On the Water.


I’ve been out in 3 boats in 2 days.


Monday I went sailing with a friend from work, Walt Schmidt. I talk to him about once a month when he’s walking his granddog in the schoolyard behind our house. If I’m working in the shed, as I was on Sunday, he will give me a shout and we chat over the fence. He has a sailboat, a Catalina 22 and he invited me out for a sail .

You may find it hard to believe since I’ve lived here since ’73 that this was my first time out in a small sailboat. I’ve worked with a number of sailboat owners and they all find seem to find sailing addictive. I found I don’t have the bug. Sure it is nice to be out on the water being driven by the wind. It’s fun to have dolphin ride your bow wake only a few feet from you. But it’s not the carefree life that is portrayed. For one, it is an expensive hobby. Money aside, when you sail you are completely at the mercy of the elements. After a while I had to ask myself is this all there is? Sailing requires your constant attention so you can’t pull out the camera very easily. It can also be quite dangerous. I enjoyed the sailing. I won’t be disappointed if I don’t go again for a while.


Boat #2 was our tandem kayak. Penny and I went out again on Tuesday morning. It was a beautiful day to kayak. There was almost no wind and the bayou was like glass. We went down to the end of the bayou and watched the Osprey and Kingfisher snatch fish out of the water. There were fish everywhere and the birds were taking advantage of it. The water was so calm that you could see the bow wake made by any large fish swimming just below the surface. We keep seeing lots of fish – I’m going to have to break out the ol’ fishing rod soon.

Boat #3 was my single kayak. This was the first time I used it. I went out on Tuesday evening. I wanted to go back to the little beach to look for something I lost (see next blog) so it was a good excuse to try the single kayak. The first thing you notice in a single kayak is that it is less stable than the tandem. It’s just slightly more difficult to get in and get started than in the tandem. I found I could move along at a good pace by just doing an easy stroke. I did like the feeling of the single kayak but it just wasn’t as much fun without Penny along.


Today, Thursday, Penny and I went out in the tandem kayak. When we got to the end of the bayou where the Osprey nest is we saw some sort of furry critters swimming around. At first I thought they were beavers but when one rolled on its back and raised up its head to look at us I figured they were otters. I didn’t know we had otters here. When we got home we did some research and evidently what we saw were river otters. I took a picture at long range and zoomed in on the critters head when we viewed it on the computer and there is no doubt that we were watching otters in the wild!

After we saw the otters we did a complete circuit of the undeveloped area at the end of the bayou. It’s a pretty area to kayak in. Eventually the Air Force is going to put housing in that area so we better enjoy it while we’ve got it.