2025-11-01
As I embark on this journey to becoming a speed puzzler, I regularly remind myself that each new challenge or obstacle is an opportunity to learn something new, either about puzzling or myself. When things go well, it’s easy to keep going and stay encouraged. But when things are tricky, sometimes the best option for me is to take a step back, take a break, and try again another day. That’s exactly what I had to do with this puzzle, and although it’s in the naughty corner for now and I don’t know if or when I’ll tackle it again, I did learn a lot from it. But first, a bit of context.
Slowly but surely, I want to start participating in online speed puzzling competitions. This is easier said than done as competitions are often sold out very quickly and I still don’t know about many of them. One I do know about is the Speed Puzzle Pals, which is a free online community that hosts speed challenges several times a month. The great thing about these challenges is that you don’t need to log in at a specific time to complete the puzzle. The image is revealed several weeks in advance, to give everyone time to grab a copy, and then once the challenge opens you have 1 week to try the puzzle as many times as you like before submitting your fastest time. With this in mind, I purchased the “Manatee Moments” from Puzzles Canada to be ready for the event. When the challenge opened up, I decided I would complete the puzzle multiple times until I felt comfortable with my final result.
On my first attempt, it took me 1 hour, 24 minutes, and 51 seconds, but I had a piece missing so I have myself a 5 second penalty. In the end, the missing piece was still in the bag, so fortunately I wouldn’t have the same issue the next time. I wouldn’t say I had a great time with my first attempt, but it wasn’t terrible, and I decided to do it again later that same day. On my second attempt, it took me 1 hour and 26 minutes to finish the puzzle, but the slower time isn’t even the issue here. The mistake I made is that early in my second attempt I was very clearly not having fun. I could feel the tension in my shoulders building up by the minute and no amount of deep breaths was making it better. In hindsight, I should have stopped and tried again the next day. Instead, I chose to be stubborn and force myself through it. As a consequence, I developed very grumpy feelings towards the puzzle and haven’t looked at it since. I still could have submitted my completion time, which, although not what I had hoped for is still a very respectable time, but I didn’t even bother to fill out the form.
I take my speed puzzling quite seriously, and so I really took the time to pause after this experience and focus on bringing my brain to a healthier place before trying another new puzzle. Over the next week or so, I practiced some puzzles I had already completed in the past, and it wasn’t until two weeks later that I tried a new image. As you’ll see in the next post, the pause ended up being a very good idea, and although I’m not thrilled at how I handled the manatees, I remain grateful for the learning opportunity and hope I won’t need to learn the same lesson twice.
Puzzle Stats
Brand: Ravensburger
Name: Manatee Moments
Artist: Robert Johnson
Time to completion : 84 minutes
