At the end of my last blog, two seemingly intoxicated men had hollered “Manatee” at me, and I was paddling over to where they were pointing…(Click on the ocean if you haven’t read it yet, but come right back.)
Then I saw him: an enormous manatee.
By then, the girl who had talked to me earlier was paddling by my side.
We both saw the manatee’s head when he came up for air.
“Wow, that’s a big manatee,” she yelled.
We were paddling quickly to keep up with him.
“Be careful of his giant tail. He can hit you with his tail if you get too close.” It seemed that thought was firmly placed in her mind, and she turned and paddled back to the shore.
My mind translated that to, “get closer so you can see his features.”
I paddled beside him, and he came up for a breath, his back arched out of the water, and his tail – his giant tail – came out of the water and gently slid back under.
One more look, I thought, as he took me deeper out into the ocean.
Just one more look.
He must have become just as curious about me as I was of him because he paused, his head now above water and looked at me.
I, of course, said, “Hello there, beautiful.” What else do you say to a manatee who pauses to look at you while you are in over your head?
He then slowly rounded into the water, giving me a great view of his back and tail, and then he was gone.
Because I had paddled a long distance from our spot on the beach, during the paddle back I had a long time in silence to think about the dolphins and manatee experience.
My face was streaked with water, I don’t know, maybe tears, perhaps it was ocean water…
When I got back to our spot on the beach, my 19-year-old daughter Bronwyn asked me how I knew those were dolphins and not sharks.
I told her next time, she should grab the other board and go with me. “You can’t always be worried about sharks,” I told her.
“But, what if they are sharks? What would I do? What would I do if there are sharks around me?”
“You calmly yet quickly paddle towards the shore all the while believing in your ability not to fall off the board.”
That evening, Byron and I sat on the beach watching the sunset.
The children were playing tag on the beach. There was much laughter and yelling until they all went to the house in search of ice cream.
Byron and I continued to sit in the dimming light of the day with our eyes on the ocean.
A strange grunting sound snapped both of our heads to the left as we looked for the source of the sound. It was a giant turtle that appeared to have just washed ashore. We immediately stood up and looked at each other and then looked at the turtle, who glanced at us; then, quickly went back out into the ocean…