A Happy Reunion and Swarms of Manatees

Vero Beach – 1 mile by dinghy, 2 miles by paddleboard, 5 kilometres walked

I began the day not knowing that I was about to have a profound and unforgettable encounter with nature.

 

The paddleboard slid gracefully and rapidly through the glassy water. It was early and there were many boats, but no other boaters in sight. I paddled to the quiet end of the anchorage, looking across the water for signs of manatee, enjoying the repetitive paddling motion, exercising my arms and core. There were many birds – cranes, pelicans, cormorants, others I didn’t recognize, and schools of small fish passing beneath my board. I continued around the end of the bay then paddled back through the mooring field and nearly to the bridge, where we had previously seen manatees, but no sign of any today. I took a short break then turned and began paddling back up the channel. After a few minutes I saw a series of circles on the water surface ahead of me, and I looked down into the water to see two full grown manatees and two babies as they slowly passed by. The manatees were so large it seemed unlikely they could even find enough water depth here to submerge themselves. Both the mothers surfaced right beside me and I could see the tips of their black noses and wiry whiskers as they exhaled plumes of sea breath. I watched their backs arc up and out of the water, followed by their giant mermaid tails. The babies did not surface but I could see them so clearly. It was an incredible moment.

 

With my triumphant manatee experience, I continued paddling and it was not long before I noticed another disturbance in the water ahead of me. No, not a disturbance, many disturbances – circles, bubbles, water breaking. I stopped paddling. They were heading right towards me. When they came into view I could not believe my eyes. An anxious lump formed in my throat as I balanced on my board and saw seven manatees approach, ever so slowly. The slight current was pushing my board in the same direction of the manatees, so as they reached me I was floating at nearly the same speed. Two of the largest ones swam directly beneath me. There were two more babies and three full grown ones, with hues of grey, and white, and black gleaming from their bodies and aligned to my right and left - I was surrounded. I feared the ones below me were going to surface and flip me into the water, but only the manatees beside my board came up. I am sure the ones below me knew I was there. As they surfaced, I could have reached down and touched their faces, then their backs, then their tails. I floated alongside them for what felt like an hour, at this slow pace, as if they were revealing themselves to me with purpose, deliberately. When they finally outpaced me I watched them depart until I could see only the surface disturbances and their noses popping out. I had to sit down as my heart was nearly bouncing out of my chest and my hands were shaking. This was one of the most intense experiences with nature I’ve ever experienced. I felt…changed.

 

I lingered on the experience and rolled it around in my mind as I paddled back to the boat. Again, I had no camera to capture the moment, but the memory of these incredible creatures would be mine forever. I told Ana about it, excitedly, but I was sad she hadn't been there with me to experience it.

We had breakfast together then our neighbours Brian and Penny on Wind Trippin invited us over to show us a few of their favourite places in the Abacos for anchoring, fishing, and diving. As we were reviewing those, our friends Kate and Ben in Waddington arrived! They had finally caught up to us, and what better day than on a 25 degree and sunny Sunday Fun Day!

 

We had a visit after getting them rafted onto the other side of our boat, and soon Wind Trippin pushed off on their way to Bahamas, leaving just our two boats. Ana packed up a bag of beach stuff and we all jumped in our dinghy for shore. Ben and I grabbed a couple of Modelos each from the marina office then we had a leisurely walk to the beach, where we spread out a blanket, then Ben and I raced into the ocean for a swim and some body surfing. The water was glorious and the hours clicked by quickly as we enjoyed the sunshine, the fine sand, a couple more beers, and the guilty pleasure of sitting on a Florida beach while most of our friends and family were digging themselves out of snowstorms in Canada.

 

Once the sun started its inevitable descent into the Vero horizon, we walked back to the marina, and had a nice chat with local dude named Peter, who does diving services, boat relocations, and general boat repair, and he kept us entertained with stories of marina hijinks, manatee encounters, hurricanes and tornados, and other Vero Beach stories.

 

Soon, we were back on the boats and Ana and I cooked an admittedly delicious dinner of grilled pork tenderloin, mushroom chicken, Caribbean rice, and broccoli and the four of us ate a long and slow dinner and caught up on at least a month’s worth of stories and adventures. It was great to see them again.