All cool mate;
I was the one in the boat.
We had to do this before we collected the students.
Honestly the Aligators are quite harmless as they are scared of humans.
There are extremely strict bylaws out there forbidding you to feed them as they then become more bold. I remember a family who lived waterside and they used to entice the gators into there back yard from the shore by feeding them. They soon stopped that when one evening the gators came ashore for there evening meal and one of them got a real feast when it wrapped its jaws round the family's pet dog and made off back to the water. Another true story.
On a regular basis, we (the team) would hold a competion to see how many gators noses you could strike with your mono ski within 60 seconds. The most that I got was three before I chickened out, but a fearless kid from the west coast actually got 7 once. I kid you not.
Alex.