Breakfast Cruise...

It's all about the timing.

This morning, Joan said, "How would you like to get Manuel's this morning, and we'll take it out on the boat?"

I'm in.  I wanted to see what it takes to get over and around the dredge pipe, and the weather weasels are calling for winds in the 20s with higher gusts this afternoon... a breakfast cruise it is.

"Manuel's" means breakfast tortilla, with whatever you want inside - make mine: sausage, egg, cheese, and potato.  They are huge, so one takes care of the both of us.

While I went to pick up the tortilla, Joan got other stuff ready for the boat.  When I came back, she cut the tortilla in half and put each in a plastic bag so they'd be easy to eat on the boat.  While she did that, I prepped the boat and let the engine warm up.

The dredge was running when we pushed off from our dock - that means the pipe is going to be full and it tends to sink... we were able to pass over it in a low spot without scraping.  It is a tight fit going between the pipe and the boat-lifts on the other side.

Easy passage from that lower photo above to make our turn into the next canal.  The wind had already started building as we turned into the ICW.  A light chop on the water when Joan passed out breakfast...

We saw a couple dorsal fins in the distance, but with one hand on the wheel and the other on the tortilla... well, I was out of hands.

A pelican posing...

Further down the channel, a crewboat coming in...

The first dolphin image...

They started moving towards our boat...

A wave good-bye...

A happy, unexpected dolphin experience.

We turned back towards home.  This bait-shrimper is popular with the pelicans...

A dolphin bow-surfing this Gulf shrimper...

This pelican is a fan of The Clash...

(Should I Stay Or Should I Go?)  ;-)

A bit of bird-watching...

The wind ruffling the feathers of this Roseate Spoonbill...

The Gulf shrimper just behind the bait shrimper, for a size comparison...

Before we turned into our canal, we took a look where the dredge is currently working...

The small bridge that is just beyond the dredge is what separates our canal from this canal; the pipe has been run under the bridge and all the way up our canal.  Again, our timing was good - when we came in the dredge was hard at it, and the pipe was submerged; a bit of a tight fit making the rotation at our dock, but certainly doable.  No doubt, this situation will change as the dredge moves, but I was sure happy to be able to get out today, with no issues.

An osprey fly-over to wrap up the morning...