So tiny...

It was spitting rain on and off this morning.  Wasn't going to last according to the hourly forecasts, and I always believe them.  No matter, we were more than ready to launch the boat.  We hooked the Honda up to the boat trailer, pulled it to the ramp on our island, and... couldn't get it off the trailer.

(Sigh)

This boat sits above the trailer tires, our other boats have sat between the tires.  The Honda isn't tall enough to back the trailer in far enough... so, I gave my buddy Mike a call.  They have one of those new Jeep Grand Cherokees with the air suspension... Mike came to the ramp, we hooked the trailer to their Jeep, and launched.  Still had to motor it off the trailer, but it is floating!

Thanks, Mike!  We will need to get an extension made for our receiver hitch before we retrieve.  Mike hosed the trailer, Joan took the Honda back to our place, and I brought the boat around...

That small vessel in the upper left center is me, driving away.  Coming down our canal, and determining how we will line this up at our dock...

It will require a 180 to get the boat to our dock with the gate on the port side of the boat.  It looks small at the dock...

Heck, I could get another one of these and still have room at our dock.  ;-)  We spent some time arranging lines (fore and aft breast lines and a spring line); keeping in mind the unusually high tides we are currently experiencing (another Super Moon coming tomorrow and Monday nights).

No real rain, just an occasional spit or twelve so Mother Nature could remind us that she is still in charge.

With the fenders arranged and the boat secured, Joan suggested I bring Izzy down to introduce her to the boat...

"Umm... you know there isn't a roof or walls on this boat, right?"

"Momma, you aren't going to let him take me on this, are you?"

MJ (Mike's significant other) came by to check it out...

Joan made us lunch, I checked weather once again, and we decided to take it out so Joan could get a feel for the new vessel...

Shortly after I took that photo, she put her feet up and declared it, "Very comfortable!"

With less than .5 on the hour meter, I kept the RPMs low, according to the break-in procedure.  Out the canal, and a left turn in the ICW to the turning basin...

Drilling ships, an oil platform, and a big ol' tug... nice to be back on the water here.  Of course, we are looking for some dolphins.  Plenty of birds...

Less than a mile from home, and...

They swam right up to the boat!  I missed these sweet dolphins!  After seasons of working hard to stay at the legal 200 yard distance with the Orcas, it is a delight to be able to talk to these mammals... and, yes, I believe they like the interaction, too.

They swam under and around the boat; that is our outboard motor in the foreground.  This is a fun "Welcome back on the water!"  The "So tiny" from the title isn't about our boat... which is compact - after all our time with the Orcas, the dolphins look so small!  Bottlenose dolphins size up at 6 to 13 feet in length, weighing 300 to 1,400 pounds, so they are not tiny... well, unless you compare them to Orcas, which can weigh up to 19,000 pounds; the males can be 34 feet long with 6 foot tall dorsal fins!  That said, I think these dolphins that make the Laguna Madre their home are smaller than most.  It has nothing to do with the size - these mammals are familial, social, and curious... and so special to get to see them in their natural environment.

We took in the dolphin experience for a while, then decided to poke around a bit with the boat; I'm also making sure to vary the RPMs as part of the initial two-hour procedure.  We missed the pelicans, too...

That is a happy boy at the helm...

Even though we didn't get much above 2,000 RPM, I am delighted with how the boat handles.  And, hard to beat the 360º view!  Speaking of the views...

Preening (above), and more dolphins (below)...

This boat is a research vessel for the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley...

While it doesn't say it on the charts, locally, this island is called Pelican Island...

Not much left of that island with this high tide.  We ran back into the shrimp boat basin, checking out the boats at the marina, the bay shrimpers, and the Gulf shrimp boats that are in.  Oh, and more dolphins - we don't capture every shot with some surface activity...

There were more dolphins, but (of course) the camera battery gave up.  Time to head for home.  The "partial clearing" that was predicted didn't materialize; yeah, we had jackets on while out.  There was the occasional spit of rain, but our spirits weren't dampened - it felt great to be back on the water again!