Paddling around Pelican: the Voyage of the New Boats
Sept. 23rd
by Natalie Wiest
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Tim Garber in his
first trip in his
brand new boat. |
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John Ohrt, Kelly, Tim
and a barge/pushboat
in background. A new
boat for John Ohrt too. |
I finally got to work in another circumnavigation of the island of my employment, and was pleased to have six of my HCC buddies as accompaniment. Of that number, Tim and Kelly were paddling brand new boats; I think John was too. I'd never seen Robert in his sit-on-top, although he says he's had it a while. Joe and Dave and I paddled our well-broken-in craft.
This was on Sunday, September 23rd. The seas were practically flat, winds only 5-10 kts, temperatures in the 80s, maybe 90. We set out from the Texas A&M University at Galveston campus, paddling clockwise around the island, first under the 51st Street causeway and due north towards Texas City and the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) cut. Dredging operations from the Texas City Channel have provided many cubic yards of spoil to greatly expand that end of Pelican Island. New rock groins protect some of the operation and dirt dams as well. I see that Google Earth hasn't quite caught up to the operation, but we can confirm a pass-through about the halfway point and we were able to paddle up that new channel to the ICW.
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“Moonscape” of the
northern tip of “big”
Pelican Island |
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At the corner of the ICW we took a break to stretch our legs and climb up the new dirt embankment to survey the cut, new dredging, the northern "little Pelican Island", and watch traffic moving on the Houston Ship Channel and the Texas City dike. The view on top looked like a moonscape; all that new spoil has certainly dried out over the summer and only one plant seems to have been able to survive the heat and sporadic rainfall; the glasswort. We did however decide this would be a good spot to have an evening and/or moonlight paddle, so we just may do that one of these days.
From there we paddled on around, past the Texas City channel, and along the Houston Ship Channel. The usual interesting wakes were happening. As I approached the old concrete ship Selma, bobbing along with camera in hand, there was a really strong outgoing tide/current and I was about to be slammed up against the rough concrete sides. Time to paddle - hard! Poor old Selma, just falling into the sea.
Dolphins were about in many locations, but none up super close. We always see them near Sea Wolf Park, surfing wakes, running up and down in the channel. Birds were noticeable for their relative scarcity.
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Note how busy the
Galveston channel is
here with the ferry
in the background. |
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Taking our lunch break
just down the channel
from Sea Wolf Park. |
Our lunch break gave us a nice view of ferries, shrimp boats, commercial vessels of all shapes and sizes. The next pair of brand new boats were farther down the Galveston channel: the gigantic cruise ship Carnival Magic; and the newly christened Navy ship USS Fort Worth. Par usual a medley of offshore drilling rigs of various shapes and sizes, tug boats, push boats, Coast Guard cruisers. And, last but not least, the brand new (to us) training ship for the Texas Maritime Academy, the TS General Rudder. Rudder in this case being the hero of D-Day and Normandy invasion, the former president of Texas A&M University who was instrumental in starting our Galveston campus 50 years ago.
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Cruise ship Carnival Magic –
the newest and biggest in
the Carnival Line on its
inaugural trip and at the
dock in Galveston |
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Yet another new ship, this
one for the U.S. Navy.
Christened the day before
as the U.S.S. Fort Worth,
a Freedom class littoral
combat ship |
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A new ship for Texas A&M
University at Galveston, Texas
Maritime Academy. New to us,
formerly doing service as a
training ship for the U.S.
Merchant Marine Academy at
Kings Point, its former name is
Kings Pointer; renamed the
General Rudder.
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The 10 mile paddle was a nice workout, the weather fine and the company, excellent. You'll have to come along with us next time.
P.S. Additional photos are on my Webshots page:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/583442522usmvXY?vhost=outdoors
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| Natalie Wiest |