Not another boat in sight, and plenty of playful dolphins. Unlike with the Orcas in the PNW, there is no issue with seeing these beautiful mammals up close. In fact, they like to swim right up by the boat...
Yep, so close I couldn't get it all in the frame. We had at least an hour with them swimming all around the boat...
We took turns at the helm...
And little Izzy got to enjoy the show, too...
We heard a couple excursion boats discussing the two or three dolphins they were both watching... not even close to the show we were getting. I didn't recognize the voices, but let them know where they could see more... it went very quiet on the radio. ;-)
As we headed towards the jetties, we listened to a Coast Guard report on the radio, telling of an inbound Shrimper with a disabled boom. A short time later, we saw this...
Yeah, that's not good - the port boom was twisted.
The water in the Gulf was still pretty churned up from the wind that past few days. We were watching some more dolphins in the area of the jetties when the radio crackled, "There are some dolphins in front of that little boat."
"Yeah, I see it - looks like they are really rocking - I thought they were going to flip!"
They were talking about us. "Nahhh. This little boat is plenty stable." The frequency went quiet again. Apparently, they think no one else is ever listening. Truth be told, most of the small fishing boats down here don't have VHF radios.
I watched where the pelicans were circling, and knew the dolphins would be following the fish, too. We pulled out, leaving the show for the excursion boats...
The snowbirds are starting to show up - not just the people from up north, but the white pelicans...
We did some more bird watching on our way back in...
Such a gorgeous day, we weren't ready to head home just yet...
Coming into the turning basin, we saw another Coast Guard boat helping the busted shrimper...
Joan said, "How about a trip through the old shrimp basin to see if anything has changed while we were gone."
It used to be shrimpboats tied off 3 deep all along the basin. These days, you can count the boats that are left on one hand. Oh, there are still plenty of working shrimpboats, but the fleet is a fraction of what it used to be 10 years ago. High fuel prices and imported shrimp have made an impact.
Poking around in there, we saw this guy posing...
We saw one of our neighbors out on their Com-Pac 16...
Neat little boat, and the first time we've seen it away from the dock.
Back to our dock. After sunset, the temp is still in the 70s. The wind is nearly calm. A nice ending to a beautiful day.
1 comment:
This looks like it was the perfect day for dolphin watching! I've always wanted to do this, but have never been in a situation where I could. The next time my wife and I go to Texas, we'll probably try to see the dolphins.
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