In Port Early Morning 6/12/09


Ok, so it is early for a boat day, 0533 hours, but I am done sleeping. That often happens where I get up early and stay up. As usual, the wind is piping here in Port Aransas and this being Friday, we are expecting another fishing tournament to kick off this time tomorrow. It will be fun to watch weekend fishermen deal with docking in this wind. Some, for instance, are from inland lakes where one simply does not go out in winds over about 15 kts. That makes the experience level somewhat in short supply for docking in the wind. So, about 1700 today, we will start to see the bumper boats arrive. One can often have a great time at the launch ramps just watching those without a checklist launch boats soon to be full of water or those that simply won’t start.

Bear and I are starting to formulate plans to live the dream. Now that she if officially retired, and I am running out of enthusiasm for my work, we can see a time, most likely after hurricane season in November, when we will actually point her east and start to explore the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast. For all these years we have dreamed of getting “out there”, it may well become a reality soon. Now that it is a possibility, many of those boat items on the check list are starting to stand out. You know the ones, those items that have been on the “before we go list”. So, as I sit waiting for the coffee to make, I feel the wind in the wire, the gentle rocking of Why Knot in this slip. I can almost feel her starting to come alive just as a family pooch waits for the master to get out of the chair and get the leash. Soon we will get the leash and open the door. Soon, we will provision and lay in all that stuff in the barn that only goes when we take her to sea. Soon, we will load her to the water line and point here out the jetties. Soon, that is, if some nasty hurricane allows here to live another year.