I saw something amazing today!
I went out for about an hour or so kayak ride, across the bay, over to the dunes and back. There were no waves, but the wind was hard from the south, making my return journey full of switchbacks.
I pushed myself against the hard wind, heels pressed against the kayak shell. Rather than return directly to the marina, I stopped at the jetty to untwist my tender hamstring. (A tennis tweak.) I walked along the beach, stretching my leg and resting my arms and shoulders, until a stray dog turned me around to return to my kayak and the jetty.
As I approached, I saw a large, dark shape about 10 feet out, in maybe 4 feet of water, also moving to the jetty. "That is one huge crab," I thought to myself.
As I got to the kayak, I looked more closely. That was no crab, it was a manta ray. I stood still at the edge of the water, looking at the ray. More dark shapes moving under the water caught my eye... more rays arriving. As I stood stock still for the next twenty minutes, a parade of rays, big and small, in groups of from two to eight, moved before me. Some strayed away from their groupings to move toward my feet and presumably check me out.
There were dark rays, light rays, spotted rays, adult rays, baby rays. It seemed like hundreds passed me in that time. At one point, I could count somewhere between thirty and forty rays within a twenty foot span of ocean in front of me.
I can ably describe the scene before me... but words somewhat fail me when I seek to describe how it made me feel. I was overcome with a joy that visits me whenever another part of nature lets me in, lets me see or experience something that is not normally seen or experienced.
The experience brought tears to my eyes. As more humans populated the beach, the parade stopped, but the rays were with us for the day, close by, darting away from resting places under the sand when a foot or a fishing lure came close.
Six hours later, when everyone but me had left the beach and I was preparing to leave myself, for a bit, the parade began again. Fewer rays gathered this time, at least while I remained, watching, but it was still amazing...it was still a gift.