I've used that term before - it means the kind of day that the Chamber of Commerce talks about, tells everyone that "This is what it's always like." Well, it could have been the several days of rain we had, followed by a beautiful day yesterday, when we couldn't get out on the boat. But, what a beautiful day!
Today is a boat day! There will be a lot of photos - so much to see today. Thus, 2 part for this post.
Heading out, we went by the dredging that is happening on our island...
Compared to dredging in the ship channel, this is a small project; for the home owners on this island, it is an out-of-pocket expense for each... special assessment.
We check out some water fowl on our way out the canal...
Into the the ICW, then the turning basin, we saw another pontoon...
Not the drilling ships, that little white dot about mid-ship...
Those folks are out on a tour, one of the boats run by George and Scarlet, who also own the Sea Life Center here. Seeing them out on the water all the time was one of the things that made us consider a pontoon (although smaller for us).
Moving down the Port Isabel Channel that connects the turning basin to the Brownsville Ship Channel, we got our first view of the mammals we love to see...
Dolphins! Wasn't long before we had them swimming all around us...
We enjoyed the viewing for a while, then decided to head towards the ship channel to look around some more...
Seems that the dolphins followed along...
They played with us: popping up on one side of the boat... then the other...
Never gets old. Well, not for me. ;-) I didn't post all the photos I took. Moving east in the ship channel, we saw some of our other favorites here: the pelicans...
Joan and I swapped places so she could get some kick back time...
Heading towards South Padre Island, there is some bigger dredging equipment in the channel...
The north side of the ship channel is shallow (known as Mexiquito Flats). How shallow?
Yeah, those birds are standing. Reminds me of the advice I was given when we first came here with a boat: "Don't go where the birds are standing. Unless they are long-legged birds and you have a shallow draft boat." I thought the guy was a smart-ass, but it turned out to be good advice.
Heading towards South Padre Island...
One of the local excursion boats out...
It is a perfect day for it: water this calm is a rarity, and this was a true delight.
Part 2 will pick up as we head into the jetties.
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