Lots of photos today, so I am splitting this into two posts.
The new GPS is like a small version of what we had in Wild Blue...
A small flat-screen, it is also a depth-finder/fish finder, with CHIRP technology that gives a pretty accurate rendition of the bottom contour. We know the waters well around here, so we can find our way without a chartplotter, but it is nice to have it on a screen that gives me the chart and depth, speed, heading, and water temperature. Yes, the water temp is currently around 74º.
From that chart, you can tell that we are about to head into the jetties area. The jetties are a man-made breakwater, protecting the Brazos-Santiago Ship Channel, what we call: the Brownsville Ship Channel. Not much traffic out here today; from a distance, I thought this was a Homeland Security boat; as we got closer, we could see it was a survey boat, running a pattern to check the depths in the channel...
The jetties...
A popular place for fishing. And, the high-rises of South Padre Island in the background...
The beach is on the other side of those jetties, between the dunes in front of the high-rises and the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaking of the Gulf - looking east from the end of the jetties...
With the water unusually calm, this may be one of the few days we will have the pontoon here; you can see a ship in the fareway at the horizon and oil rigs another 9 miles or so out. The red buoy is one of the red/green marking the entrance to the ship channel.
Heading back in, another look up-island...
Scads of pelicans fishing in this area...
Clearing the southern end of SPI, you get a view of the US Coast Guard Station here...
Another excursion boat, with the Queen Isabela Causeway in the background...
Joan got our lunch ready...
I have to admit, I get pretty tired of cold sandwiches when we are working in the San Juans; haven't had one since then, until today... and this was truly delightful. No schedule, no grabbing a bite when you can; we slowly motored west, enjoying lunch and the scenery.
We met a shrimp boat heading out as we were heading in the ship channel...
We stopped to view more dolphins - these were coming right for us... then, under the boat... then...
Pretty much looking right down on them from the front of our boat.
We spent more time watching and appreciating the experience. We said good-bye to the dolphins, then back to the turning basin...
An osprey on shore...
I turned into our canals, almost home...
Second outing with this boat - we are both very happy with it. I was surprised when I checked fuel burn. Now, keep in mind that we are still in break-in mode, and are now keeping the RPMs to 3,000 and below... and are averaging about a half gallon of fuel use per hour. That is some inexpensive on-the-water entertainment!
Beautiful warm weather, around 80º for a high today. Almost no wind, flat calm water, not too humid, clear blue sky. Put that together with the time on the water and the dolphins - this would certainly be one for the Chamber of Commerce to talk about.
:-)
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