Okay. I admit it. When I came to Florida from New England about 40 years ago, I knew nothing about things Florida except how clear the ocean water at the beach was, how sunny the days were year round and that lots of people saved up all their lives to move here when they retired. I was in my twenties and moved in with a young lady I was intending to marry. I got a job and felt like I had jumped into the good life ahead of the curve.
Our apartment building was on the intra-coastal waterway, not the ocean, and one Saturday we decided to avail ourselves of the little postage stamp of a beach that was literally right down the sidewalk from our front door. After we set up our blanket next to a neighbor that was already out there, I moved to the water and stuck my toe in. Of course it was perfect. Looking out toward a small island in the middle of the waterway, there was no boat traffic in sight and I told my girlfriend I was going in.
I swam straight out from shore with firm strokes, turning my head to the side and breathing in, looking straight down and breathing out as I swam. New at this, my eyes were closed. I had never done much swimming and was thinking that if I did this maybe every morning I might actually one day be able to swim out to the island and back when THUD! My leading hand and then the top of my head hit something big and solid, like the side of a wall, but with a blubbery feel to it. I had seen the movie, “Jaws!” as a kid and had a sudden desire to never have left the beach. It was a pure panic reaction. I pushed off of the solid “blubber wall” and headed back the way I came, literally trying to walk on water as I went.
As I came splashing and thrashing the last few feet to the beach, I saw my girlfriend and our neighbor doubled over from laughing so hard. When I was finally standing on solid ground I looked back out over the water and saw absolutely nothing. I looked at my girlfriend and yelled, “What?”
Still laughing, she said, “You swam into a Sea Cow.”
I had no idea what she was talking about. I asked her, “What the hell is a Sea Cow?”
She said, “A Manatee! You swam into a Manatee.”
I still was clueless, and eventually she showed me a picture of one. They are big, brown, fully aquatic mammals with paddle-like flippers. According to Wikipedia, they measure up to 13 feet long and can weigh as much as 1,300 lbs. Manatees are occasionally called sea cows, as they are slow moving plant-eaters, peaceful and similar to cows on land. They often graze on water plants in tropical seas.
Another thing I learned about the ones that inhabit our area is that they tend to slowly make their way down the intra-coastal waterway submerged just beneath the surface, making them susceptible to boat traffic propeller accidents. Many times you will see scars on their backs from such encounters.
I felt a lot better after knowing that they are such gentle, peaceful creatures and actually felt bad for them because of the boat traffic encounters and propeller scars. Even so, looking back, I realized that while we lived in that apartment building for a full year I never did make that swim across to the island.
