The winds began to ease up this morning, but we knew the water would still be lumpy out there. Yeah, I'm thinking we should go out on the boat and see how it does.
Joan made breakfast for us, I went out to wrestle with the boat cover - way less work to take it off than to put it on.
Off we go. No particular plan or destination. Joan commented on how nice it is to be able to sit close together while on the boat...
Some folks (I'm sure thinking they're funny) have called it "a floating couch." It is much more than that: more like a couch, a pit group, and a loveseat. ;-) It did fine in the light chop as the wind continued to ease up...
Last time I was out, the water temperature was around 75º if I recall correctly; today...
66.9º in the ship channel; that is a pretty significant drop in temperture after a couple cool nights.
The chop was the most active right where the jetties area opens up to the Laguna Madre; this fellow was hunkered down...
We weren't on a quest, but kept an eye out for dolphins. This boat is on an active search...
While they were looking off the bow, we saw our first dolphins of the day quite a ways behind them...
We saw more in the distance...
I have enough hours on the engine to open it up and see what it will do... seems that it will top out around 18 knots with the two of us. I doubt we will have much reason to run that fast. We were back in the ship channel by this point, so the water was more protected.
Joan packed us a lunch. We puttered along just above idle, enjoying the sunshine...
Yes, she has her feet up. Pretty cushy. You have to look close to see, but she is wearing ear muffs - there is still a cool wind (from the northeast), and the temp on the water is in the upper 60s. Good sweatshirt weather.
Wasn't long before... yep, more dolphins...
That one is quite close - that is the upright from our bimini top on the left side. Here's another...
I put the boat in neutral and let them swim by us. Fun to watch from the front of the boat...
Sparkly water! I put the throttle just above idle to stay with them...
We made our way back home - the canals just coming up on the GPS...
After a couple days where the weather kept us off the water, it was nice to get out again. Good to see how the boat did in the chop (pretty decent for a small boat), and I appreciated how the boat can move out, if we really want.
By the time we got home, the wind had almost completely died off. After cleaning the boat (doesn't take long to hose it off), we sat out on the deck, taking in the sunshine. It was late afternoon before it got to the high of 71º (still below normal for this time of year).
Nice day. There was still a Small Craft Advisory this morning: 4 to 6 foot waves in the Gulf (we aren't going there), moderate chop in the bay (we picked our time and place).
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