Sandbar Safety

Rockport, Texas

Morning Edition

The gentle alarm went off right on time at 6:10 am this morning. My hand reached over and turned it off. A nice big stretch and it was 8:45am. WOW what happened?Bedtime last night was 10:15 pm and sleep was almost instantaneous when my head hit the pillow. The aching muscles this morning tell the tale of all the fresh exercise yesterday.

The continuous sharp edge of summer heat seems to be dulling a little. The daytime temps are still in the mid 90’s, but the night time temps are starting to drop below 80 by morning. Yesterday it was only 75 at 7:00am, a virtual snow storm for the area. Since it is too late into the heat and humidity to do vigorous exercise, the question is what is next. Just for the information of it, arthritic fingers do not necessarily go where they used to when touch typing. Bye, it is play time.

Night Edition

The afternoon was full of surprises. The Truck decided to carry me down to the beach for a long walk. First stop was the Aransas Pass jetty. The water is beautiful and not many folks were there. For some unknown reason it was chosen not to stop there.

Let’s go see what else is happening down the island, Mustang Island that is. After some meandering, we made a grand entry to the State Park on the island. When the Truck got to the cross roads in the park, my goal was the "Fish Pass that is not a pass anymore" jetties to the left. That darn Truck grabbed it’s grill in it’s teeth again and turned right to the longer beach. That was actually the better choice today. It is horrible when the Truck is right.

However the sand was very powdery. When a spot was chosen and we tried to back up toward the water, the rear wheels started to dig in when the front wheels were turned. OK. Into 4wd and pull forward. Still in 4wd another spot that looked less soft was tried going forward and it worked.

The beach was nearly deserted. No one was within at least a half mile either direction. The water was beautiful and the surf fairly flat.

The water was very inviting. My body had the wrong clothes on for wading, cotton. Too bad body and into the water we go. It was wonderful. This next shot was taken from a good ways out into the surf.
All knowledgeable beach runners know this next trick. The first thing is to mark the water line so you can judge if the tide is going in or out and how much. That way you know when to get back farther on the beach. Here is my mark in front of the truck. It was a good deal because before we left the water had risen enough to erase the mark.
An almost disaster happened out in the waves. For the first hour or so, fishing had been the game. Then it was time to take some more pictures for the blog. Back to the truck and drop off the fishing rod and equipment Grab the camera and wade back out. When the water got to waist deep an extra size wave gave me a big splash and got some salt water onto the camera. There was nothing to dry the camera. My shirt was completely wet from that wave. Oh Well. My equipment is for using not looking cute.

How about a shot of the waves from my level! These are only 1 to 1.5 foot waves so it was fairly gentle. That white froth of the breaking wave is the next sandbar out.
Right after the last picture, my attempt to go to the next sandbar out was aborted. When the distance to the bar was down to about fifteen feet, it was deep enough that my body would float when a wave passed. The alongshore current would in that time of floating move me down beach eight to ten feet. This is in my experience bank from years past. As you get closer to the bar, the current gets stronger. If the right equipment had been in my possession, it would have been and easy swim to the bar where the water looked to be about a foot deep. Since the correct safety equipment was not with me, the only thing to do was turn back. It will have to wait another day.

A short walk was taken along the dunes while my clothing dried out some or at least quit dripping. While up on a high dune, it was noticed that this car is up on a dune nearly turned over. It appeared to have been there for at least a couple of days. It looks like and old classic. Hopefully the owners will be coming back to retrieve it.
The last thing of the trip was to take a picture of a dune scene that seemed very nice to me. As you know, dunes are one of my favorite scenes to enjoy. This one even includes a couple of birds.
Back at the Castle the plan was to go play nine holes of golf about 5 pm. My body said NO when 5 pm came around. It was too tired from fighting all the wave action for over two hours. At least it is guaranteed it was a great day for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM