Harley Meets a Manatee

I love taking my Gheenoe out in the St. Johns marsh, but I have wanted a kayak for a long time. There are lots of little rivers and creeks around here, and I like the idea of being able to load up and go to different places. It's a bit of a job loading and unloading the boat, but it's well worth it. I'm having a great time, enjoying the scenery, my music, a thermos of coffee, and fresh air and exercise all at the same time!

Harley isn't as thrilled with the kayak as I am. Though he is perfectly comfortable in the larger boat, he feels too close to the water in the kayak, and the balance is different. We are still working on a good seating arrangement for him.

At first I tried putting him up front, but he wasn't close enough to me to be happy. He can't sit between my legs because the deck is wet, or on my lap because he gets hit by the paddle. Finally he got comfortable on the small hatch behind me.

That is, until there was a lot of big swirls in the water all around us. Harley got scared and cried and trembled a little and crawled into my lap. Then two manatee arose out of the water no more than 10 feet away from the boat, and he tried to get into my shirt with me.

I'll admit it was a little scary when two huge beasts rose up out of the water the way they did.
I wondered if they would bump the boat, but they never so much as rocked it.

The next time we went out I put the crate in the back and Harley got into it a couple of times. Mainly when he saw manatee swirls, and again when a dolphin went past chasing a bunch of mullet.

I didn't really have the camera ready to get good photos, but this was so cool to watch! First there was a big wake on the water coming towards us, then the dolphin went past, rolling and blowing several times. When it got about 25 feet past us it dove and started thrashing the water up real good and mullet started leaping every which way!

Harley was in the crate, staying very quiet.

So far Harley has only kayaked on Crane Creek, in Melbourne, Florida. It's a short paddle, but very beautiful, with lots of opportunities to see manatee, dolphin, mullet and all kinds of fresh and saltwater birds.

See Kayaks! for more detailed trip reports on the local waterways along with maps and photos. I welcome your trip reports too - submit them, with or without photos, here.

Note: I don't have a GPS unit, so I can't give GPS coordinates, but I'll do what I can with maps and directions. If someone has an old GPS unit laying around that they want to donate, I promise to put it to good use (hint!).