Mother Nature

David, Rugby and I explored the remote north end of LBK's coast and were awed by its natural beauty. Dogs are not allowed on the local beaches, but we wanted Rugby to have the experience. Turns out, he ingested some tasty sand and threw up all night! No beach frisbee for him! Still exploring the mangroves is interesting, especially by paddleboard! I was in very shallow water adjusting my paddle and when I put it down into the water, it nearly hit a pair of manatees (which were larger than my board!) I quickly switched sides, but I still fell, causing the manatees to splash away. I was able to track them and had a lovely experience. David had a similar experience with the pair for over 45 minutes. At one point, the juvenile started following his paddleboard! Wish we could have videoed the experiences, but they will just have to live on in our memories. On another note, Red Tide has been spreading from the ocean side and into the bay. The water is a rusty brown and smells like decaying fish, which means we are avoiding the beaches. Besides causing humans to cough and get irritated, it literally chokes out the fish and other marine life. Unfortunately, a few days after David's swim with the manatees, a juvenile was found peacefully floating belly up in the marina. It's hard to entirely blame Mother Nature for the Red Tide as there other contributers like run off of chemicals from the land.