Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up...

Put on a happy face.

It’s been raining for several days. Gray skies. Certainly not what we’re used to around here. But today, the weather weasels have promised us some sunshine.

It didn’t start out that way. It was another gray day when I untied the lines to the boat and shoved off. Joan had gone to the store, with the hope that there wouldn’t be big crowds first thing in the morning.

I turned into the Port Isabel Channel, heading for the main ship channel. Off to the side was a small fishing boat with two guys in it. Understandable since it has been raining for the past couple days - they want to be out, too. As I got closer, they seemed just a bit too friendly... oh, those weren’t waves hello, they are broke down.


I stopped and met my new friends, David and Daniel. Their boat won’t start. The wind is coming up. They don’t have coats. No VHF radio. No cell phone. Guess it’s a good thing I came along. They asked for a tow to the marina about a mile away.

“No problem, guys. I need to open things up in the back of the boat, first. Do you have a line?”
That, they did have - it’s the line to their anchor. Close enough. I came up alongside them, took their line, and attached it to Wild Blue. I let them know that we’d be going slow back to the marina and to give me a shout if they needed anything. I left the cabin door open so I’d be able to hear them, if necessary.

When I got close to the marina, I went back to the cockpit and told them to take up some slack in the line and that I’d put them on the dock there.

“No, no, no! Not this place. Just around the corner. At the bait shop.”

“There is no bait shop around the corner. Do you mean the fish cleaning station?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s it!”

I eased us away from the marina dock and took them down the channel and around the corner. If I do say so myself, I did a good job of putting them right at the dock by the fish cleaning station.

“No, no, no! Not this place - the bait shop.”

I decided to ABSOLUTELY clarify where they wanted to go. “You said, the marina. Then the fish cleaning station. EXACTLY where do you need to go?” I was able to figure out that they needed to go to a place a ways down the channel. “Do you mean Park Center?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’s it!”

“OK, but I’m going to charge you by the stop.” They looked worried. I took them down the side channel and turned just before the dock at Park Center. When I could see that they were going to drift to the dock, I undid their line and tossed it to them. “You own me!”

I got several “Thanks, man!” from them... payment enough. Now, I could head back out.

The sky didn’t look like it had any intention of clearing. Heading back towards the ship channel, I hadn’t seen any dolphins, but several pelicans made a close run.


I chugged down the ship channel, heading east. I saw a dolphin or two, but they weren’t close or very active. I made my way into the jetties area and the sky began to show some breaks. And then - dolphins! And then even more blue sky. Yep, it’s a sign.


A shrimpboat on its way in came down the ship channel, with a couple dolphins bow surfing.
As the sun came out, the dolphin show began in earnest. There were dolphins all around the boat... fins to the left, fins to the right.


They were jumping out of the water, slapping their tails, and just generally having a great time. I guess they were as happy as I was to see the sun.


I had the dolphins to myself for nearly an hour. The “show” was an absolute delight. Then I got a call from one of the excursion boats, asking if we had any dolphins there. “Oh, yeah!” I was joined by their boat a short time later, and the show continued. Then a guy with two teenagers in a small fishing boat roared right into the middle of the dolphin activity and stopped. The kids had their cameras out, but the dolphins disappeared... ya think it had something to do with the yahoo running right up on them?

I put Wild Blue into gear and headed for home. Once home, Joan made lunch while I downloaded the 60 or 70 dolphin images I had taken; then the two of us went out in the boat. In the sunshine... for the rest of the afternoon. Nice way to spend the day.