Manatees - Wildlife in Florida

Branko and I were working (actually we were just sitting on the rope rode on our deck, staring into the sail locker) so actually no 'physical work' was being done - when what do we see,  but not one but two Manatees.  

Pic from the internet

Just like in Ontario the wildlife we saw was either in High Park,  the Humber Valley or driving on the highways north of Toronto - but never anything in the wilds of Algonquin or Temagami or even the French River.

The Manatees were in the Marina,   drinking from the power boats fresh water spillage and chewing on lines.   If you have never seen these warm blooded,  air breathing mammals it is worth the drive to Florida.  What amazing creatures and we are told, only 3000 left.  

The sad part is that the Manatees are hit, scraped and cut by boat propellers,  which results in huge scars on their bodies.   Have a look at the one we followed around this afternoon as he/she swam around the marina.  

Check out the barnacles and scars on its body,  and its very cool snout.  

This manatee was rubbing itself against the boats and chewing on lines - to clean its teeth.   Their fins are used like arms with hands to hold items and/or bring food to their mouths.

His/her snout, nose and eyes

On his/her back

White dots are barnacles, see the scars

copied from Florida Wildlife website
Manatees:


Description: West Indian manatees are large, gray aquatic mammals with bodies that taper to a flat, paddle-shaped tail. They have two forelimbs, called flippers, with three to four nails on each flipper. Their head and face are wrinkled with whiskers on the snout. The manatee's closest relatives are the elephant and the hyrax (a small, gopher-sized mammal). Manatees are believed to have evolved from a wading, plant-eating animal. The West Indian manatee is related to the West African manatee, the Amazonian manatee, the dugong, and Steller's sea cow, which was hunted to extinction in 1768. The average adult manatee is about 10 feet long and weighs between 800 and 1,200 pounds. 

Habitat and Range: Manatees can be found in shallow, slow-moving rivers, estuaries, saltwater bays, canals, and coastal areas — particularly where seagrass beds or freshwater vegetation flourish. Manatees are a migratory species. Within the United States, they are concentrated in Florida in the winter. In summer months, they can be found as far west as Texas and as far north as Massachusetts, but summer sightings in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina are more common. West Indian manatees can also be found in the coastal and inland waterways of Central America and along the northern coast of South America, although distribution in these areas may be discontinuous.

Behavior: Manatees are gentle and slow-moving animals. Most of their time is spent eating, resting, and traveling. Manatees are completely herbivorous. They eat a large variety of submerged, emergent, and floating plants and can consume 10-15% of their body weight in vegetation daily. Because they are mammals, they must surface to breathe air. They may rest submerged at the bottom or just below the surface of the water, coming up to breathe on an average of every three to five minutes. When manatees are using a great deal of energy, they may surface to breathe as often as every 30 seconds. When resting, manatees have been known to stay submerged for up to 20 minutes. Manatees can swim up to 20 miles per hour in short bursts, but they usually only swim about three to five miles per hour.

Lifespan, Mortality, Population: West Indian manatees have no natural enemies, and it is believed they can live 60 years or more. As with all wild animal populations, a certain percentage of manatee mortality is attributed to natural causes of death such as cold stress, gastrointestinal disease, pneumonia, and other diseases. A high number of additional fatalities are from human-related causes. Most human-related manatee fatalities occur from collisions with watercraft. Other causes of human-related manatee mortality include being crushed and/or drowned in canal locks and flood control structures; ingestion of fish hooks, litter, and monofilament line; and entanglement in crab trap lines. Ultimately, loss of habitat is the most serious threat facing manatees in the United States today. There is a minimum population count of 4,480 manatees, as of January 2011. 

Breeding and Reproduction: The reproductive rate for manatees is low. Manatees are not sexually mature until they are about five years old. It is believed that one calf is born every two to five years, and twins are rare. The gestation period is about a year. Mothers nurse their young for one to two years, during which time a calf remains dependent on its mother.

Legal Protection: West Indian manatees in the United States are protected under federal law by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which make it illegal to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal. West Indian manatees are also protected by the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978. Violations of these federal or state laws can be met with civil or criminal convictions associated with monetary fines and/or imprisonment.

Conservation: The Florida Manatee Recovery Plan was developed as a result of the Endangered Species Act. The recovery plan is coordinated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and sets forth a list of tasks geared toward recovering manatees from their current endangered status. In October of 1989, Florida's Governor and Cabinet directed the state’s wildlife agency to work with 13 "key" manatee counties in Florida to reduce injuries and deaths.

Staging in Fort Pierce

Docked in Fort Pierce

Farmers market

We liked Fort Pierce on the way down to the Bahamas, which is why we came back.  The waterfront is very nice and all the services that a cruiser wants and needs are readily available in or near town.  There is also a waterfront square with weekly farmer's markets and entertainment, tiki bars and other diversions.  So it is a good place to hang around, and we signed up for a month's dockage at the the Fort Pierce City Marina.

Fort Pierce Marina

Trying out the new rod

We were originally planning to spend only 3 or 4 weeks here before we jumped off for Bermuda, but when we were at Mack Sails in Stuart to order a new storm jib, we decided to get a new mainsail made and that was going to take 6 weeks to finish.  Our old mainsail is in need of repair and modifications; it was too big and we had to sail with at least one reef in the main most of the time.  The boom, at 18 feet, overhangs the bimini and prevents us from mounting another solar panel, should we decide to do so in the future.  We will replace our boom with one that is 2 feet shorter and that will move the center of effort forward by a corresponding amount, which will certainly help with the weather helm and allow us to fly more of the sail more of the time.

Boatel,  hauling out

Orchids, Farmers market

Among the hundreds of things that we need to do before we leave is to haul out - again - to repair the damage from hitting the mooring block in Marsh Harbor, raise the water line and reapply antifouling.  This should take less than a week and we will do it next week once our new Rocna 33 (it's a monster) arrives so that we can make modifications to the bowsprit to carry it.  Our anchor inventory will consist of the Rocna on 275' of 5/16 hi-test chain as primary, the Delta 55 on 300' of chain/rope as secondary, a Fortress FX37 on chain/rope at the stern, and the Raya with 300' of rope as a spare anchor.  With all those hooks out, we will hold the bottom like a burr on a fuzzy sweater.

Me too, taking the rod for a 'spin'

Prettyyyy

It won't be all work, though; we will make time for some play.  This morning, Maggie and I walked over to Fisherman's Wharf to try out our new spin casting rod and reel.  It was fun, but we did not actually want to catch anything because we still have some seafood in the freezer from the Bahamas.  Maggie also joined a local gym for a month and we may take some yoga classes at the nearby community center.  I am looking forward to the music festival of local bands happening later this month.

When we arrived at the marina, we saw Ted and Diane on a trawler called BOATEL I from Toronto, whom we had meet on our way down the ICW.  We helped them get their 65' beast into the same boatyard that will haul us out next week.  They did a great job getting down the narrow channel and making the tight turn into the haul-out slip.  I hope we do as well.

Marcel, Richard, Diane and Effie

Pegasus, leaving....

We also had visitors.  Richard and Dianne, Marcel and Elfie, our friends from Quebec who have been spending the winter in Florida dropped by for a visit and it was great spending the day with them.  Dean and Nancy, from PEGASUS, who crossed over from the Bahamas also popped by a couple of times as well.

Sophie is likely not too happy with being here.  Last night while Dean and Nancy were visiting, we all heard a large PLOP.  It sounded like a big belly flop, which isn't what fish jumping sounds like.  It was Sophie (a.k.a. Fatty Redbelly) landing in the water after trying to jump the two feet to the dock.  A ballerina she ain't.  It was dark but the flashlight beam found her high up under the dock after she hit the water and scrambled up the piling.

After her bath

 Once aboard, after much fuss and yowling, she commenced a furious tongue bath, and this morning she is back to normal and no worse off for the experience.  It's a good thing she is not on a low sodium diet.

All in all, we are enjoying having this address for the next little while.

Branko

The Kaufmann Family Visit- the inside story

I am a bit late with this blog entry as M&B have already posted a blog of our visit and vacated the country, but it took me a week to readjust to the winter of spring time Toronto.

Winter of spring time Toronto.

Late November last year, my sister-in-law called to ask me if the family would be interested in joining them on their annual Bahamas vacation in the Abacos. Jim and Michelle had been renting cottages for a number of years, saying the high transportation costs and rental fees were easily mitigated by the cheap rum drinks. The trick was to drink enough to amortize down the cost. From the stories I had heard, this was easily done though the benefits were fleeting.

As our plans firmed up, the universe came into alignment as Maggie and Branko sailed into the Abaco Sea, hit a few bars, sand or otherwise, and holed up for the winter. So plans were made to meet up through VHF Channel 68 once we had landed at our cottage.

It turned out that Branko had cleverly taken H2obo as far south as possible in order to make communications near impossible. (I was assured there was no intent in this.) In spite of all, we did manage to pass a garbled message that had us meeting up with them near their anchorage off Sandy (aren’t they all?) Cay. 

Sandy Cay

 So early but not bright, we put the crowd in the 23 foot Albury runabout and motored off. The reef off Sandy Cay is an underwater park, with a coral reef dropping off about 25 feet to a sandy bottom. Mooring buoys are placed just off the reef so you don’t have to trust your boat to a 3 pound coffee can in the rolling 6 foot swells coming in from the Atlantic. We had the place to ourselves when we arrived and promptly jumped in the water as fears of sea sickness quickly over came any qualms of barracuda and shark.The fish life was beautiful, with many sightings of sea turtles, a 15 member school of spotted eagle rays, barracuda and many small, pretty coloured fish that appeared to belong more in an aquarium, not an ocean.

Little Harbour

Our solitude on the reef was broken after about an hour when Amelia reported that she had seen two scuba divers swimming 15 feet below her. Looking far down the moorings, we saw a pair of inflatables and a couple of snorkelers. We packed it up for the day, and tried to raise H2obo on the VHF. We waved to the snorkelers as we motored off towards their last reported anchorage and the closest neighborhood bar, Pete’s Pub. We found the errant boat but, of course, Maggie and Branko were not to be found, given they were back at Sandy Cay scuba diving and snorkeling. We had come 2000 miles and missed them by 15 vertical feet! But all was not lost, as Pete’s Pub provided potent rum drinks and passable food. On the way home, we passed by H2obo a few hours later and finally met up with M&B.

 It was great to see H2obo in her natural element after all those cold, dark years in Etobicoke! All you readers with boats should take the old girl south for a fling, she’ll enjoy it. After a few cold beers, and sandy soggy chips, we promised to meet up again the next day.

Voila,  the finished T-shirt

Branko and Adelaide - looking for Portugal

The following day was a reboot of the above snorkeling, followed by a rendezvous at H2obo. All thoughts of preparing a meal ourselves were squashed when we remembered the delectable fare at Pete’s and so off we went. The afternoon started with a gab fest and lunch. It was like (I can only imagine!) those 5 minute speed dating events as streams of consciousness were launched across the table. After a few more drinks, we wandered off to walk the Atlantic beach and watch the rollers come in from Portugal.

 It was a mellow afternoon with the highlight being the ring toss game and the hoisting of the H2obo commemorative T-shirt. 

Waving "see ya soon" to the Kaufmann's

Exhausting all entertainment and ourselves, we piled into the boat and drove up to Lynyard Cay to walk the Abaco side beach, collect some conch shells for the kids and have a few more rum punches for all. All too soon it was time to pack it up, and we drove M&B back to their floating home and then returned to our cottage, exchanging not so idle talk and promises about the Mediterranean in 2012.

The Kaufmann's