I was starting to enjoy a bit of self pity on April 20th, normally and traditionally a day spent in relaxation with my friends. That particular day, however, my grandparents and I were continually fouled in our attempts to leave the Keys.
I was sitting on the bow of the Coralie around four pm, about to immerse myself in the afore mentioned self-pity, when I heard someone near the boat say "oh look, a manatee come for some water".
A medium sized female Manatee was right off the swim-platform, so naturally I jumped down to get a better look. They are attracted to the freshwater that comes out of around boats. It's illegal to water them or mess with them, so for all intents and purposes I didn't. I did however scrub some of the algae off her and try to scrape off the barnacles.
Such icky little parasites, the barnacle. The horrid things shrunk back in their little cement-like holes whenever my hands went near them.
Manatees are so cute, although they really shouldn't be: we humans normally prefer things with big eyes and heads. Looking at them, you can tell they must have changed from something more complex to something less, they are quite simple. I read that the manatee has a totally smooth brain, and I think if it has thoughts they are something like this: "water?", "mmmm, water".
I've seen more manatees than my most and have always considered myself lucky, but that day I spent about an hour just hanging out with that Manatee- we were in a boat-yard, so it wasn't all that busy and she really seemed to enjoy the cleaning. I enjoyed it too. Best non-normal day ever.
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