Rufus is officially a boat cat...

The time of just sitting at the dock with Rufus on the boat has passed - this morning: his first boat outing.  Short story: he did fine.  The illustrated version is below.

We kept him in his carrier as we pulled away from the dock...

Both of us are busy with lines, and we wanted to keep a close watch on him.  Out of the carrier...

Still in the canal, letting him look around.

And, into the ICW...

No panic, but a lot of curiosity.  We kept him on his leash... just in case he need to be "reeled in."

Looking back across our island, we could see an oil rig being brought in in the ship channel - let's head that direction.  We kept the speed moderate, which keeps the engine noise down.

On our way to the ship channel, we saw dolphins...

We kept it low key, not making our usual fuss over the dolphins.  He said, "They don't eat cats, do they?"

No, Rufus - they are friendly.  We made our way towards the ship channel to get some photos of the oil rig being towed...

Fairly small rig compared to others we've seen - looks like only two tugs moving this one.

Planning to keep this outing short, we turned back, and... dolphins...

Yep. close.  He looked, still not sure about them.

Coming into the turning basin, we saw a tug lining up on a couple barges...

Another tug and barge moving through on their way to Brownsville...

Just before turning back into our canal, a shrimper heading out...

Then, back into the relative quiet of our canals...

We put him back in his carrier just before getting back to our dock.  Once tied off, we opened the door... he calmly hopped off the boat and onto the dock.  With his leash on he walked across the dock and up the stairs.  No frantic "Let me in!!" at the door.  Calm and cool.

Rufus did fine with his first boat outing!

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On edit: after the boating.

Joan decided the windows in the house needed to be washed.  Fortunately, this is a one-woman job, even though I volunteered to move the ladder for her.  She put me in charge of lunch, and then told me to get Russo's pizza.  Hmmm... drive across the causeway and look at the pretty water to go to Russo's, or wash windows.  Tough decision.  I ordered the pizza.  Got there in time to see it come out of the oven - hot and tasty.

When I got home, Joan had the windows done and the table on the deck set for lunch... pizza on the veranda... and just a lovely day for being out there.

While running to get pizza, I saw that gas on the island had gone up about 10¢ per gallon since I last looked.  Joan checked Gas Buddy, and the station closest to us was listed at $2.45.  The car needs gas and I brought along the portable gas cans that we use on the boat... yep, it was up to $2.57.

Gas is up, the Dow is down - did someone ask for a re-do on 2008??

When I came back from the gas station, Joan had her sewing machine set up on the deck... seems that someone has thickened up enough that his harness is snug.  No, not me - Rufus.  Joan was taking the harness apart and splicing in some new webbing.

While she worked on that, I brought a guitar out and gave her and Rufus some music...

Just a lovely day to be outside.