Inside the Moon
Island Frogmen A4
Turtle Report A6
Fishing A7
Sports A8
The
Issue 578
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
May 14, 2015
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
Seashore Students A15
The Great Flood A16
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Island power hangs by a thread. Story on A9. Photo by Miles Merwin & Joey Farah
Schlitterbahn Officials: Most Major Rides Expected Open by End of May
Island Underwater!
Does anyone know where to get any gopher wood? And how many inches in an Egyptian royal cubit? And does anyone know a guy named Noah? Because the way things are going on our little sandbar it isn’t going to be long before we need an ark. As of this writing we are under a Tornado Watch after yet another night of heavy rain and a report of a small tornado on Mustang Island. The storm Tuesday night dropped 7.1 inches of rain into the gauges at the Naval Air Station reminding us that El Nino will have his way. The average annual rainfall hereabouts is 35 inches, to get 20% of that in one day is something that usually only happens around here when we have a hurricane. According to the Weather Wonks El Nino is still it his early stages and will remain in the Pacific through most of the summer meaning, according to their predictions, a slightly cooler and wetter summer than is normal, and a relatively docile hurricane season. Take off your shoes and roll up your pants everybody. It’s going to be an interesting summer.
It came out of the sky David and Beth Zilar were minding their own business, watching television in their home on Dasmarinas Sunday night when it happened; a thunk against their house. “It’s a break-in!” they thought. The police were called. There were a tense few moments until Dave discovered the thunksource. In the backyard he found this prone drone which had fallen from the sky in an act of nature over technology as gravity won the day. The first question that pops to mind is whether the same salvage law that says an object dropped by a tuber in the Guadalupe belongs to the dropper until it hits the bottom, at which point it becomes salvage. We know this because a scuba diving friend of ours used to sit on the bottom at Huaco Falls and collect wrist watches, sunglasses, rings, and wallets that tubers lost as they hit the falls. He carried a shotgun, as none of the droppers were the least bit happy to see him emerge with their possessions. At what point does a thunking drone become the property of the owner of terra firma where it alights? Deep questions these. We’re happy to report the drone in question was returned to the owner who came knocking looking for his missing flying machine.
Busy Island Weekend The Island Moon Artwalk is this Saturday, May 16th, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Veranda Restaurant at Schlitterbahn. Meanwhile an army of runners will descend on The Island as the Beach to Bay run takes to Island streets. The net effect on Island traffic is that going OTB will be slow until late morning and then things will get back to normal. It is a great event which begins on the beach near Bob Hall and literally runs all the way downtown. We’ll see you out there. In the meantime, say hello if you see us Around The Island.
This stairway (above) will take parks visitors to a platform at the top of this pole (right) as part of a ride on the park’s northern end.
Canals behind Island houses are no big deal, but recent rains, more than 7 inches recorded in Flour Bluff in one night, have turned converted Island streets into canals in front of Island houses this week. The rainy season is expected to continue through the summer as El Nino dominates weather pattern throughout the summer season.
With less than three weeks before the kickoff of the summer tourist season officials at the Schlitterbahn waterpark said Wednesday they expect the major rides at the park, including the Master Blaster, Boogie Bahn surfrider, and 8000-foot long Transportainment River which moves visitors from ride to ride, to all be complete and open by the end of May.
the three Archimedes Pumps which collectively power the water for all of the park’s water rides.
The last of the “rough pour” concrete work, the foundation of the rides, is set for this week and once complete finishing work on the rides will begin, they said. All of the five water pumps in the park are now installed as are
The last of the major rides, the Chute to Shoot which rises above the terrain at the south end of the park, will not be open until later in the summer, they said, when an official Grand Opening will be held.
For more flooding pictures see Page A16.
Through the Eye of the Storm Aboard VIKING By Richard L. Watson and Betsy A. Churgai Editor's note: this is the first in a four part series by Dr. Richard Watson about sailing his boat through Tropical Storm Dottie.
Simpson’s Death Draws Attention to Need for Highway Improvements
The Patriot Riders of South Texas Motorcycle Club placed a memorial at the site on State Highway 361 where Corpus Christi Police Chief Floyd Simpson was killed in a motorcycle accident on Sunday, May 2. Simpson’s death has focused attention on the need for improvements to the road system between the JFK Causeway on Padre Island and the ferry landings in Port Aransas which is dissected by the city limits of Port Aransas and Corpus Christi.
Photo by Ronnie Narmour. On the Port Aransas end, the Port Aransas City Council is set to discuss plans for improvements to the road
The Viking at sea
Highway continued on A5
A little Island history
Let it be! Let it be! Piggy Perch can be the Answer!
Editor’s note: Bobbie Kimbrell is a retired commercial fisherman who moved to Flour Bluff in 1943. By Bobbie Kimbrell Once upon a time piggy perch were the favorite bait for catching speckled trout. Partially because the piggies have soft fins and make the grunting noise very similar to the noise a young pig makes. The piggies also have a more distinct color than pin perch which makes for a camouflage color when feeding in the grassy bottom and more attractive when pinned to a hook in the open water. If there is any trout nearly about one pop of the popping cork is about all you need to lure the trout into the piggy. The best way to catch piggies is with a clover leaf parch trap made of hardware cloth or plastic. Bait the trap with one or two partially crushed up blue crabs and make the opening of the trap smaller so the larger pin perch cannot get into the trap and eat up
Piggy Perch all of the bait. Bait the trap in two or three feet of water about daylight and wait about an hour before you run it. if no blue crabs are available for bait the next best bait is a double handful of drum guts and gills or the filleted backbone of drum. In my early days of commercial fishing we caught pond perch with a small, six-foot pole and line, baiting the perch hook with a tiny piece of peeled shrimp or small pieces of fish guts. We baited the trotlines with the pin perch to
catch trout and an occasional redfish. If we happened to catch a piggy, we had a rod and reel at the ready and you usually caught a trout for every piggy you pinned on. While catching the pin perch, if the water was clear sometimes you would see a small trout about one foot long run into the school of pin perch that fought over the baited hook. If so we kept the rod and reel baited with a piece of peeled
History continued on A5
1976 The August weather couldn't have been nicer the day we set sail: enough wind to gently fill the sails of our 46' sloop rigged sailboat, VIKING. The blue, blue sky and white, puffy balls of cottony clouds were a perfect sendoff. Our adventure, the return leg of an offshore cruise from Ocean City, N.J. to St. Petersburg, Fl. seemed to be getting off to a fantastic start. If only we had known what was in store! Spirits were high, as the getting underway chores were cheerfully accomplished. We waved to the small boat sailors we passed enroute to the Atlantic. They looked at us a trifle wistfully --there is always something mystical about going down to sea in wooden ships. Our crew, with the exception of myself as captain, was unseasoned, but it was the time ineach of our lives for an honest-to-goodness-adventure -- the kind that one always daydreams about, but usually ends up reading in a book. After all, it takes courage to embark on a voyage of this magnitude - to forsake friends and family for the unknown. Others aboard recalled the traffic jams, and over-priced crowded shopping centers, and thought, “Surely life is more than this.” So we returned to primitive conditions: kerosene lanterns, no running water and no air conditioning. To us, however, the trade was well worth it. We opted to sail offshore: taking the safe inland waterway was not feasible, as VIKING is powered only by sail. Without an engine, it would have been impossible to negotiate the many bridges and narrow waterways. As it was hurricane season, the crew regularly monitored the hourly marine weather broadcasts in order to learn the position of any tropical storms or hurricanes so that we could either run to a harbor for shelter or
Watson continued on A4