Sunrise, wind advisory, and more book stuff...

Last night, Joan said, "How 'bout you take me out for a sunrise cruise in the morning?"

"Absolutely!"

I frequently go out to watch the sunrise - my favorite time of day; the Blonde doesn't often join me on those cruises. We left at o-dark:30. The wind was already blowing in the upper teens, with a wind advisory for gusts to 40 mph as the day progresses. The only concession we had to make to the wind was keeping the windows closed on the windward side of the boat.

I pointed out some unusual night navigating, like one area where two ship channels come together and you navigate between two reds, instead of the usual "between the red and green." As it got closer to the time for sunrise, we could see a line of clouds at the horizon in the Gulf... Joan said, "Looks like we might get skunked for a sunrise."

"Have some patience, my dear."

A few minutes after the scheduled time for sunrise, we just began to see some glints of light in the clouds. And then...


A unique sunrise, well worth getting out in the dark. I pointed out the pretty light and the sun reflecting on the glass of the buildings on South Padre Island... the silhouettes of fishermen on the jetties... the occasional slow swimming dolphins - seems like we all need to stretch a bit before we take on the day.

Coming back up the ship channel, we came across this bait shrimper sporting a fresh paint job...


And another in the same fleet; not as spruced up, but the birds don't seem to mind...


By this time, the wind was really kicking up. We made our way back in the Port Isabel Channel, dodged a couple small boats heading out and kicking huge wakes, then took a tour through the old shrimp boat basin before heading for home. This is more of what the bigger Gulf shrimp boats look like...


Sometimes it's fun to just wander around there and check out the boat names. Back in our canal, there wasn't much need for throttle - the tailwind was pushing us right along. We pulled up to our dock, tied off, and Joan went in to check book orders and get them ready to ship while I washed all the salt spray off the boat.

Another fun part of doing this together: when I go out to photograph sunrises on my own, I take a breakfast bar and a bottle of water. Today, we had fresh fruit cut into bite size, pastries, mini-donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate... like a catered sunrise cruise, thanks to Joan.

We made a run to the Post Office to ship book orders, then stopped at the newspaper office to drop off a copy of the book for the editor, Maggie. She was one of the first to read the book and told me that she'd print a review in an upcoming column. At Maggie's suggestion, I stopped at the bookstore on the island, Paragraphs, to see if they would be interested in carrying the book. I barely got an introduction out, and the owner said, "We love to showcase local authors. Of course we'll take some."

I had to go home to get more books, and when I got back, he asked me, "How did Chelsea take the news that Molly picked you?" They had been reading the book. He put some copies on the featured table and said, "We have a whole pet section. How would you like to be by Dewey on the shelf?" What nice people! He asked if I'd be willing to do a book signing after the review, and invited me to participate in an authors' roundtable next week. I am looking forward to it.

A great day from start to finish.