Gotta brag...

Our daughter, Stephanie, has been selected Teacher of the Year for their school!  My first reaction: what took 'em so long? ;-)  We are very proud of her and son-in-law, Dan.  They teach together, 2 of the 3 6th grade teachers in their school... and what a great team the 3 of them make.  It was a treat to get to see them in action when we were out there.

And we are the proud parents of a Teacher of the Year!

Getting close...

Clean boat, clean truck, kayaks loaded, outdoor stuff put away.  Yep, we're close.

The boat sure looks different in those two perspectives.

Haboob... now use it in a sentence.

"Nice haboobs!" doesn't count.  A haboob is a dust storm, carried by intense winds.  We've seen them in the southwest, often looking like a "wall of dirt" coming at you.  Well, the blowing dirt down here has been relentless that past week, but finally died down today.  We still had winds around 20, but the dirt and sand it in were apparently taking the day off.  After the past week, I'd be surprised if there was any topsoil left in Mexico. ;-)

So, today, we took on cleaning the boat.  It seemed pointless the past few days.  The cockpit of the boat is facing into the wind, so it caught the worst of the dirt...

Lift the rug back there, and you can see the difference...

And down the sides of the cockpit...

Yeah, that's a shop vac in the right side of the image above.  Rather than create mud in the cockpit, I started off the cleaning by vacuuming the boat.  No, not the rug; the fiberglass non-skid, the Sunbrella seat cushions, the bimini, the cabin top... any place that might run back into the cockpit.  The rest of the boat can be rinsed off into the water.  It took over an hour to get the vacuuming done before washing the boat.

Our neighbor, Joe, saw me working on the boat and said, "The wife and and I felt really bad for you - you worked so hard on getting that boat shined up a couple weeks ago..."

"Mother Nature giveth and taketh away," I said.  "The boat is going to get grubby with the long haul we have ahead of us, but I'll get her looking pretty again."

With the boat done, we went to work on other stuff on our deck and dock... it's all just as grubby.  We put away stuff we aren't using and started securing the place in case of a hurricane.

Joan is the organizer, and had gone through a bunch of our cruising gear (extra anchors, lines, etc), so we could say "Yea or nay" on what goes on this trip.  We'll see how much space is available as we make the final cuts.

Tuggin'...

Our friends, Herb and Wilma, have a beautiful Ranger Tug.  They are heading to the PNW shortly after us, and asked if we'd give them a hand getting their boat pulled.  I suggested we use the ramp on our island - it has decent protection from the unrelenting SE wind, and a nice dock.  We met them at their house this morning, talked over who would do what, and went to work.  Herb, another friend of his (Sam) and I would ride around in the tug; Joan would drive their truck and trailer to the ramp, taking Wilma.

Before heading out, we had to rotate the boat by hand at their dock... not as easy as you might imagine with that SE wind hitting the boat broadside as it came out of their slip.  With all 5 of us pulling and holding off, we got the boat around, fired it up, and headed out.

Lumpy water on the way around in the bay, but the Ranger Tug takes it in stride...

Herb at the helm.  Just as we were coming under the high causeway, a Coast Guard small boat headed right for us... "Looks like we're going to be boarded."  As they got within about 20 feet of us, they rotated and put the coals to it, tossing one heck of a wake.  Two jet skis appeared to be having some issue along the seawall.  That saved us at least a half hour.

When we got to the ramp, Joan had the trailer backed in and ready for us to load.  Herb brought the boat in, I hopped off to the dock, Joan went to the bow roller, and we guided the boat in.  Just like we knew what we were doing.  Joan cranked the bow strap snug, I got in the truck, and we pulled the boat out and backed in to the wash area.  Notice who's doing the heavy work...

Herb flushed the trailer and brakes while Wilma made sure everything inside was ready to tow.  Herb went to the bow to drop the radar mast, then decided he could use a hand.  Yeah, we sent Joan...

... since she is the youngest and most nimble.  A short tow back to Herb and Wilma's place, then lunch... on Herb.

That tug sits a lot taller on the trailer than Wild Blue (notice where Joan is standing on the trailer two images above)...

And the beat goes on...

So does the wind and the dirt blowing in it... that just doesn't sound as good for a song, though. ;-)

Wednesday was supposed to be the windiest day this week.  We had winds gusting above 30, and plenty of dirt and sand in the wind.  Yesterday (Thursday) was worse - more wind, more dirt.  And today?  Yep, even more worser.  The wind is only gusting to 32 currently, but there seems to be more dirt in it.  We could use some rain.

Fortunately, we have most of the work we wanted to do to the boat done... but, the cockpit is facing into the wind, so the bimini and and cockpit are grubby.  We still need to get things loaded; we're ahead of schedule, so we have a pad.

Speaking of 'pad', I heard from a sailing buddy this morning... he wants to get his wife an e-Reader, but he would like to be able to use it for navigation on the boat, too.  That kinda narrows things down.  He didn't want to spend the bucks for the new iPad, so I suggested shopping around for a used one.  Lots of folks want to have the newest, bestest... we're still using our 'old timey' original iPad, and it works just fine.  Doesn't have a camera in it, but we have cameras.  As I've said before, you have to buy one of the 3G (or 4G now with the new iPad) models, not just wifi if you want to use it for navigation.  The wifi only models do not have a built-in GPS chip.  I suggested he visit a Best Buy or Verizon store to try the iPad and other tablets hands-on.

I just checked weather for Friday Harbor (our summer destination)... pretty much the opposite of what's going on here: showers predicted for everyday for the next week, mostly winds of 10 mph or less.  I may start growing gills. ;-)

You can tell...

You can tell the time is ticking down to our departure: the wind has kicked up (gusting above 30) and the Annual Blowing Dirt Festival is in full swing.  I went through tools, deciding what to take, what to leave behind... when we're hauling the 5th wheel with the cargo trailer behind, we don't have to leave much behind.  I'll be able to get charts, books, and cruising guides sorted inside this afternoon.  Joan is getting all our paperwork organized.

I ran the motorcycle out on the highway for a while, to get it warmed up for lubing... not particularly pleasant in the wind and dirt.  Sta-bil in the tank, she is ready for a rest.

I tried out the v-berth with the additional memory foam... overnighting at the dock is kinda like camping in the backyard.  But, the "sleep test" went well.  ;-)

And I hepped...

That's from an old "Shake & Bake" commercial, where the Mother is making chicken, and the little girl says, "And I hepped!"  That's southern talk for: "And I helped."

Joan finished up the inside windshield covers today.  I put the snaps on the fabric and the male part of the snaps into the window frames.  It was a group project.  Here's Joan in the trial fit...

And the finished product...

When we ordered window covers with the boat, it came with an exterior windshield cover.  That works, but you have to go out onto the bow to put the cover on... or take it off.  NOT something you want to do when you're at anchor, in case nasty weather would blow in.

Do you need window covers, especially at anchor?  Well, thanks for asking.  Odds are no one will be looking in at anchor, but those windows let in a lot of light... and daylight comes early in the PNW.  And in a marina slip, you get privacy.

The center window in the pilothouse opens to allow airflow into the cabin.  That pucker you see in the center window in the above photo is put in there to allow the cover to fit around the window struts, allowing the cover to be used with the window open, if desired.

It all looks good and fits well.  She also had me put snaps on some webbing to use as "holders" in the cabin.  Convenience items, like that fan holder and one for the door on the head

When we finished that, Joan decided to make a screen fitting for the center window as well.  I guess she likes having a project.

I've been playing guitar each day, building the callouses back up.  When little Izzy first heard the guitar, she hid.  Now, she looks on adoringly...

Something about music and the savage beast (yes, I know the real quote).

Next on the agenda: packing.  Well, deciding what to take, 'cause we don't have the storage space in the boat that we have in the 5th wheel.

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The finished center window screen...

And one of her velcro straps...

That one is holding the door open to the head.  With the shower curtain Joan made for the head, it's nice to leave the door open (no, water doesn't leak out)... gives you a bit more "elbow room."  We already had snaps in place on the door frame from the screen she made for that a couple years ago.

The only boat time today...

We had to make a run into Brownsville today so Joan could pick up some stuff she needs for making the inside windshield covers... well, and so I could have some fine Italian food.  When we got back home, I saw my neighbor from across the street sitting out on his 36' catamaran.  Yesterday, he told me he was planning to haul the boat out today to get a bottom job done.

I walked over and asked, "Wassup?"  Found out that he was waiting for the travel-lift to clear so he could get in.  "I was supposed to get hauled out first thing this morning; now they're saying 3:00."

"Need a hand at the dock over at the boat yard?"  (This guy can handle that 36' boat solo like it was a kayak.)  "And, Joan can meet us over there and bring you back here to get your truck."

"That would be great."

So, at 3:00, Randy and I took his boat to the boatyard, Joan took off in the truck.  The bridge to our island was out, so we got there before her.  Easy landing with a northeast wind; two guys from the marina caught our lines.  Wasn't really much for me to do, other than hand them the lines... I'm not used to being "deck fluff." ;-)

On the bright side, it was the chance to get out on a boat today.

Oh, and when the boat came out of the water, the bottom didn't look bad.  His boat is 31 years old, and there are undoubtedly a few blisters... but, the bottom paint did a decent job with the crud; 3 years since the last bottom job, and there was still plenty of paint on there.  Someone's going to ask: Petit Trinidad.

Yeah, it was good...

The kayaking was great this morning... it only got better.  The wind stayed light, the sky stayed clear, and the humidity stayed down.  Wild Blue was calling.  We gathered up some lunch, the cat, and shoved off.  Lots of boats and people out and about...

Joan and Izzy spent some time in the cockpit, taking it all in...

We found a relatively quiet place to anchor and kicked back.  Kayakers came by...

Then, this dolphin watch boat following some dolphins, heading right for us...

Right after I shot the image above, the camera batteries died.  I tried using the cell phone camera to photograph the dolphin show...

Yeah, that didn't work so well; after getting a half dozen images of where the dolphins had been a few seconds earlier, I gave up... we sat back and enjoyed the dolphins.

Someone else was having a very bad day - a Coast Guard boat blew by us at full speed; we heard that someone was in the water off the jetties.  A few minutes later, the CG boat came roaring back the other way...

We were anchored was near the Coast Guard facility.  We saw them unload a guy off the boat and into a waiting ambulance.  They took the guy to the nearby helicopter landing pad.  It took nearly a half hour for the helicopter to get there; they transferred him to the copter and took off...

A reminder that even on the best of days, care must be taken around the water.

We exchanged "Hello"s as more kayakers passed nearby.  This guy was fishing while his lady friend tanned...

Quite an afternoon.

One of the nicest kayak mornings yet!

Oh my goodness - a perfect morning for kayaking!  Sunny, upper 60s, clear blue sky, very little wind and it was out of the north, making for low humidity.  We don't generally have a destination in mind, just getting some exercise and enjoying the views.  Lots of people out on their waterfront decks, on boats, walking, and bike riding... just a glorious time to be out.

We paddled down our canal, turned east, over two canals, then north.  Crossing the ICW, we made our way down a channel past marina slips, shrimpboats, and what I call a "water alley": there's a bridge at the end of it, only about 4 feet off the water.  The kayaks (or our dinghy) can fit under there, but certainly not Wild Blue.  As the waterway narrows, there are rickety covered docks on either side.  Once under the bridge, the water opens into the "fingers" area in Port Isabel.

Here's a look at the route.  The red route is what we traveled by kayak this morning; the blue route is what it would take to get to the same spot by boat...

Coming back, we rafted up for a bit; I can pedal, give Joan a short break from paddling, and we can quietly visit while still moving.  Back home, we're still refining our "boarding onto the boat" technique.  It gets easier each time.

Rinse off the kayaks and stuff, load back up some calories we expended, then it's time to head out on the boat.  I think we're getting the day off (from chores)!

Motorized kayak??? I don't think so...

My neighbor said, "Hey, Jim, come see this."

"You like those kayaks, well this is like a motorized kayak!"

I think my neighbor has a boat addiction.  When I first met him last year, he had just gotten a Cobia fishing boat with a couple big outboards.  He tricked it out with lots of goodies.  A short time later, he found "a good deal" on a 40' sportfisher.  Shortly after that, he added a 42' Bertram, another "good deal."  I'm pretty sure he has a couple pontoon boats and jetskis on the lake by his ranch.

This little thing looks like two surfboards with two fishing boat seats, a bimini, dedicated spots for a cooler and a tackle box, and a 30 hp outboard.

He said, "You wanna take it for a spin?"

"It looks like a lot of fun, Gov, but I'm right in the middle of some boat projects."  Thinking about how lumpy the ship channel was earlier, that would be one seriously wet ride if he takes it out of the canals here today.  In the photo above, he was showing me how stable it is... all his weight on one side and it barely moved.  While there isn't much to it, it looks well designed.

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the...

... um, ship channel.  It was a refreshingly cool morning: 66º, sunny, and a LOT of north wind.  There was supposed to be a kayak fishing tournament today, so we thought we'd go out in Wild Blue and take a look; small craft warnings due to the wind, so I had no intention of taking our kayaks out.

In the turning basin, not far from our canals, we saw "Men at Work"...

There are 7 barges that have been there since we put Wild Blue back in the water; this is the first activity we've seen around them.

As we made our way towards the ship channel, we had the north wind at our backs... it was real apparent that this was not going to be a good day to be out on anything that didn't have a cabin.  When we turned east, the north wind was blowing spray across the windshield; the wipers were getting a workout.  When we came out from behind our island, the long fetch from the north had the waves stacked up close and steep, on the beam.  Only about 2 feet, but relentless.

When you see it in a photo, it doesn't have the same impact...

Here's a video taken right after that photo...

Quite a difference in perspective when you ad the motion and sound.  And, the first video I've put on the blog.

We saw 3 or 4 kayaks out, and no one on them looked happy.  Only a couple other small boats, and they were getting wet.  A few fishing excursion boats, and they were all anchored in the same protected area.

Little Izzy went with us on the boat today, her first time since we've been back.  I'm thinking we could have picked a smoother day, but she was a little champ.

When we came back to our dock, Wild Blue was in need of a big ol' fresh water bath.  With it still being relatively cool, we took advantage of that to get some more done on the boat.  Joan did some sewing...

... made a fitted mattress cover and sheet after putting more memory foam in the v-berth.  And now starting to arrange stuff back in the boat.  I went after all the snaps on the exterior with Nevr-Dull, and treated the window tracks with Liquid Rollers, after they had a chance to dry from the fresh water bath.  Joan went to the local canvas shop to get some Sunbrella to make window covers for the inside of the windshield.  (We already have an exterior cover, but that's not always handy.)

The tasks keep coming.

I did take a break from boat chores to do some work on a guitar.  Taylor makes an aftermarket grounding kit for the GSmini - it quiets any buzz when the guitar is plugged in.  I had to drill a hole in my new guitar to install that... just as tough (psychologically) as drilling the first hole in the boat.  It went well and works just like it's supposed to.  The Taylor has rekindled my guitar playing enjoyment.

Before breakfast...

We got a kayak workout in before breakfast this morning.  Lovely temp, low humidity, but the wind was blowing just above 20 mph... it's definitely more of a workout paddling and pedaling into the wind...

Check out the palm tree in the upper left corner, and you can see what the wind was like.

Real estate in our part of the country has slowed down just like everywhere else, but there is still some new home building happening...

Yeah, I shot that image yesterday - notice the difference in the water.

We left the kayaks tied to the boat last night, since we anticipated using them first thing this morning.  Seems that the red Hobie with more flat surfaces on it made for a better bird outhouse (didn't think you'd need to see a photo).  We pulled the kayaks out when we got back this morning; the weather weasels are calling for a chance of thunderstorms by late afternoon.

So, with "play-time" done, I cleaned the kayaks while Joan started breakfast... I love the smell of bacon in the morning!  Today's project is to make fitted sheets for the v-berth and get the new (well, re-built) improved memory foam in there.  We may get a couple cool nights in the next week where it will get down to the upper 60s... might have to try out the memory foam.

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On edit: here we go again...

We've gone years with no mention of a tornado warning in deep south Texas, and now we're under the second warning in less than a week!  Hail from golf ball to softball size west of us!  Loads of lightning all around us, but the radar is showing the nastiest part of the storm is going to pass just west of us, through Brownsville.  Sheesh!  This storm is being pushed SSE as a cold front comes from the north.

"Cold front" is relative - the high today was around 85º; tomorrow, 78º is the predicted high.


The weather folks are changing their take on the situation minute by minute... the tornado warning has been dropped, but still plenty of lightning out there.  This front is moving fast, though; there are already breaks in the clouds to the NW.  A couple minutes later, and now the thunderstorm warning has been dropped, too.  That was all within a half hour period.

The image above is what the sky looked like during the time of the tornado warning... no color alterations, no enhancement.  It wasn't as black as the previous warning, but that sickly yellow-green color and lots of "rolling" activity in the clouds.

Maintaining the proper ratio...

Projects to play-time.  More stuff to get done, absolutely beautiful weather to go play... decisions, decisions.  I suggested a morning kayak cruise, followed by some trailer maintenance; Joan was onboard with that.

This is the first chance we've had to get the kayaks wet since we came home.  We put them in the water, then gathered our stuff...

I loaded from the swim step on the boat, Joan went over the side...

We started down the canal, over a couple, then down another...

We crossed the ICW - no traffic, very little breeze.  It felt great to be out on the kayaks again.  We went by the Homeland Security facility; a bunch of vehicles, and people gathering.  There was a blue ribbon across an opening in the railing... we surmised that they must be having a celebration of sorts to go with their updating of the facility.  I thought it best to not take any photographs, although someone in their group was photographing us.

Paddled/pedaled by some shrimpers at the dock...

Then paddled back along the ICW side of our island...

There are some places you can go with the kayaks that the C-Dory just won't fit...

When we came back from kayaking, it was back to the grind; we loaded up some tools and went back to the storage facility to work on the trailer... we serviced the bearings and the winch.  There was a surprising amount of rust on the drum of the winch.  I had to cut the bolt off that held the old strap.  We scraped and brushed the drum with a wire brush, followed by some galvanizing spray.  I think that wraps up the maintenance stuff... now we can take our time going through all the stuff that came off the boat, to decide what goes back on.

Out and about...

It's been a week since we've taken Wild Blue out. No, we're not tired of boating already... since we're just home for a short time, we've been working on "projects"... the boat, the trailer, the 5th wheel, and the house. This morning, it was just too nice to NOT go out...

Check out the weather station: 76º at 9:46 am...

Sunny with a nice SE breeze. A couple hundred yards out of our canal, we saw the first dolphins of the day, a mother and baby who swam close to the boat and gave us a "tail slap." Nice way to start.

A quarter mile further, and we stopped to watch more dolphins (this time I had the camera out)...


We turned down the ship channel...


I tried out a car mount for the Droid on the boat...


Yeah, that is going to work nicely with the Navionics app. We were kicking back, heading towards the Gulf, when we saw this in the distance...


We're in the narrow part of the ship channel, so we moved as far as we could to the south side of the channel. In between that shot above and the next one below, a fishing catamaran (looked about 35') blasted up close to us. He slowed down enough to get off plane... I'm sure he thought he was being courteous, but the result was just the opposite - on plane, he was putting out about a 2' wake, as he slowed to displacement speed, his wake picked up to about 4'... with us in fairly shallow water. I had to turn into his wake, as he pushed the throttle forward and disappeared. I had my hands full, but got the camera back up in time to get this...


Hard to see, but there were dolphins surfing the bow. This big thing kicked way less wake than the fishing boat.


Off the south tip of South Padre Island, we hung around and watched more dolphins playing...


A few boats were out and about, too. We watched these guys fishing from their Hobie kayaks...


We heard two of the fishing excursion boats talking about their catch..."Yeah, we have a family of 9 onboard and we've caught about 150 whitings. We're slammin' 'em!"

Knowing we had work waiting for us back home, we turned around and headed back. Saw some of our dolphin watch friends, and this boat, setting buoys and daymarks...


It was nice to have a "morning off". Back at the dock, Joan worked on putting some insulation on the v-berth walls while I put waterproofing on the bimini. Plenty of other chores kept us busy the rest of the day, but this was a nice break.

Little Izzy didn't get to go out with us - she looked forlorn when we got back...