attacked (?) by a MANATEE!!!

Yeah, I'm in FTL area. I'd like to do the Wilted Manors loop. I'm sure it would make a cruisey trip. How deep is the water there? (I have a mirage drive and need about 1.5' clearance).

DieselYak,

It is plenty deep enough the only shallow I found was a mantee's back under a bridge that lifted me up by the pedals of my revolution and almost turtled. It also connects to the north fork of the New River and runs down to George English Park Launch and on to the Intracoastal and all the Las Olas canals. My wife and I have done the loop and some of the canals. A nice weekend cruise when ocean is too rough for the 20 footer.

There are so many places to kayak in Fort Lauderdale and surrounding areas.

You should check out the Everglades City 2009 Paddle-in a 6 - 8 mile trek out into the 10,000 Islands, that is if you have not heard of it already.

http://www.evergladeskayakfishing.com/ekf-events.htm

West Lake is a great place to take the hobie for sailing nice open and uncrowded. Also good mangrove trails.

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I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

I go frequently in the Coral Gables Waterway, we paddle over from Bayshore Drive in Miami or you can launch at the rotary on Old Cutler in Miami just south of the Grove. If you go back up there behind Coral Gables High, you can oftentimes check out large numbers of manatees
hanging out. We went in there and have petted them multiple times, they are like big puppies, sometimes they roll over and give you the belly, it's incredible. They are wonderful creatures but very prone to injury from
props, many of them have scars on their backs from this. Some are craz
y tame, others are weary of you and they are quite powerful when they
want to be, so it is not surprising what happened to the first writer of this
thread. Always fun to see them, I never tire of it, great animals.

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Regular kayaking has been cancelled.

Hey Jim,

I don't know the area and am not sure if that waterway is accessible to power boat traffic (Marine Patrol) but be wary of petting manatees no matter how friendly they are ... they are still a PROTECTED SPECIES and harrassment (even petting is considered harassment) can carry stiff fines and penalties. Believe me you do NOT want to get caught petting a manatee. I am sure it is an incredible experience but it is actually considered marine harassment.

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 which states: "It is unlawful for any person, at any time, intentionally or negligently, to annoy, molest, harass, or disturb any manatee." Anyone convicted of violating Florida's state law faces a possible maximum fine of $500 and/or imprisonment for up to 60 days. Conviction on the federal level is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and/or one year in prison.

And due to some people going too far riding them and standing on them in Central Florida rivers & springs there is more diligent enforcement of the laws. U-tube has several videos of such occurances.

Be careful and watch from a distance. If they come to your kayak leave them be and they will move on.

Revo

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I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

You can what you want about them being cute, and gentle.... Bull S..... They're all killers and shouldn't be trusted. I thought one was going to kill me by slapping it's damn tail upside my head. (I narrowly escaped being hit) Then as I was in the process of rolling over I thought that's all I needed to do was to land on top and have it crush my rib cage. My wife thought the whole thing was funny as hell until it (they) started heading for her. Frankly, I think the manatees were pissed. We may have unintentionally been the cause of Coitus interruptus.

My story seems to have been truncated here for some reason. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9303&p=47808&hilit=thousand+islands#p47808

A week after my incident my little boy was out w/ us and trying to be funny, saying "I think I see your friend over there", when on popped up next to him. Poor kid had to change his shorts......

Nope, when ever I see either them or dolphins, I head the other way. I've seen too many dolphins running at full speed after a fish to ever want to get between them. They look like a fast attack submarine with the water rolling off of them as run just under the surface. More than once I've seen them jump out of the water after a fish, or toss the fish to another dolphin. I get REALLY nervous if it's a mom with a baby.

They're all killers...and are just waitng for unsuspecting yaks to attack if you ask me.

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TC

You know how some guys have cars that are chick magnets? I have a Hobie kayak that's a damn manatee magnet. The weather was beautimus, low humidity, low wind and moderate temp this past weekend. The wife and I took the yaks out and within 2 miles I had my first encounter. Ran right over the bastard, and clipped him with a fin. Then he paid me back...I managed to stay in, but the water was freaking cold!

On the way back, I spotted three more of Jabba the huts buddies, that were within spitting distance. I managed to avoid them, but not their goal tender. Went for another wild ride within 300 yard of my dock. I'm telling you these damn things are dangerous and should be outlawed I look for all of the tell tale signs, so I can avoid them, hell if a fish farts, I'll manuver around his bubbles just to be sure. It doesn't matter....be careful out there... They're all natural born killers.

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TC

Rockets you are funny not that the experiences are funny of course they are not. Born killers doubtful but yes they are curious and also you can startle and possibly piss off pretty much any species or just catch em on a BAD day LOL.

Funny lots of people would wish for as many encounters as you have had. I can see where a fin in the back might piss one off could be mistaken as a provocation.

What you do is best for both of you ... whenever possible AVOIDANCE is best.

You had better watch those fish farts the are dangerous .. too many methane bubbles and there goes the bouyancy and you sink like a rock!

Revo

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I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

Most people ( women) I talk to, want to go out in a kayak just so they can 'pet' them. "they're so cute!!"...No, No they're not, they're ugly, and so is their momma. Their breath stinks, and they'll blow snot on you. These people have no freaking idea...

Actually, I've never smelled their breath. One of my co-workers was telling me about the day he was working on his dock in a canal, and one of them came up from behind him. For some reason it started sucking on his swim trunks... He also got the snot treatment as he pushed it away.

I do feel somewhat sorry for them. During my second encounter of the day, I was looking down and I saw these white stripes under me and was wondering "what in the hell is that??". That's when everything exploded, and as I was hanging on for dear life, I realized they were prop scars on the back of the manatee. My experience kind of exposes a myth put out by the Save the Manatee Club. I mean one of the reasons for all of the go slow zones, is so the manatee will hear the boat coming and move out of the way. Well, I'm going slow as hell and they ain't movin' out of my way! I know the Hobie is quiet, but it's not that quiet. I'm about to install curb feelers on the bow of the yak... First choice would be a harpoon gun, but it weighs too much.

Honestly, I wish I was as lucky playing the lottery as I am running over manatees

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TC

Big animals scare the **** out of me. In this area we have an abundance of harbor seals, about the same size as a manatee but faster. The young ones are cute as a puppy, and just as curious and skittish. They often stop to look you over. They come up close behind, and dissappear in a swirl of fins if you turn around.

The big ones are not cute, not curious, and not skittish, and don't look like they have much of a sense of humor either. It wouldn't be much bother for them at all to just kill you and they could upset a kayak in a heartbeat if just mildly peeved. I have not yet seen them exhibit aggression towards humans but I always give them plenty of room anyway. You never really know what might set off a wild animal.

Something that worries me even more is that where there are seals there are probably also great whites. True for manatee too? From below a mirage drive has got to look like something tasty, especially my little Sport. Partly for this reason, I have never been outside the harbor. Yes I know the sharks can come in the harbor too but I'm counting on them not doing it very often.

I don't know why I should be so concerned. Some of you seem to be in the open ocean most of the time, often attached to a writhing, bleeding fish, and you don't seem to have such problems. I've seen videos of yakkers mixing in with orcas. Yikes I guess I'm just not brave enough to be an ocean kayaker.

But seals are so cute! Can you pet them???

I pretty much stay in the lagoon areas. I've heard there are sharks, but never seen one. The water around me it typically less than 6 feet in most areas, so my biggest worry is falling out of the yak, getting smacked around by a piece of tail and then on to a stingray!

I'm with you, I don't think I'd care to go off shore either. I hear of people in yaks doing it...they go wayyyy off shore. No Thanks!! Great whites are rare here, but New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County, just 50 miles to the north of me is the shark bite capital of the world.

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TC

I personally have a bigger fear than any animal in the Wild Kingdom and that is man himself. Those drunken Bast*** boaters who find their jollies trying to swamp other boats or just to see a small boat thrown about in a massive wake. I have had a 35 footer race by me at a distance of less than 30' full bore out in the middle of the firggin ocean and I was in a 20 footer drift fishing. He was just trying to rock my boat (If I only had a torpedo).

Another schmuck on a wave runner attempted to send a wave over my 16 footer docked at a boat ramp getting ready to head out misjudged lost control and slammed into the side of my boat and went into the drink. I did not care if he got hurt or not he swam to my boat and I had my paddle in the air and told him to swim to shore or I was gonna bean him and make sure he was hurt. He risked the lives of all I had on board. I was LIVID.

A 54 footer almost ran over my stern in the Intracoastal and when I got out of the way and they passed the captain had a drink in his hand like all the guests on board and just laughed (again wish I had a torpedo).

I witnessed a 35 Bayliner cabin cruiser trudging along the intracoastal in Miami bow too high to see what was in front of him and drunk of course he drove right over the back of a 16 foot bow rider cruising at idle speed throwing all 6 occupants into the water. They all got cut up from the props 2 very seriously and one disappeared only to be found dead 4 hours later his clothing attached to the prop shaft and he was stuck under the boat.

Another incident on the Intracoastal a 40 foot cigarette boat coming out of a normal speed zone into a no wake zone had his bow too high to see my boat and ran me into the seawall trying to avoid him and a head on drive over. Again a bunch of drunks in the boat. Not many things scarier than the hull of a big boat coming down on top of you.

Worry about Manatees. Seals, Sharks NOT! Worry about your fellow man on the water. You do not need brains to own a boat just be an idiot.

I was out in my 20 footer on the ocean two weeks ago and there was a kayak fisherman (bless his soul and his sanity) just outside Port Everglades about a mile offshore, alone and amidst a large amount of powerboat traffic and I personally thought he was NUTS!

You are SAFER among the wild beasts than boaters believe me!

Revo

_________________
I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

Thanks Revo, I feel soooo much better

I agree people, especially drunk people, can do some amazingly stupid things with a boat. At least with a boat you have a good chance of seeing or hearing it coming.

You might try keeping an old broken camera with you, or a waterproof one. Those idiots trying to swamp you might think twice if you pulled out a camera.

Torpedos??? Really dude, I think this is all just a BIG misunderstanding. I'm sure the reason why they are all getting so close to you is because they want to be your friend. You should really work on developing these skills. I mean obviously these people like to drink, so why don't you invite them to a cocktail party? This would give you the opportunity to show off your bartending skills as you toss the bottles about and really make a lasting impression. So... how are you at making Molotov cocktails?? I think this would be an excellent choice for you to break the ice with your new friends....

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TC

Simply put the point I make is boaters can be a bigger threat to a yakker than an animal. 30 years on the waterways and i can make one a little skittish about paddlin around in a publicly navigable waterway or the ocean in a plastic boat sitting barely 4" above the water when they apparently cannot see a 20 foot boat that has a profile 8' above the waterline. But I love my yak and kayak fishing so I risk animal and boater alike. I'll drink to that.

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I would rather be kayaking and think about work than to be at work thinking about kayaking.
A Thrill Ride is being dragged around in your kayak for 40 minutes by an extremely large fish.

I hear you. I haven't had an issue w/ any power boaters in my kayak yet, but have run across a few sphincters in my H21SC...but I'm sure they've were just trying to get to know me better and be my friend too.

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TC