Cleaning reward...

The wind switched from out of the south at a gazillion miles per hour to out of the north at a gazillion miles per hour, about 2:30 am.  And by "gazillion" I mean: it was gusting in the upper 30s.  And by "2:30 am" I mean: it was the middle of the damn night and the abrupt change of direction woke me up.  I checked outside to make sure the boat was still there.  Yep.

The wind kept up until mid-afternoon, when it dropped to 18 mph.  With the north wind clocking towards east, the humidity was down and the house was protecting the deck, the dock, and the boat... we moved furniture down to the dock, hosed it.  Joan swept the deck and wiped down the furniture as I passed it back up.  I took the cover off the boat and we shook the dirt off of it.  Then, I started cleaning the dirt off the boat.

"Since we're going through all this work, we should probably reward ourselves with a short boat ride, don't you think?" I asked.

"That sounds good to me."

I got the boat ready, and we shoved off around 5:30.  The wind was still blowing about 17, but it felt nearly calm after all the wind of the past few days.

Going down the outside canal...

Heading towards the turning basin, we saw one other boat out there...

A pontoon, with folks fishing.  Pretty protected water there with this wind direction.

Going down the Port Isabel Channel, we could see how high the tide was...

That area in the middle, behind the greenery, is under water; that's not how it is usually - the greenery is at the water's edge.

Just before the ship channel, this guy flew by...

The exposure in the ship channel is to the east; the wind had now clocked to easterly.  The waves built up to a foot, then two...

No problem, since we were running with the waves.  I turned behind the small island at the Y, keeping us in calm, protected water.  Another fly-by...

Another HUK shirt...

On the way home, we checked out these tugs that were tied off...

They look small compared to those drilling ships (above).

And from the front - each pushing two barges, quite a difference in size...

Heading back home.  No dolphins, but nice to get out.  Back up the canal...

And, home...