Five blasts...

If you are a boater, you should know what that sound signal means.  If you are a boater and you don't know what it means, you really need to take a Safe Boating class.  If you are a non-boater, I will tell you: five (or more) short, rapid blasts are used to signal danger or to signal that you do not understand or you disagree with the other boater's intentions.  Furthermore, if you are the recipient of those five blasts, it means you are ignorant, not paying attention, and an embarrassment to the boating population at large; or all of the above.  More on this in a bit.

It is a beautiful, but cool day.  The high today was 64º, light breeze, and abundant sunshine.  A bit cooler than average, but... really... a gorgeous day.  I proposed a plan: out on the boat, then out on the scoots.  Joan presented a counter-offer: go to the store, then the boat, and if time, the scoots.

So, after the store, Rufus got some outdoor time.  Then, I got the cover off the boat and prepped it.  I told Joan I had seen "6 tugs with barges in our turning basin" when out on the bike ride this morning.  I was looking forward to getting out there for a closer look.  Heading out...

Yep; that is more tugs than I've ever seen here at one time...

We weren't the only pontoon boat out there - this one had 15 people on board!

We cruised down the Port Isabel Channel, towards the Brownsville Ship Channel.  A pack of pelicans on the island there...

Our first view of a dolphin today...

Looking down the ship channel, you can see a ship in the distance, heading this way...

We are well out of the main part of the ship channel, so no issue being in the way of the ship.  Plus, there are dolphins in need of being watched!

Playing "heads & tails" - in that photo above, they are so close that Joan couldn't get them both in the frame.  More tails waving...

They were in front, behind, and all around the boat.  Joan took this one with me in the frame - I was handling the helm and looking at the action in front of the boat...

She was also laughing at the scene: mostly because I was missing the action that was right behind me.  Joan in the frame...

And so many great faces...

A shrimper going by...

Lots of "frisky" activity today - what I sometimes call "Prom Night for the dolphins"...

Oh, that ship is getting closer, and the dumbass at the helm of the shrimpboat is pulling out in front of the ship!  And, there's those 5 blasts mentioned above.  Some obviously pissed calls on the radio that the shrimper either ignored or didn't have his radio on.  Five more blasts.

The shrimper did get to the side of the channel - for the record, it takes some time and distance to slow the forward motion of a moving ship.

We continued down the ship channel, with a couple other shrimpers heading the same direction.

Getting into the jetties area (where the Brownsville Ship Channel opens to the Gulf), there was a lot of activity on the water...

Bay King (above) has a capacity crowd (elbow to elbow fishing);  Buccaneer (below), not so much...

That Pilot boat above does not refer to an airplane - the Pilot guides and advises the ship's crew as they enter or exit the Port of Brownsville via the ship channel.  The Pilot gets on the ship prior to it getting into the ship channel (that Pilot boat above pulls up alongside the ship while it is moving, and the Pilot climbs up onto the ship).  The opposite, when a ship departs the port: the Pilot is already onboard, and when the ship is into Gulf waters, the Pilot boat comes alongside the ship and the Pilot climbs down off the ship and onto that boat.  In the hierarchy of local captains, the Pilot is at the top of the list.

Speaking of the jetties, they are breakwaters that protect the entrance to the ship channel; huge rip/rap...

Looking over the jetties, and north along the shore of South Padre Island...

Out of the jetties area, we decided to make it an "island circle tour" and go around the rest of Long Island and through our swing-bridge.  There has been some discussion on the C-Dory owners group about a center console model - only a few were made.  Folks in the Pacific Northwest have little use for an open boat, and that is why cabin boats like the C-Dory are popular there.  They would really be surprised to see what many of our local folks use to fish the skinny water around here...

About half way to the swing-bridge, we could see a tug pushing three barges was going to get there ahead of us.  The tug driver called the swing-bridge for an opening... and got no answer.  He called 5 more times.  Finally, as the tug was at a "turn or push the barges ashore point," the bridge guy answered.  I knew we wouldn't make it there in time for this opening, so we slowed down to let the car traffic cross the bridge, and I called for another opening.  Three times.  No idea why the bridge tender isn't on the ball today.  On our way through, I did give him a heads-up that there are three more tugs pushing barges heading his way (we could see them when looking up the Intracoastal Waterway).

Once through the bridge, we took one more photo...

This is a small bit of an island where several pelicans with broken wings spend their days; Joan took this for our friend Scarlet (the Dolphin Whisperer) who is out of town right now, so she could see that "her" pelicans are doing OK.

Our boat outings are coming to a temporary end soon - we'll need to pull the boat, clean it, and prep it for storage before our next motorhome outing.  No fixed date for that, but in the meantime we'll enjoy each boating opportunity we get.

No, we didn't get any scooter riding in today - plenty to see out on the water.  :-)