Manatee

It has been at the crack of dawn when I leave the condo to go running. At that time of day the lawns are usually wet from the sprinkler systems that blast on about 5 am. Low tide leaves the canal outside the condo resembling a drainage, but the bay looks like a mirror of glass. Across the water there is a church with a huge tiled cross on the roof and it catches the first rays of the morning sun.

I run down the bay front to a town park where a side walk follows the water’s edge. There is about a five foot drop into the water and there is no protective railing. I’m waiting to stub my toe on an uneven seam between two slabs of concrete and take a header into the shallow water. If I survived the fall, I don’t know how I might be able to get back on dry land unless this unfortunate event takes place near on of the boat docks.

The other morning a bright red splash of color reflected off the clouds in the east while a full moon sat suspended in a hazy pink sky to the west. Between the two horizons sat the quiet inlet where the waters are clear but dark. I was on my return when I saw a disturbance in the water. A large dark object broke the surface, snorted and ever so slowly disappeared. There was no fin. It was not a dolphin.

I stopped to watch three very large manatees browse the bottom of the inlet. Incredible. My first sighting of this endangered animal.

I want to be in the kayak and see one.

Photos are from Bob Terbush.