor while I powered down. Once again, as before with the other boat, the anchor would not secure. After repeated tries, I got my gear on and dove down to the anchor so that I could secure it myself. The hinge on the anchor was not staying open by itself, so I had to open it secure it on the bottom. At this point, the visibility was just awful. At best, maybe 5 feet. I've seen better visibility diving in quarries.

I came back up to the surface, and was approached by a fishing boat with 3 older gentlemen who asked if I could help them locate their anchor that had gotten stuck. They had to cut the line since the anchor would not budge. Fortunately they left a marker attached to the rope so that they could relocate the area it was in. I located the marker, and literally had to go hand over hand along the rope until I could finally see the anchor. Once found, I was able to free it and bring the anchor back up for them.(my first recovery dive :lol:)

Back at our boat, we headed over to the spring and began our descent. For all the talk about "unlimited" and "150+ foot" visibility, I'd be surprised if it was more than 5 feet in the spring. I took one look around and said forget it. I motioned to my wife that I wanted to ascend, and the wife agreed. We surfaced and decided to scrap the dive. The other springs back in the area were all closed off, so we couldn't even try our luck with another.

Back on the boat, we pulled anchor and got ready to head back. I pulled the rope to start up the motor, and it wouldn't start. A couple more pulls, and it still wouldn't start. I figured I would give it one more good pull.....and as I did, I slipped with the water in the bottom of the boat and my shoulder quickly popped out, then back into the socket. The motor still didn't start. We had been told earlier not to pull the primer out, but at this point, nothing else was working. I pulled out the primer and pulled the rope with my good arm. Sure enough, the motor started this time. Time to head back.

We got back to the docks, and there was no space for me to pull the boat in. My wife and to get out and go find someone to make space on the dock for our boat. Afterwards, I went to get changed while my wife went in to talk to the shop about what had happened today. After all of this, they took one hour off from our rental time of the boat. Being nice is important in running a business, but it only gets you so far if you aren't offering a quality service.

Having gone now to Crystal River, I would HIGHLY recommend against people wasting their time going here if they are thinking about it. Do not waste your time or money. It was by far the worst diving experience I've had in the last 4 years. I just wish I could get back those 6 hours of my life that I wasted in the car today for this.
 
Be so kind as to tell us the operation you used
 
I'm hesitant to "out" the operation publicly. If you're concerned about who you should or should not go with, drop me a pm and I'll let you know. Otherwise, if you see cigarette butts and plastic wrappers in the bottom of your boat.......RUN!!!
 
RedBull:
I'm hesitant to "out" the operation publicly. If you're concerned about who you should or should not go with, drop me a pm and I'll let you know. Otherwise, if you see cigarette butts and plastic wrappers in the bottom of your boat.......RUN!!!

Tactful beats revenge like paper beats rock.

Every time.

---
Ken
 
I would like to say that there was a nice couple from North Carolina that we met while out on the river. They were nice enough to keep my wife company while I was rescuing the anchor, and apparently shared some interesting dive stories.(I'll pass on diving with gators) Unfortunately my wife didn't mention until later about the margaritas offer....so if they are on here, we'll be more than happy to join you next time.
 
RedBull, I'm sorry to hear about your bad experiences. I've never tried DIY snorkelling/ diving in Crystal River for lots of reasons but know that people do have success with it. I was in Crystal River last week and had a wonderful time using American Pro for the morning snorkel/ dive at Kings Spring (and also a trip to Weeki Wachee.) The vis, as reported, wasn't great in Kings Spring but you could certainly see the manatee, and we were lousy with manatee that day. In the cavern, vis was mitigated by the number of divers. As usual, first one in gets the clear water.
Anyway, Crystal River is an awesome experience. I guess I just recommend using one of the dive ops (IMHO, American Pro is best) for the snorkel part at least. It's not that expensive to let someone else worry about anchors and stuff.
 
RedBull,
Sorry to hear about the bad experience. I agree with Mo2 - you're the better man for your discretion. I think everybody deserves at least one 'benefit of a doubt' chance, although it sounds like sombody has let their operation go downhill. If it is a regular thing, word will get around and they will either change or lose to the competition. Thanks for letting the rest of us know.

That being said, the visibility sometimes is an indicator of the number of manatee in the area - their feeding habits often result in a lot of ground up vegetation in the water and um, 'effluents'. Snorkeling can be quite a gas when you find yourself near a large group:death2: .

Based on the recent posts though, I wouldn't give up on that dive - it seems a lot of people have had good ones there recently. Check the threads for the operations they dealt with.

I know I (and others) have had a couple of really sucky experiences at Venice and a couple of the springs this year after driving a ways to get there. Luckily I have had good experiences at them prior. Also, it may just not be the dive for you - a couple of the people on here will dive at midnight in pea soup (coughWaltercough) if they have to.

I am glad you got to see at least one.
 
Sorry to hear you had a bad time. The vis in Kings Spring does vary a lot. I have seen it look like gin and like pea soup.
I have to ask, how much experience do you have with outboards? If by "primer" you mean the choke, I assure you that most all 2 cycle outboards are almost impossible to start without using it unless they are up to operating temperature and sometime even then. I have rented boat near Kings Springs with pretty good success but I have many, many hours on the water with small outboard motors. When I do rent boats in the area I rent pontoon boats as they are a lot more stable and are more comfortable. Anchoring is an art and is rarely easy.
 
I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt after the first mishap, but the continued problems really made it difficult later on. I may try a spring dive again someday, but right now I'm a bit hesitant....partially because of the long drive. I've done plenty of dives in water with 1' or less of visibility, so it isn't something that I'm not experienced with. It's just a bit disappointing after hearing all the stories about how great the visibility is, only to find it is what we saw yesterday. If it had just been the bad viz and nothing else, we would have shrugged it off and been glad to even get the chance to dive.

And herman, I do have some experience with outboards. I should have said the "choke" but I kept hearing the guy talking about "primer" and then hearing the wife repeating it as the primer. I know exactly what you mean about them being a pain in the rear to start, even when warm. Unfortunately I've had some practice with the pulling and cursing technique. :lol: You are right about the pontoon boats. They are much more stable. It was a bit easier for me to get in and out of the John boat than it was for my wife, so I would get in first and then help pull her up into the boat.
 
Dude,
You sound like you needed to have a drink with the guy at the dock/Boat rental place!
Crystal river aint all bad, as it is not crystal if your diving after others muck it up, and to rent a boat good idea to save a buck on not doing a charter but this rental place sound like bad news!
I charter with Birdsunderwater and they find me T and they get out early and I have seen vis 40+ easy!
Next time good luck!
or just dive the Otherside ATLANTIC the vis most times Rocks!
Brad
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

Back
Top Bottom