# Dolphins!!!



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

I love dolphins. When I use to go over to Port Aransas on the Island almost daily, I always got out of my car on the ferry watch for dolphins. When fishing on the jetty people could complain when dolphins were out in the channel, but I had luck catching fish when dolphins were out there--I think the fish ran for the cover of the rocks. I love to watch dolphins race ships.

I will never forget one time a laid was standing there watching a pod of dolphin racing a ship and she kept saying "Don't they have enough sense to get out of the way of that ship." I told her it was a game to them. They are highly intelligent creatures and they do enjoy playing. Hubby said they use to race his destroyer when he was in the Navy.

One night we were fishing for trout under the lights on a pier that extended out into the ship channel. We could hear the dolphins when they came up to "blow" Well, they were not just playing--one got hold of a string of trout and got every one of them off. The guy was so mad. 

Have you ever seen them tossing fish up in the air, playing with them like a dog plays with a toy? I was told about an incident off the end of the jetty where they had "hered" redfish up there and the folks said the water was actually red where they were killing the reds. I watched on tossing a flounder around--looked like he was throwing a Frisbee. I was not on the jetty the day of the mass killing and maiming of reds, but several I know was and told me about it. BUT of course, they have eat. No difference them catching reds and eating them and us catching reds and eating them.

Enjoyed your story. That would have been neat to experience.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

I do love living here at the marina. I have the Dolphins keeping me awake tonight...there are times when we get manatees in here right off the boat. I love living this close to nature. I stopped by the TECO power plant a few days ago at the manatee viewing area and there were hundreds of them there enjoying the warm discharge water. While I was there I did see a black tip shark leap clear of the water and tail walk before falling back. It was an amazing site.


----------



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

A few years ago a manatee showed up in this area. They are NOT suppose to be here. Nobody knows where it came from. It hung around for about a month and then was not sighted again. Nobody knows where it went. I would have LOVED to have seen it. Our youngest son is with the education department at the Texas State Aquarium over in Corpus. He loves doing programs at school to try to teach kids about the sea. He is also in charge of Sea Camp all summer and is always coming up with new things as many of the kids return every year. 

Some 15 or so years ago I was fishing on the jetty, using a perch for bait for redfish. I felt something, but knew it wasn't a red. Reeled in a a small octopus was clinging to that perch. It let go and got into a little crack there on the jetty. I knew I could not physically get it out, and I kept getting water in my bait bucket and pouring on it and keeping as much water as I could in that little crack. I laid my dip net handle there and it got hold of it and I was able to lift it out of that crack Suck the handle down in the water and it let go. It was probably only 6" wide had it been spread out. And the thing that got it--it squeaked like a mouse. I had no idea they could make a sound. As I sit here typing, there is a little pink stuff octopus on the shelf of my desk, eye level, that my son bought for me becaue I had talked so much about that octopus 

Another time I got hung up on some line, managed to get it and good friend, a huge black sea urchin came up tangled in all the old line. Hubby and I spent about 30 minutes cutting all that line off it and then releasing it.

We re only a couple of miles from the water, but is 12 miles around to Port Aransas as you have to go around Redfish Bay and over the causeway which is made up of several small islands. Before my vision got bad I loved to beach comb and have a big collection of fossil shark teeth. I made a base out of a piece e of wood for a canvas back duck decoy I found on St. Joseph Island. Was fishing from a boat with a friend and we pulled up to the island so I could catch some more mullet for bait. Saw that decoy and grabbed it. I loved being on the beach at sunset. So beautiful.


----------



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

Thought I would post some pictures. One is of me with a redfish I caught on the jetty. Of course had to release it as legal keeping size is at least 20" and not over 28". That one was 42". Then me with a nice flounder. One of our oldest son with a mess of fish we had caught, and one I love.

this is our grandson when he was 7 and this was the first time he had limited out on redfish. I had gone to the jetty with my son and grandson., Ron and I had mullet for reds, but he had taken shrimp for Zack to fish for perch. I told Ron let Zack use mullet but he thought Zack was to little. Well, turn's out Ron had left his cigarettes in his car (I had already quit some 7 years earlier and he quit a couple of years after this pic was taken.) and as soon as he started back down the jetty, I baited Zack's hook with a mullet and cast out for him. I didn't even hae my lien baited and Zack started hollering 'MamMoo, I have a big one, I need help". I told him no he didn't he could do it. I did tell him when to let it run, when to reel, etc, but never touched his rod. He was just getting up to the jetty for me to net when Ron got back. All 3 of us were so excited. All 3 of us limited that day. There was an elderly couple fishing a few feet from us and they said they had more run watching and listening to Zack than they did fishing.

The other picture is sunrise over the area where we duck hunt--well, I don't hunt any more, and it has been several years since I last went out there with my son. But it is so beautiful in the morning at sunrise. Is a little lagoon or something, no sure what you call it.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

Thanks for sharing. That is so awesome! I'm glad you let Zach land that huge red on his own. I loved to have seen that.


----------



## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

How lucky are you to live on a boat, great name too. Love the song and story behind the Southern Cross. 

We have a lot of dolphins in my area, I live less than a block off the Inter Coastal Waterway. I have a small beach at the end of my street, I see a lot of dolphins in the ICW. I usually hear them before I see them.

Being further South I'm sure you have more dolphins there. We occasionally get a manatee in one of the Sounds. 
We have several different types of whales here.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

I absolutely love the Carolina's especially the Outer Banks area. I was there a couple of years ago and was told the story of how Nag's Head was named. Pirates would take an old horse and would hang a lantern from its head and parade it up and down the beach at night. Passing ships would mistake the light for a lighthouse and end up wrecked upon the shoals. The Pirates could then salvage the wrecked ship for booty.

I was also told that Kill Devil Hills was named thus because the locals would make moonshine liquor so strong it would kill the devil. My friend who related these stories told me, "So that's our legacy....a bunch of old drunks and pirates." Lol. That area is absolutely stunning.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

Duplicate post


----------



## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

I live south of the OBX, I'm in an area called the Southern Outer Banks-SOBX or the Crystal Coast. Both areas are really beautiful, I live Ocracoke Island a lot too.

A lot of Pirates in this area too, Blackbeard's Queen Anne Revenge was discovered in this area after Hurricanes Bertha and Fran came through in the mid 90's.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

I have been lucky enough to see some amazing things. I've seen whale sharks in the gulf. I was also fishing and got to see a mola mola in the wild. Most people don't know what they are but they are the world's largest bony fish also known as oceanic sunfish but a google of mola mola will bring up images. I did a night dive in Hawaii with giant manta rays which was an incredible experience.

Many people could not handle living on a boat. I love to rough it. It is tight quarters but the experience is very liberating to me. In dog terms, the boat is like my den or kennel and all the rest of the world is my living room. I love fresh air flowing through and there is no better place in the world to sleep than on the boat especially in a storm. I could untie from the dock and using only the wind I can travel almost everywhere. I love being on the water and at night at sea I love being surrounded by the night sky. My time living on the boat is coming to an end at least temporarily for a while...I'm gonna move ashore reluctantly but my boat will still be my get away spot and will be used more for sailing and fishing when I'm no longer living aboard.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

CAROLINA MOM said:


> I live south of the OBX, I'm in an area called the Southern Outer Banks-SOBX or the Crystal Coast. Both areas are really beautiful, I live Ocracoke Island a lot too.
> 
> A lot of Pirates in this area too, Blackbeard's Queen Anne Revenge was discovered in this area after Hurricanes Bertha and Fran came through in the mid 90's.


I stayed within walking distance of the Wright Brother's Memorial while I was there. I have very fond memories of that trip.

I love pirate lore....I also love history so the Outer Banks peaks my interest in two ways there and the natural beauty and wildlife just really captivate me. I need to spend some time exploring more up there.


----------



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

My sister4 lives in North Carolina, about 15 miles out of Chapel Hill. She and her husband both retried from the university. THEN she went back to school and got a degree in accounting and went back to work part time for the university in accounting. They got to the coast fairly often. BIL's brother lives in Myrtle Beach SC.

I love pirate tales, etc as well. Jean Lafite had a "base" not far from here. A few years ago a pirate sunk ship was located and salvaged over near Port Lavaca. I can't recall the name off the top of my head.

Over on the island (Mustang Island) where Port Aransas is located, there is an old WWII gun mount up on the dunes. I passed it every time I went fishing or beach combing, which use to be about 5 days a week. I would love to have gone up and investigated it, but am scared of rattlenakes being there in that weedy gass that grows on the dunes. Mustang Island was so named becaue at one time wild mustangs roamed up and down it. Isn't that wide, but is long. The nexst in the chin is Padre Island.

I use to love going to Port A (as everyone calls Port Aransas). It was a sleepy little fishing village. So man shrimps boats in the harbor. There were older motels and cottages and cabins for tourist to rent, a few condos. Mom and Pop souvenir shops, several restaurants, bait and fishing gear shops, one grocery store. Kids came for Spring break, but they worked hard to try to get it more family than wild kids.

Then the **** developers found it and it is not the same. There are high dollar houses, tall condo's, huge souvenir shops, etc. Taxes went so high many of the natives had to move. I have run into a few I know over here on the mainland and they said they had to sell and move. So sad. I am not all that big on progress when it destroys so much. Oh, I use to go riding over there--had a stable and you rented horses. That had to go.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

In 1984 I used to live in Houston, Tx. I hated Houston....I was a small town boy from Georgia and grew up in an area much like Mayberry. We had one traffic light in our whole county. Houston was a complete culture shock. I did love going to Galveston. Galveston was such an awesome town to take a date with horseback riding on the beach. You could drive out on the beach and tailgate there. I enjoyed the beachfront restaurants or just hanging with my girlfriend while taking a ferry boat. I had some good times along the Texas Coast/Galveston area.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

A few great book selections to read reference shipwrecks. Clive Cussler has two nonfiction books "The Sea Hunters" and I believe the other is "The Sea Hunters II". Cussler uses his book royalties to seek out and find historic shipwrecks. He does not salvage these wrecks but he locates them and he writes about the ship's life and ultimate demise. They are completely fascinating reads. 

Barry Clifford has an amazing book about "The Whydah Expedition" that documents his search for and recovery of Samual Bellamy's aka Black Sam's ship. It is true and is an amazing read if you have any interest in history or pirates.


----------



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

I also grew up in Mayberry---before it got as big as Mayberr, LOL. We didn't have a single traffic light. Our "town" consisted of Shahans' General store where you could by yard goods, small selection of toys (for kids birthday parties,), Limited selection of bedding and dishes --folks signed up for these when someone got married. We were given a set of Blue Willow dishes by a group of folks, also a bedspread and sheets). Had a small selection of clothes, tools, large selection of plows and farming equipment (all for horse pulled things, tho), buckets for your well, collar for your horse harness part, sacks of chicken, hog, dog, feed, salt licks, etc, and then some human food. Was a wheel of cheese on the end of the counter. that Mrs. Nell and Mr. Alvin cut slices from. A small meat/fridge section with very, limited assortment of meat, mostly lunch meat and chickens, butter and eggs.

The ice cream "holder" was behind the counter and when we got a nickel fo a cone, we ALWAYS asked Mrs. Nell what flavors, and was always the same--vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, banana nut and special fruit (later called tutti fruitti. And the candy case had the 5c candy bars, but also those open face jars with candy that was 2 for a penny or a penny each. Included Hershey kisses, candy canes, licorice, those strawberry, banana or chocolate flavored squares that came wrapped (and the paper usually stuck to them. By the door was the big red metal box full of ice and drinks. You lifted the lid to get yoru drink. They were also a nickel and a penny deposit for the bottle. In one corner of the store was the post office and Miss Danny Gilly was the post mistress.

We also had the Mercantile owned and run by Deleware and Pauline Burk. They carried most of the same goods as the General store, only was not near so big and no farming implements and feed for chickens, cows, hogs, dogs, etc. Outside of these two business, there was Mr. Torbet's one chair barbershop, which later my uncle took over.  Mr. Burket's one bay garage, Mr. Amston's black smith shop, cotton gin (tomato packing sheds had closed down when I was very small). Had a one room city hall. four churches--the Methodist (my church), Baptist, Assembly of God and Church of Christ. 

Until I was a freshman all grades went to the same school, but there were 2 buildings separated by a driveway leading back to where the buses parked. The elem kids were inone building, the jr. and sr. hih in other building. But they built another school for grades 1-6. Then the junior high and lot of foices got the old elm. building (cafeteria was also in it), and jr. high and sr. high got the other. There were 22 kids in my graduating class.

Had a lot of retired farmers, etc living around and on days it was nice, they set up card tables under the chinaberry trees around city hall and played 42. Played inside on cold or rainy days. I was about 14 when we got our first fire truck and I do think it was the first one ever built that had a real engine and was not horse drawn!. My uncle (the barber) became fire chief, all volunteer o course. The truck was parked by city hall. If anyone had a fire doing the day (lots of grass fires) you called Mrs. Nell at the store and they got the retires and anyone's else to come fight. Everybody knew everybody in town. It was 10 miles to Tyler, the city, and very, very few women worked, very, very few families had more than one car. Women got goether for Stanely parties (cleaning products), the Avon lady called at your house, the Manor Bread man came once a week, the Watkins man came about once a month, Mr. Baize came in his van and picked up cry cleaning and took it to his store in Tyler and retured it the next week. Live so simple and easy going and care free.

Then I got married and moved to Akron, Ohio, in 1965 and that was a huge shock. It smelled so bad (made our barnyard smell good), people were not friendly...lest wise by what I was accustom to, traffic all night as it was full of tire making plates and others that worked around the clock. I hated every minute of the 7 year we spent up there.

My home town of Whitehouse is not longer Whitehouse. I think they have 8 schools there now, all much bigger than when I was a kid. My old scholl (which my dad had also gone to) is gone. My church is gone. Everything that use to be downtown is gone. My house is gone. The pond is filled in and there are houses in the pasture. My grandparents house, her sister's house, and my ch=ousins were all taken to turn what had been a little dirt road into a 4 lane highway. My cousin's daughter told me to never go there again, remember it the way it was. Is full of street signs now--I still tell folks how to go by what they will pass and what is on the dorner they need to turn at.

I have been to Galveston several times. We went a couple of times when I was a kid, and we took our senior trip there. I was the only one in the class that had ever seen the ocean. that was in '63. We stayed in motle called Jack Tar (not sure of spelling)Then in '75 we took our boys down--were living in Austin.

Then 3 years ago we took our oldest son and his son on a little trip. Went to tour the Battleship Texas and San Jacinto battle ground. They rode to the top of the monument, I was to chicken, scared of heights. Also went to Moody Gardens there in Galveston and to tour that submarine and destroyer escort that is there. We also rode the ferry over to --what is it called, Point Bolier? When we went down to drive along the seawall, I could not believe the change. It was more like the Las Vegas strip rather than the little fun town we had been at 35-36 or so years earlier.

You may recognize the picture of my dad, me, my brother and little sister on the ferry. this was taken in l955, as was the one of my mom and sister on the beach. This was Stewart Beach. We stayed in a "flag bag" moel across from the beach.

Other pictures--me shoveling sawdust from the truck to put in the cow stall and me with our cow, Clarabelle and my English Setter, Pixie., one of me with our boat, These were both taken in '64. One of our English setters, Mack, Rascal and Duchess laying out front near the road (if you want ot call it a road) and oen of me in the wagon when I was about 4-5. Daddy and my grandpa went in to eat lunch, I finished, went out, climbed up in the wagon and drove the team right into my Grandmas' clothes line and knocked down on pole. That was not good on behind!


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

3Goldens, the stories and pictures are awesome. Thank you for sharing. That made me think of growing up on my dad's ranch and then after he passed on my grandmother's farm. We had neighbors that the last time I was there maybe 2002??? They still did not have running water. Their water was supplied by a well with a hand drawn bucket. We would usually get one winter storm per year. The power would be out for weeks. We would fill the bathtub and all containers with water and the whole family would gather at my grandmother's. There was always plenty of food and card games by candle and lantern. My grandmother had gas heat and stove and a wood burning fireplace. We had an old pair of water skis and we tie a ski rope behind the tractor and take turns being pulled. Those were awesome times.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

This is a pic taken today of the view from my stern up the marina canal to the port side of my boat. This is where the Dolphins were playing.....there and beside my boat in the empty slip to starboard


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

I love the privacy and nature provided by the mangroves to stern


----------



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

It does look peaceful where your boat is. I would not mind living on a boat that was tied up like that. Have always been scared of water, least wise water over my head. I ws about 15 before I learned to swim. My Mom was a really good swimmer. She was from Perth, Western Australia and she use to swim across the Swan River. She was the oldest, then brother Ken, this sisters Mavis and Doreen. Ken was good a swimmer also and he and my Mom would each "lifeguard" one of the younger girls across the river. But I would never let her teach me to swim.

My Dad's older brother use to take us kids to Lake Tyler to swim. Was only about 4 miles from where we lived. Amway, one day he took me out in deeper water on my air mattress and dumped me off and told me to sink or swim. I dog paddled back to where I could stand up, but found I actually enjoyed "swimming". After that I would get out in deeper water and really swim as my Mom had so often shown me what to do.

We always had indoor plumbing and running water, but was from well. One night we sat down to eat and all noticed a funny smell. Can't remember how figured out it was the tea. Daddy went out and looked in the well and a possum was floating around on the top. He got out and next day got chemicals to put in the well. But for a couple of weeks, maybe more, we brought water home from my grandparents. They had an open well and ours was in a little "well house", so don't know how the possum got in there. 

Our well never seem to get low--guess it was a natural spring. I remember one summer we just didn't get rain and we were taking barrels of water from our well for the plants. Barrels were on a horse pulled sled and we went along putting dippers of water on the tomato plants, etc. We grew tomatoes, green peppers, corn, purple hull peas, black eyed peas, and cream peas, green snap beans cantaloupes and watermelons for market. Of course we kept what we anted to can or freeze of the peas and beans. We also had our own garden where we grew red potatoes, onions, radish, squash, etc. Those were the best veggies, all fresh. Anyway, when they put up that water tower they made everyone on the water line fill in their well. Seems so wrong to fell in a well that so many people had gotten water from during dough.

We had butane for cooking, heat, etc--the old heaters you had to light. I don't think they use butane anymore, use propane. Had the septic tank. Water from bathtub ran o0ut a pipe into the yard, as did the water from kitchen sink. I suppose the water from bathroom sink connected to and ran out the pipe from the tub. Very illegal these days.

I miss those days. I played basketball in high school and being a class B school (no longer have that here in Texas) we often went 50 or so miles for games. Parents didn't go to those games. They would be at the school when we got back. Occasionally we would get back earlier and parents not there and we could walk home and not have a care in the world. Today you can't even feel safe in your own yard. We have 4000 population here and it is to much for me I would say you had adventuresome childhood. I don't think kids today could handle it....no cell phones, no hand held games, no tablets, no smart phones, etc. They would be lost. They have no idea what it was like to play hide and go seek in the corn field, lay out in the yard looking at clouds and imagining they looked like certain animals or things, chasing fireflies at night and putting them jars, gathering eggs, picking wild black berries and grapes, sitting and helping shell a bushel basket of peas etc. We would sit under one of the two pecan trees shelling peas and Daddy would be telling us stories of when he was a boy, and it didn't even seem like work.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

At one time in my life I was a commercial diver. I have a lot of respect for the water but very little fear of it. A while back I was anchored in Bunce's Pass. One of my best friends had taken their boat out for the night but it has a lot shallower draft so they were able to anchor in protected water. I anchored deep in the channel. The tidal changes cause the current to rip through this pass. I had to swim between the boat and the shore. Getting back to the boat I would have to start way up current from the boat. If you missed the boat you would be swept out either into the gulf or bay.

We socialized on shore all afternoon and into the night. Suddenly a storm hit and I had to swim to the boat alone in the middle of the night in the storm. My friends had left their hatches open and had to run to secure their boat. I started to swim out to my home s/v "Music" in the rain and lightening. As I swam I found myself surrounded by bioluminescent particles. It seemed to light up and surround me as I disturbed the water. It was purely magical. I felt like I was in the movie "Avatar". I finally made it to the boat and pulled myself up the swim ladder. My friends are deathly afraid of sharks and said they would have never attempted that swim. It was amazingly incredible and beautiful for me.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

You mentioned the fireflies. I had a friend visiting from California. She is a forest ranger out there. I arranged a backpacking trip in Torreya State Park. We camped high on a bluff over looking the Appalachicola River. I had another friend that had joined us for the trip. Carol had never seen fireflies before. That evening the fireflies put on a show lighting up the forest around us like I have never seen before. 

Later that evening armadillos were out. They scurry around digging in the leaf litter. About midnight a huge bull gator began to growl loudly on a sandbar down below the bluff. He was staking out his territory. Carol and Linda were both terrified of the noise the gator was making. I couldn't help but laugh because it was such a terrifying growl and the way the noise was directed by the acoustics of the bluff you could not tell which direction the sound was coming from. With the armadillos digging about the sounds combined sounded like a fierce creature walking around us growling very menacingly. We were all very experienced backpackers but we all agreed that this was the most terrifying sound we had ever heard. I assured the ladies that we were very safe from the gator high up on the bluff. I just couldn't help laughing at what an inexperienced group might imagine that to be if they were camping there that night.


----------



## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

3Goldens, your early childhood sound somewhat similar to mine on the farm. Did you ever visit Australia?

Our well was covered so we never had an animal get in it. We did have an electric pump and we were always concerned about running the well dry. We always rationed our water use. I remember I fractured the cement block wall on the pump house by throwing baseballs against it to catch the rebound to practice my fielding


----------



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

No, I have never visited Australia. I am not in contact with any of my close kin. As I said, Mama was the oldest and she married American sailor, as did her sister, Mavis, the 3rd child. Uncle Ed was from Pueblo, Colorado, so there is where they lived. Had 4 kids. Three hae passed on. Mother's brother, who was "next" to her married after mama and Aunt Mavis had come to America. Mama wrote congratulating them and tried to "chat" with Gwen in the letter, but Gwen wrote back and said it was "not her place to write Ken's sisters". Really hurt Mama's feelings. Then later the old witch had the nerve to write Mama to ask her to send some American magazines to her. Every year Mama would get a Christmas card--no letter---just signed Ken and Gwen, and later Warren was added. Was always Uncle Ken's writing.

Mams's Youngest sister, Doreen married, but Mama lost contact with her. And the odd thing was Mama never lost contact with her two best friends that were there. Then in 82 or 83, Mama went back to visit for the first time. I can't remember how she had located Aunt Doreen--maybe it was one of her friends had bumped into her. Anyway, she had 4 kids and her husband had died. Also, she only had about 5% vision. She knew where Uncle Ken was and when Mama was there for that 3 weeks, he came to Aunt Doreens ONE time to visit with Mama. Gwen nor Warren came. All Aunt Doreen's kids, especially the 2 grils, spent a lot of time with Mama. We wrote for a few years, then they got busy and stopped writing.

HOWEVER I H have this distant cousin Len, who is 6 weeks older than me and we have written since we were 10 years old, making it 60 years! His grandma and my grandpa were cousins. After I was born, Mama lived with Aunt Maggie and her daughter, Mary and Mary's 2 kids, Bruce and baby Len. Mary's husband was in the Australian army. Anyway, my cradle was on one side of the fire place and Len's was on the other. Some 45 years ago he was engaged and his girl friend was killed in a wreck. He never married.

I also am scared of shsrks, yet do a lot of wade fishing--well, did, don't do much any more. I was always somewhat nervous about sharks. We use to catch a lot of the bonnethead sharks on the jetty and my son caught a few small blacktip. He claned them and I fixed up the fillets for him. I wouldn't['t eat any. I caught 1 lemon shark over there.

I have also caught some of the ugliest fish--toadfish. Most around here call them dogfish (which is actually a small shark), but my son, the marline biologist corrected me on that. Also caught several star gazers. I was told they can shock you, so never grabbed one, just cut my line. And one day fishing on the ship channel side I caguth the oddest thing--looked half ray, half shark. When I described it to my youngest son, he e=mailed me a picture of fish--and that was what it was, a guitarfish. I had never heard of such a thing. I tell you, I have had my hands slash by mackerel teeth, couple of times cut on flounder teeth, been jabbed many times by hardhead catfish and gafftop catfish (and that reallay hurts), fingers sliced while cleaning mangrove snapper (here we call them grey snapper). Their gill plates are so sharp.

I would never have tried to reach a boat in those conditions. Heck, I don't think I would try to swim out to a boat in GOOD conditions. Gambling is illegal here in Texas, but several years ago we had a gambling boat here, the Texas Treasure. It had to 9. something miles off short before you could play. I use to go out on it all the time. Had "laws" I kept. I only took $70 each time and I only played the nickel slots, 1 nicle per line but all lines. And I didn't spend any winnings. I would cash out (were old machines that you actually used coins in) and put the money in my purse. I usually came home with more than the $70 I took, usually no more than $5-$10 more, but sometimes I did good. Couple of times I came with $100+ more than I took. We had a free buffet meal. I am not much of a drinker and I would drink Colorado Bulldogs and the bartender knew I was not a drinker and went easy on the liquor. I knew all the waitresses, house keepers, etc and many of the members of the bands that came and provided entertainment on way out and back. My favorite was Johnny Green and the Greenmen. Three of them are friends of mine on facebook and we chat often about those days.

One night we were out and Johnny's group was the one one doin the entertaining that period. I was in the restroom and the ship took a humongous roll, then back. I had to brace myself between the walls there in the stall to keep my footing. When it stopped and I went out--what a mess. The band's equipment was knocked over, coin cups were everywhere, even some stools were over. I later learned that both ATM machines had gone over and broken. Al; the "good liquor" on the level above us wher they played real poker was broken, The dining had been set up for breakfast (severed breakfast on way back in at 1:00) and dishes had gone off the tables and many were broken. The entire crew were not American--mostly from the Philippines, some from Peru, Columbia, India and one of the waiter was from Afghanistan They all lived down below and many had TVs tht got broke and the computers in the 
living room" got broken. It was announced that night that we had had hit rogue waves, whatever that is. Back in those days we had a much loved member here, Hooch, whose heart was about gone. He was up late at night and he and I often chatted on here when I got home from the boat. He always said he wanted to come and go out there with me or us when hubby was home and we went. Sadly wee lost him.

Geez. I have gone on.


----------

