Manatee baby and mommy at the marina

Oh, my gosh, how cute can such an ugly creature get!!!!  A mommy manatee and little one were swimming slowly between a couple of the boats this afternoon.  I can't get over how big they are.  Manatees love fresh water so one of the boaters was graciously pouring his $0.50/gallon water overboard to interest mom.  Here she is, mouth open, drinking the pouring water.

And here are mommy and junior.  The baby wasn't interested in the fresh water or the bits of lettuce thrown into the water (mom was!).  I suspect the baby is still nursing.  That glow behind mom is actually her tail.

It was such a treat to watch them, probably for almost 30 minutes.  We'll be checking the waters carefully tomorrow before we start our engine.

Back in Spanish Wells, Eluthera.  Spanish Wells is the home of about 3 streets, all narrow with houses one one side and the water often on the other.

The houses are mostly small and very close together.  The are always brightly painted!

Tomorrow (Saturday), weather permitting, we will leave with 2 other sailboats, headed for the Abacos.  We have hired a pilot boat (standard procedure here) to lead us through the narrow, coral reef/shallow water lined channel from Spanish Wells to the open Atlantic Ocean.  Our pilot is "Bandit".... seems that 'ol Bandit earned his name by bringing booze from the nearby "wet" islands to Spanish Wells, still a "dry" island.  Lots of booze, we think... Anyway, we'll go through an area called the Northeast Providence Channel .  The trip is 50 miles and will take about 8 hours.  Here is the local mailboat/fresh produce boat, coming in through the channel into Spanish Wells, part of the channel that Bandit will take us through tomorrow.  That narrow strip of dark blue water is our goal.

Oh, and our little Smokey became quite the escape artist last night.  We'd had friends over for "sundowners" and were cleaning up afterwards.  She was sleeping quietly (too quietly---I'm a mom, I should have known!) in the cockpit.  All of the enclosure was up, but she obviously found a little place where she could slip through.  When we called her to come inside for bedtime, she was gone.  In a panic, we grabbed flashlights and bounded off of the boat calling her.  The French Canadian lady in the next boat  called out "le chat!!! le chat!!!"  and pointed to the field leading to the main road.  Sure enough, our flashlights caught her gleaming yellow eyes.  She knew she had to come back, but was confused and ran down the wrong dock, almost getting on a different boat.  I called her, she came, and I toted her back to Latitudes. Today she was quite a good little girl, but we dare not let her out of the interior of the boat at night, not when we are at a dock and not outside with her.  Little rascal ... must be a cat...