No….it was not a good day to sail this past Saturday.

Friday saw winds up to 45 from the southeast and Saturday, another  late season cold front blew through with winds from the northwest at gale force.

So I just hung around and did some work.

At about noon, D called and asked me if I would go out on Fish Tales with her and a bunch of junior high school kids, on a marine biology discovery trip. I said “fine”, as long as I don’t have to do anything…..

Noe was skippering Fish Tales, a 65 foot head boat docked at the Dolphin Docks, over by the causeway in Port Isabel.  I helped him and his stepson (the deckhand) load up a mini-trawl and get the lines ready to cast off. Underway, we lumbered out into the bay which was being whipped to a chocolate milkshake frenzy by the norther,  rolling and pitching our way across.

About half way to the power lines, we shot the trawl, and picked it up a few minutes later. Not much in the bag end- just a few piggy perch, some shrimp, sargassum and an ocellated moray eel.

Continuing across the bay, we paused at the end of the island, the area we call Children’s Beach, waiting for some “flippers” to show up. I was standing there on the back deck trying to look inconspicuous when a sudden gust of wind, that I swear was over 50 grabbed my hat, flinging it rudely into the channel some seventy five airborne feet away (insert sailor language here). Fortunately, Noe who is an ex fisherman and boat handler extraordinaire whipped the boat around and deftly approached the hat-overboard. His son  reached over the side with the gaff hook, and grabbed it, depositing it on the deck. Save of the day.

We slogged on up the Brazos Santiago Pass, finding some dolphins in the line between clear and muddy water, ambushing fish and playing in the rolling swell, oblivious to the howling wind.

Heading in, I stood in the wheelhouse with Noe just passing the time, talking about our past lives as commercial fisherman. The Gulf of Mexico as you know is not my favorite spot to be in, especially when the wind is up (as usual), and the swells are closely stacked together. I told him; “yea, I’d rather fight a 20 foot Alaskan swell than a 10 foot Gulf of Mexico sea…..it makes my knees hurt just to think about it”….Noe agreed. “Right” he said, “man are we getting old or what?”. “

Then he began to tell a story about something that happened recently.

“I was working in the office on the dock when this old man came up to me. He had that look in his eyes as he got up to the front window and asked";

“Do you all fish in the same place?”

“I was confused…”

“excuse me?”.

“He said again…..do you all fish in the same place?”.

“Well I told him; we all go out there, everybody has different areas that they like, but yea, it’s all the Gulf of Mexico”….

“I think that maybe he thought there might be more than one Gulf of Mexico or something”……

“So he says”; “Oh, then you ARE going to beat the s#!t out of me!”.

“ I told him; look buddy, we don’t beat the s#!t out of anybody.”

“Yeah you do….I went out on the Osprey last week, and they beat the s#!t out of me…I was sore for a WEEK after we got back in”.

“Now I understood what he was talking about….it was rough and the boat took a pounding.”

“So the guy continues”;

“I know where those Mexican bars are”, he says pointing south. “If I wanted to get the s#!t beat out of me I would just go over there and pay $15 and have them work me over in the bar.”

" I paid 80 bucks to get the s#!t beat out of me by the Osprey."

“By this time I was already cracking up.”

“You think it’s funny?” he said.

“No sir, I said, but by now there’s no way to stop laughing....and the guy just kept getting madder”. “His face got red and he kept saying over and over again”….

”You think it’s funny?”

“Russell walked in and took one look at what was happening, and just walked out”.

“He didn’t want to add to it.".....

“Finally the guy stormed off.” “I think he was genuinely angry that I couldn’t control my laughter”….

” I guess he didn’t see anything funny with it”.

Noe spun the big boat around, gunning the engines, heading inbound up the churning Brazos Santiago Pass. Overhead, gulls, terns and pelicans wheeled in the frenetic wind, and dolphins leapt and rolled in the channel.

There was a line of kids on the bow as he turned Fish Tails into the swell, and as it fell down into the pit  a wall of water shot up peeling down both rails. Pretty soon the twins came up to the wheelhouse, both completely soaked.

I told them to tell their Mom that it was Noe’s fault.

After all, he’s the one who likes to beat the s#!t out of people.