Photos by Patrick Kelliher
Issue 547
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The voice of The Island since 1996
The Island Moon
October 9, 2014 Around The Island By Dale Rankin
editor@islandmoon.com Here we are in October already staring up at the Harvest Moon just daring us to reach out and touch it. Our Indian friends call it Full Blood Moon, Full Dying Grass Moon, and Full Big Wind Moon. It’s that last one that got the attention of the folks over at the Lakewood Yacht Club near Galveston and in 1987 the Harvest Moon Regatta was born. Houston has the third largest concentration of sailboats in the Continental United State and this weekend a large portion of them will come rounding through the jetties into Port Aransas for the Harvest Moon Regatta after an overnight sail from up Galveston way.
The Island With Three Seasons: Tourist, Winter Texan & Turtle
Island projects
Design for SPID Water Exchange Bridge Released
The recent rains have us all doing the Skeeter Dance these days as the little buggers just keep buzzing around our ears. We’ve all broken out the Port A Perfume and hope for the best.
The drawings show a 48-foot wide span over the canal with a clearance of 14 feet, flanked by two 36-foot wide pedestrian paths each with 8 feet of clearance. Plans call for the bridge to span a canal which will cross under SPID at a point near what was formerly the 11th green on the former Padre Isles Golf Course; the exact location is now marked by a canal on the west side of the roadway.
Proposed Water Exchange Bridge Plans on Page A15 Bridge continued on A15
Vector Control has engaged but so far has not made it OTB so we’ve pretty much been on our own. They put out a sort of disclaimer this week basically saying, “Yea, we’re spraying, but don’t get your hopes up.” Here’s what they said: “The pesticide dissipates very quickly when it comes in contact with the ground, especially if there is any dew. Even then, the fogger only kills the mosquitoes that are actually airborne and come in direct contact with the pesticide at the time of the spraying, so it is not effective for any great period of time. Since the fog only kills the airborne mosquitoes, it is estimated the fog only kills one third of the total mosquito population.”
Riley P. Dog
Adopt-ABeach Cleanup Expedition
Sign-up Now For Four Wheel Fun in The Sun October 11 Competitive beach combing returns to Padre Island National Seashore, Saturday, Oct. 11 for the second annual Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup Expedition, a competitive, teambased, four-wheel drive beach cleanup for cash prizes.
OTB by any other name Speaking of OTB, you may have noticed some folks around town wearing tee shirts with OTB on them. At first we were excited because we thought Off Track Betting was coming but it turned out we were just thinking Outside The Box. The term we have been using for years to describe leaving our Island to make a grocery run has now been co-opted to refer to leaving downtown Corpus Christi and going Over The Bridge – but not to The Island – to North Beach.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then we’re all a-tingle. The good news this week is that autumn temperatures dipped below 90; the bad news is that so did the price of oil. So hang in there everybody, and say hello if you see us Around The Island.
By Mary Craft When autumn rolls around the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna head to the waters off of Ballantyne Cove, Nova Scotia for six weeks to gorge on herring before heading across the pond to the Mediterranean or south
to the relatively balmy waters of the Gulf of Mexico to spawn.
Once at the beach, they will break into eight teams of four members each and begin competing for cash
Expedition continued on A3
Inside the Moon
So when autumn rolls around Port Aransas Captain Dee Wallace also makes the trip to Nova Scotia
Bluefin continued on A3
Community and Home Garden Tours Stop and smell the roses on October 18 By David Dunseth On Saturday, October 18 at 9 a.m. at Douden Park there will be an official opening of the recently completed 20-plot section of the community vegetable garden and a dedication of the entre 80-plot complex. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. It would be especially appreciated for gardeners with a plot to be present and express their appreciation to the people responsible for the installation and maintenance of the garden area. The community garden and the adjacent butterfly garden will be open with gardeners on hand to answer questions about growing plants. On this same morning from 10 a.m. -1 p.m. the Island Gardeners Club is sponsoring a free garden tour of the butterfly garden and six residential gardens. Homeowners and club members will provide information
Storms on the Chesapeake A6
on the identification and cultivation of plants. Maps with the location of homes are available in advance at the POA office and on the tour date at each of the homes as well as the community garden. Also, signs will be posted on streets to direct attendees to the locations.
Airtales A6
These two events are an excellent, enjoyable opportunity for The Islanders to stop and smell the roses. So mark you calendars and we’ll see you there.
Adopt-A-Beach Clean-up a Success
Sign up now at http://www.cvent. com/d/h4qrhs/1Q. But hurry -- as of Friday, Oct. 3, only four spots remain available and reservations are required. Contestants will arrive at the Malaquite Visitor’s Center, 20420 Park Road 22, at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 11. They will then be loaded into four-wheel drive vehicles and taken to a remote section of Padre Island National Seashore.
The last time we saw Vector Control on The Island was last year when Riley P. Dog took matters into his own paws and from the sound of the Vector Control press release his spraying might have done just about as much good as theirs. Good luck everybody.
Captain Dee Goes for Bluefin in Nova Scotia
By Dale Rankin
Skeeter Dance
Port a perfume
Weekly
Traffic light at SPID/Aquarius intersection Ten years after voters approved bonds to build a water exchange bridge connecting the Island canal system to o Lake Padre, Packery Channel, and the Gulf of Mexico the city this week released designed drawings for the $8.3 million bridge. City staffers, with City Manager Ron Olson in attendance, told the Island Strategic Action Committee (ISAC) Tuesday night they expect final approval of the plans from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers within sixty days. However, no firm date for the start of construction or completion of the bridge was given.
The Port Aransas Art About is also this weekend so the town will be full of artists and sailors hopped up on moonlight, we ask you fellow Islanders, what could be more better than that?
FREE
Fishin with Farah A7 Posing before cleaning the beach the Seashore Middle Academy Builders Club prepares to put on their gloves and hats. Story and photosy by Brent Rourk Sporadic rain throughout Friday evening on the island as well as high tides and water-covered beaches would ordinarily discourage most civic-minded volunteers from
A little Island history
The State Can Keep the Cannons – Just Give Me the Gold!
Editor’s note: This story is the latest in a series from the book Islands at the Edge of Time by Gunnar Hansen written about his visit to Padre Island in 1992. In the last issue Islander Gene (Frenchy) French had just discovered the location of the wreck of the Spanish treasure ship Espiritu Santo near Mansfield Pass. By Gunnar Hansen With two friends he dove on the site and found bronze spikes and four gold coins. Astrolabes, coins and other artifcts There had to be more buried recovered from Padre shipwrecks. under the sand. By now he “They said, ‘Frenchy you’re crazy,’ was convinced he had one of the I said, ‘Were the h--- do you think I 1554 fleet. The salvage would tak got this stuff? Do you think I salted more divers and more equipment the mine?’ Anyway, no one wanted – a diving boat and prop blaster to to finance me. So I said, ‘Well, to clear the sand away from the buried h--- with it, I’ll just do it myself. It’s treasure. Unfortunately no one would History continued on A5 invest the money he needed.
spending a Saturday morning cleaning our beaches, however, the turn-out last Saturday was fabulous according to local North Padre Island Kiwanis Club members who staffed
Cleanup continued on A4
On the Rocks A7
A little Port A history
Mrs. Blackard and Board of Education
By Jackie Bales “You can come out now if you think you can behave yourself”, it was Mrs. Blackard, fourth and fifth grade teacher at H. G. Olsen elementary in Port Aransas. She was peering at me under her big wraparound desk where she sent me for time out. “What are you doing”, she had suddenly become very concerned. I could not speak. The answer was evident as I wiped the apple juice from my chin. Yes it was a juicy and crunchy apple. She franticly inspected the debris field. “Did you eat my lunch”? I didn’t consider that the question needed a reply. Yes, I ate the ham sandwich. I ate the corn chips, the apple and the moon pie. At the time I was just
Blackard continued on A8
Battle of Britain A13
Live Music A16