The Fish Apocalypse

Today when I got up and went into the galley, I thought I smelled fish a little bit.  I cleaned the sink thinking that maybe yesterday when I scraped the bottom of the Dinghy, maybe carried a barnacle in to the sink when I washed my hands.  Nope, Couldn't find anything.

I then grabbed my stuff and headed out to the office and when I came out of the boat, I was shocked.  The entire surface of the water was covered solid with dead minnows.  They were all about 1-2 inches long and seriously were almost solid.  In every square yard, there were maybe a few inches of water showing.

I have noticed that there are a lot of these minnows swimming just below the surface all the time and yesterday we were at Waterford Harbor and I noticed they also had a lot fate little guys swimming below the surface.
So this morning when I saw these dead fish, I went and looked in the channel, PortoFino marina, StarFleet Marina and South Shore Harbor.  None of them were covered in dead fish, so I figured may there was something wrong at the Marina like a stray current in the water but that didn't seem to be the case either.

I talked to a few folks today who have seen this in the past, when there is an overpopulation of these things and they all grow and start absorbing more oxegyn out of the water, they essentially all go lethargic and float to the top and then die.

Really odd stuff.  So today when I got home from work the smell is getting bad now.  They have been sitting in the sun all day, so starting to get fragrant.
I put the boat in gear and throttled up against the dock lines to create some current and moved a few hundred thousand of these little guys, however it was just not enough thrust to push them the 250 yards to the channel entrance.  I was able to get them moving about 75-100 yards, but that is it.

The guys that work at the BoardWalk Beast and Boardwalk Shuttle (Boats that dock next to me) said that if they haven't workd their way out of the Marina in the morning, they are going to attempt to net them and haul them somewhere.

This does go on record as the strangest thing I have seen related to the water so far.

Low Flying Coast Guard Jet

Look just through the Masts

The other day while down below working, I heard what sounded like a plane.  I kind of ignored it the first time but when it flew by it sounded more like a jet but very low.  I ran up into the cockpit and could see it banking over the bay just past the marina VERY LOW.  I really thought it was a small private jet going down.  He continued to bank and essentially made  complete circle again heading over the marina.  The view from the boat really looked like he was going to be skimming the mast tops.  I am sure he was in the air a bit higher, but I would not say more than 1500 feet.    

Here he is a bit closer to us (just over the pier in front of us)

This time I readied the camera and took a couple of pictures.

Hmmm, it was a Coast Guard Jet.  I have never seen one of them here, typically we see the CG Helicopters but this was the first time seeing the jet.

The next day there was a CG Patrol boat tied up just down from us so I asked the gentleman if there was a search of some kind being conducted.  They didn't know what it was for, but it was certainly interesting.

Enjoying our time in Corpus Christi

It has been a crazy couple of months.  As most of you know, Deb had partial knee replacement surgery at the end of September and with that came 6-8 weeks of recovery time.  While considering a date for the surgery, Deb was weighting a planned sail from Kemah to Corpus to spend a couple of winter months a bit further south.   Additionally, Deb and I are planning on a vacation and she wanted to get the surgery done as far in advance of that as possible so as to be very mobile for our vacation.  This meant that when we were planning on sailing the boat to Corpus, she was still using a walker and NOT able to get on and off the boat, never the less up and down the companionway.

At the beginning of October, our friends from Dallas came into town and planned to make the trip with me (See previous blog posts on the actual trip) and I am still blown away by their generosity and willingness to help out with this.

Night time view, Downtown Corpus is just at the end of the dock

Slowly we began to settle in to our new location.  We are actually on a dock that is right off the road.  I was worried about this at first, but after a few weeks, I am finding it to be pretty workable and convenient since we can keep our car just about 20 feet from the stern of our boat.

The Marina here in Corpus Christi is having some renovations done on a few docks so there was not enough room for any more "live-a-boards" on the other docks (with privacy locked gates).  We rolled with it; (Because what else could you really do) and we moved into our current slip.  I was not happy that the pump out service was not available on this particular dock but in the end, this is turning into a good thing.  It forces us to actually get off the dock every 2 weeks at the longest and at least motor over to the next T-head to pump out.  (for those that are not familiar with this, it is the unpleasant task of removing the contents of the holding tanks (think septic tank on land).  Not a romantic subject but certainly part of living aboard and keeping our waters clean.

There is a lot of foot traffic that walks down the sidewalk and passes the boat.  Most are just out strolling for the day/evening and some are walking to the restaurant that is at the end of the street we are on.  At first I was concerned about privacy, but we have not had anyone walk down the pier on the side of our boat.  There is a small wire gate we can close when we are on the boat for the night to keep people from walking down the dock.  We see quite a few people snap a picture or comment on the name of the boat.  If we are outside, we have had several stop and wave or even chat for a while.  The boat name and the fact that it still lists Panama City FL as the sailing port usually brings many questions.   We don't mind, we are excited about our lifestyle and don't mind sharing it with others.

We did have an interesting experience however when trying to order high speed internet service from ATT U-verse.  I figured it was going to be interesting when I called to order the service and attempted to have it installed.  The conversation went something like this…
AT&T: "May I have your address so I may check for availability in your area"
Me: "Well, there is not really a specific address, I am about half a block from the intersection of X and y"
AT&T: "Right, but can you just provide me your address, even if the house is not complete yet"
Me: "No, see that's the problem, it is not a house, it is a boat that is tied up along X Street"
AT&T: "I don't understand, you want internet on a boat??"  This was asked with utter disbelief.
Me: "Exactly"
AT&T: "Well if you can provide an address I can help, but I don't think we can get internet to a boat"
Me: "Ok. Thanks, I will think of another way to ask and call back later"

Then it dawned on me, I called back again and I ordered the service and provided the Marina's address.  Then I waited for the AT&T truck to circle the marina office repeatedly trying to figure it out and I went out and spoke to the man.   In the end, I was able to convince him to just run me a long wire down the sidewalk from the small little green tower where they connect the houses and I would take care of the rest.  He did, and I stapled the wire along the underside of the wooden bulkhead down to my slip.  I then wired in a telephone box in the breaker panel for shore power.  I then just hooked up a phone line into the boat right by where I connect Cable TV, Water and Electric.  It worked like a champ so I have high speed internet and can work very productively from here.   It was a bit comical however.

Relaxing in the Cockpit (writing a blog post)

All in all, we like it here.  I can't ask for much more, here it is in mid November and I am in shorts and a t-shirt sitting in the cockpit with a beautiful breeze blowing in on me while writing this blog.  In the mornings, the sun rises right over the palm trees at the end of the T-head and it really is pretty.  The Marina has really nice showers and laundry facilities when I want to take a long shower (it is a guilty pleasure).  Heck they even have free ice for Marina Members.
The only real downside of this location has to do with the flights in and out of the airport here.  They are not all that convenient and there are not many per day.

I will end this post with a nice little view of the sunrises from the boat.