Crystal River

  

       The city of Crystal River is huge compared the little boroughs we've had the pleasure of cruising though the last couple of weeks, it has a population of 3600. The town is centered on King's Bay, a sort of large bayou which is fed by numerous streams and springs. Some parts of the bay are murky and almost stagnant, others are crystal clear from the springs which either empty into the bay or bubble up beneath it. The entire bay is surrounded by waterfront homes and hotels. We are back in civilization for sure, and that is a bit disappointing.
       What was also a bit disappointing was the presence of the US Coast Guard. Kings bay is one big boat ticket trap. We witnessed time and again the boys in blue pulling over boats for everything imaginable. If the police authorities behaved that way in our home port of Port Richey I do believe there would be a rebellion.
       We found good anchorage in a nest of poorly maintained sailboats moored on the north side of Buzzard's Island, part of a wildlife refuge. I read many reports from cruisers who reported shallow areas getting up the river channel. We had no problems. The channel was never less than 7 feet at low tide, and mostly 15 feet or more. Kings Bay seems to be about 6 to 10 feet deep on the north side, much shallower toward the South.
       Kings Bay is home to some 600 manatees in the winter. Manatees cannot tolerate temperatures of less than 68 degrees F. for very long. Florida springs generally issue forth their clear water at 72 degrees year round. Hence, the Manatees seek the warm water in the winter. I have no idea how many manatees there are in King's Bay this day, this being September, but we saw many of them. Seeing manatees is big business here and you can see tour boats full of tourists going back and forth all day.
       We were tourists too. We took our dinghy to a spring called the "Three Sisters" because the spring water boils up from three closely spaced springs. This spring is reached from a channel which is located off a suburban canal. It is a little different from finding these springs out in the wild. Once we snorkeled into the spring it was indeed a piece of wilderness with its clear blue waters surrounded by tall trees. We were alone in the spring. Literally, as there were no manatees or even fish there. This spring is heavily used and although quite gorgeous a bit of a disappointment compared to the springs we found up on the Suwannee.
       After enjoying the perfect weather from the upper deck of our boat we went out to explore the bay and ended up exploring several waterfront bars. We are both feeling the after effects of that today as we cruise to Homosassa.

Nancy, Best Bartender on the Nature Coast of Florida. Find her at the Ale House. She grows fresh mint for her Mojitos, and she gave us some to plant at home.

At last we found an achorage where we had the best looking boat!

Note: Fuel dock at Pete's Marina was easy access and they had a pump-out (free) located there too. Outstanding Service. I took on 58 gal of fuel. Last time I fueled was at Millers Marina in Suwannee - 22 gals. Total on trip so far is 202 gallons. Not bad for the hundreds of miles traveled and hundreds of hours on the generator.