Yes, size does matter...

Joan did some sewing, while I accompanied her on the guitar.  We grilled some burgers and corn on the cobb.  The weather weasels had predicted a partly sunny day... they were wrong.  Nothing but gray.  The wind was blowing a bit more than predicted, as well.  The temps were in the low 70s... this is a good day to be out on a C-Dory.

Size: they were calling for waves of 4 to 6 feet in the Gulf, with a period of 8 seconds.  As we were heading that direction, we got a report from one of the off-shore fishing boats on his way back in: 8 to 12 feet, with a period of 3 to 4 seconds.  Or, as we in the business call it: ugly!  The ship channel was pretty pleasant, we could see ahead in the jetties - rollers coming in.

Up...

And down...

We could see pelicans diving like crazy ahead of us, and figured there'd be some dolphins in on that feeding.  Yep...

They were darting all over out there.  The ride was not particularly comfortable, so we didn't stay long.  Some people didn't have that option...

They were heading out as we were heading in.  There were quite a few excursion boats out there today...

But, none of them were packed with people.

I had to chuckle at one exchange I heard on the VHF:

"You got flippers there?"

"Yeah, off our bow."

"It's nasty out at the end."

"Yeah, I'm gonna take 'em out there for a quick look.  They'll be seasick in about a minute, then they'll all be ready to head in."

No doubt.

We were dry and comfortable in Wild Blue.  Coming back up the ship channel, we saw this...

A fuel barge, but not the typical ones we usually see - this one has the V in the back for the nose of the tug doing the pushing.  The barge had a New York home port on it.

Joan asked me to turn on the windshield wiper on her side... it made a couple passes, then stopped in mid-swing.  "Fuse," I said.  "Do you want to drive or replace it?"

"I'll get it," she said.  She knows right where to look on the back of the helm bulkhead.  A minute later, she had the blown fuse out and a new one in.  Handy to have a good first mate... or maybe good to have a handy first mate. ;-)

It took some extra hosing to get the salt spray off Wild Blue when we got home.  No sunshine, but still a nice day.

Oh, and those Mayans were wrong. ;-)