Up close and personal.....



A park is across the channel where sailing and rowing lessons are given.  The channel also leads to public access and we get some wild  waves from boaters who think 5mph is code for go like hell.  In the middle of the night.  We rock and roll and it isn't romance. We heard opera from the park last week and found that they are putting on classical concerts every Thursday - so we will dink over with dinner and freeze while getting some culture.  When reading in my bunk sometimes I will yell at Robert to go see who is about to crash into us as I can see masts a little too close for comfort out of the overhead hatch) and if I can see the masts, then the boat hull is right behind -er, below.  So far the only thing threatening has been a huge dory with kids trying to learn to row while texting.

He/she calmly watches as I walk down the dock and we have a conversation about not pooping on the dock.  Me, talking to it.  A night heron seems to hang around at the same time, hoping for tidbits.  The whole channel is covered with the pelicans when the fishing boats come it.  As they pass our side tie several times a day, we are used to them, but never used to the "carpet" of pelicans.  They follow, dip,  and hang onto the fishing boats and ignore the passengers when returning.  The crew uses shirts and hoses to try to get them to leave, but they manage to get into the bait buckets or steal the fish.  A man on shore was yelling, "Bag, bag, bag" while I was walking Murray.  I was about to get pretty insulted when I saw a huge bird walk up and steal a bag of fish while the fellow that paid lots of dollars to have his fish stolen was the subject of a lot of laughing.

Dagny Taggard comes to town.  It just kept passing us by, and passing and passing.  We thought the Queen Mary was going to be hauled out.  What a great name.  We get a daily show of before and after as the boats have to pass us to get to the yard.  Good fun.