Congratulations on your new Yak! I fish out of one about 90% of the time now and I love it. While I've seen manatee in the wild when I lived in Florida, I never had one surface that close to me. I think that could have been startling to say the least. I live on a 50 acre lake here in Georgia and there is a huge snapping turtle that surfaces next to me a couple times a season and every time he does it it startles the crap out of both of us. I look and all of a sudden there is a turtle head almost as big as a football right next to the kayak and about one second later he's paddling like crazy to get the heck away from me. I think he mistakes the kayak for a log or something and when he gets to the surface, there's some fool sitting on the log. Anyway, enjoy your new yak and good luck.

Jim Smith