Horses, Beaches, and Boats

March 14, 2010

Our granddaughter is spending her Spring Break with us.  She was sold by the billboards advertising horseback riding on the beach.  So finally the schedules allowed a visit here and a trip to the North Beach for a horse ride. After church and a great lunch at Pirate's Landing, she and her mother saddled up and headed out.  Of course proud grandmother was there to document the event.

They returned from the ride with just enough time for what else......but a pleasant boat ride in our beautiful Laguna Madre.

This pirate yelled that we came too close and he was going to run us down, but we cranked up our 18 hp and out ran him and his motley crew.

Jake does not seem too unhappy sharing his seat even though it includes "THAT DOG".

Father and daughter on Spring Break

Back in home port and a dinner of lunch leftovers.

Walldog, Willie and Jake.

Happy Hour Cruise

March 10, 2010

We are getting to know our new little tug.  Today we cruised out to the jettys for happy hour.













Jake was really enjoying "his spot" before THAT dog comes to visit.








We tried out the anchor in a little cove off the ship channel and watched the dredge working.  One of the tender boats was a tug by the name of Bayou Blue.  Listening to the crew work on vhf channel 7, it was obvious of their South Louisiana heritage.




On the way back we were treated to a partly cloudy sunset and the lights of the bay.

Pier 19's new spot light was showing the way to a good place to eat.  All the Navigation lights worked and we slipped our little tug back into its berth for the night.



Walldog, Willie and Jake

Tir Na Nog

It has been a very interesting and exciting week.  Friday a week ago, we decided to adopt a little tug boat from our new friends Brian and Jennifer in Wilmington, NC.  So Saturday morning we load the truck and strike out for the East Coast.  Our plan was to arrive in Wilmington on Monday, see the boat on Tuesday, load it up Wednesday and start back.  Well, we arrived on Monday around noon, checked into our motel, and went directly over to see the tug.  We found it exactly as advertised, a very nicely maintained and equipped 1997 Ranger Tug model R21.

Brian and Jennifer invited us to dinner Monday evening.  Their daughter Megan was a little upset that her parents were letting HER boat go to a new home.  Jake visited with Truman in their nice back yard, while we tried to convince Megan that we would treat Tir Na Nog well.

So Tuesday morning we hitched up and headed South because the weather was predicting snow for later in the day at Wilmington.  We felt that we wanted to avoid the hilly North Georgia route we traveled on to North Carolina.  Jennifer sheds a tear as we leave. 

Along the way back, we attracted much interest in our little tug.  We had to answer questions at the hardware store even before we got out of Brian and Jennifer's neighborhood. We had two offers of outright trades as we traveled.  One was a dealer hauling two new bass boats and the other was a guy with a Zodiac type jet boat....no thanks one SeaDoo is enough.

We arrived back in Port Isabel shortly after noon on Friday.  After unpacking, we headed over to the city boat launch in Modern Venice and floated our little Tug.  Our friends Sam and Dave came in from fishing (no small sacrifice) to assist.  We idled around to our house and docked it outside the slip.  After a thorough checkout of all systems, we went for a short turn out into the bay.

Then it was back to see if she would fit into her new home. We have decided to name our boathouse the "Tug House"  Here we are threading the needle.

Yes it fits, hooray!!

We have looked at many boats over the past year, but this one seems to fit us at this time.  We were able to afford this one as we only spent just a little more than what we got for our SeaDoo.  If we decide to do more extensive cruising in the future, we may need a larger boat.  But as a wiser person than me once said, "Buy it smaller, buy it cheaper, but buy it now so you can enjoy it now."  Walldog, Willie and Jake went out for a longer ride Saturday.  The Coast Guard checked us out and gave us a free pass for a year.  The dolphins really welcomed a new hull as they played all around us near the causeway bridge.  It seemed like they were glad to see us in their waters.

Walldog, Willie and Jake