Inside the Moon
La Posada 2015 A5
Seashore Reading A6
Issue 608
The
Fishing A7
Enchanted Forest A9
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
December 10, 2015
14646 Compass, Suite 3 Corpus Christi, TX 78418
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com It looks like the weather will hold for the La Posada Lighted Boat Parades on Friday and Saturday nights so fire up the blender. We’ve reached the part of the Island calendar when we are bracing ourselves for what passes for winter on our little sandbar. It’s the time of year when Island women ask two questions when they meet a new fellow: First, do you own a car? If the answer is yes then the second question is, do you live in it? If the answer to both questions is yes then you probably have got yourself a scallywag looking for a winter hibernation site. Run!
IPR One of the questions we often get this time of year concerns party etiquette during the La Posada parades. When is it acceptable to attend (crash) a party you weren’t technically invited to? Moon Mike had a rule he called his Island Party Rule. The IPR states that if you have heard about a party then you are invited. If someone tells you they are going to a party then under the IPR you are invited. The same applies if you are in the parade and pull up to a deck where a good party is going on; tie up and join in.
Port A Christmas A11 Photo by Ronnie Narmour
Free
Weekly
FREE
New Navigation Aids for Packery Channel
By Dale Rankin
Packery Channel will soon have new navigational aids if the Corpus Christi City Council approves $60,941 in funding during its December 15 meeting. The plan presented to the council this week calls for an interlocal agreement with the Conrad Blucher Institute at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi which will install and maintain the aids which will consist of channel markers and lights at certain locations, according to information provided to council members this week. The Corpus Christi Parks and Recreation Department – Gulf Beach and Natural Resources Division
is responsible for the navigational aids on Packery Channel. When the Packery Channel was opened in 2006, navigation aids were installed as per US Coast Guard specifications, but since that time, many of the ATONs have been damaged or destroyed. The City of Corpus Christi was notified by the US Coast Guard in October 2014 that many of the navigational aids on Packery Channel were not in compliance with the Eighth Coast Guard District Private Aids to Navigation Marking Requirements and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Permit for the channel. If the contract is approved by the city council the Blucher Institute would have until June, 2016 to install the devices.
Santa Visits the Island
Received Lengthy Toy Request
Coyote Lounge
By Brent Rourk
increase in excitement.
Entering by the dozens, children dragging their parents, families filed into the St. Andrews By the Sea Catholic Church on Saturday to enjoy a free breakfast and to see and chat with Santa Claus. Mr. and Mrs. Claus paid their annual Christmas visit to the Island and took careful notice of Island child Christmas lists. Sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Padre Island the popular event was again free to the public, with the request that attendees donate a toy to the less fortunate.
Children quickly visited with Santa and the Elves as a local photographer snapped pictures.
Breakfast and Elves
The Friday night parade on the north end of The Island kicks off at 6 p.m. and the Saturday parade is at 7 p.m. For complete information on routes and registration see the forms in this issue. This is the weekend The Island shines and there will likely be a swarm of parade-watchers from OTB so give yourself time to get to your
An Islander in Cuba
party destination on Saturday night. If you have toys to donate to Toys for Tots keep an eye out for the boats with flashing lights and they will come to your deck. If for some reason you are unable to make contact with a collector boat you can drop toys at the Padre Island Yacht Club Sunday morning. Look for us in the Island Moon boat and we’ll see you on the water. It’s time to La Posada everybody!
Schedule & Map Page A5
Port Aransas resident Zahn Accompanied Governor on Cuban Trade Mission
By Dale Rankin
Facing Santa Most children loved visiting with Santa, and one young girl took Santa a stuffed animal gift, thankful for what Santa does for the children of the world. There were, however, several young children who were
The delegation represented a cross section of Texans; small business owners, agricultural managers, and representatives of the major Texas ports. Two of those aboard represented the first attempt by the Port of Corpus Christi to prepare for trade with Cuba as U.S./Cuban relations begin to thaw and one of those representatives was Islander and Vice-Chairman of the port Charlie Zahn.
Zahn wth Governor Greg Abbott
A renovated house in Havana once owned by a Mafia Don.
“It was like stepping off the airplane into the 1950s,” Zahn said. “Our ride was a 1956 Chevy Bel Air.” The foreign trade visit was Zahn’s second with Abbot, the first being to Mexico City. The Cuba visit was to establish relationships with an eye toward future opportunities. “Cuba imports 80% of its food,” he said. “Right now the Port of Corpus Christi exports $183,000 per year in beans to Cuba, but there are many other things we could be sending if the embargo is lifted.”
The new US embassy in Cuba
Prior to the embargo Cuba imported much of its rice from the Port of Beaumont and food and medical
Cuba continued on A5
A little Island history
La Posada Lighted Boat Parade has a Rich Tradition
By Dale Rankin
Barefoot Mardi Gras
Around continued on A3
Elves (Islanders who attend Seashore Middle Academy) scurried around the building, ambitiously refilling coffee, juice and milk and then cleaning tables while children posed with Santa and parent picked up free photographs. The scent of pancakes and sausage filled the room until the grills were turned off and the last child visited Santa.
Santa continued on A8
It seems naugahyde is in for coyote dens this year. Who knew!?
Secondly, there will be an afternoon festival event in the parking lot of the Briscoe King Pavilion. In past years there has been a gap between the end of the beach parade and the start of the Kings and Queens Ball at 6 p.m. so the new event is designed to fill the gap. There will be live music and vendors, and a kid’s play area.
If you are near an Island canal Friday or Saturday nights watch out for flying candy. The weather looks to be perfect for the 41st La Posada Lighted Boat Parade so expect a flotilla of candy-flinging crews to hit the water.
Onboard were a group of about thirty Texans who would meet with Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz and Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Vice President of the Council of Ministers, the government’s top executive and administrative body, who oversees foreign trade, foreign investment and other economic matters and has been a close associate of the Castro brothers since the Cuban Revolution.
We hope that helps.
The 2016 Barefoot Mardi Gras Parade will be early on Saturday, February 6, and there are a couple of changes this year. First, the beach parade will start on the beach at the end of Whitecap. In the past it has started at the access road just south of Whitecap but it has outgrown the route and more parking was needed so the route has been lengthened.
La Posada Weekend!
When the small jet lifted off from Austin last week headed for Cuba it was the first time a Texas Governor had visited Cuba since the revolution nearly sixty years ago.
Be aware that a corollary of the IPR is that whether you are technically invited or directly invited bring you own beverages. If Island partythrowers had to provided beverages for all their guests they would need financing.
A while back some human dropped off two couches in the brush just south of Verdemar Street. Since no humans were using the couches a pack of coyotes decided to settle in on the new furniture. When Islander Lonnie Schwirtlich happened on the pack they were settled into their couches but scattered when he approached, all except this guy who stuck around to make sure Lonnie knew who owned the furniture.
Live Music A16
A scrumptious breakfast, prepared by a handy kitchen staff of Kiwanis Club members, helped wake up Islanders as they patiently waited for Santa and Mrs. Claus to appear. Once Santa entered, there was a noticeable
As we swing into the 41st year of the La Posada Lighted Boat Parade this weekend we are taking a look back to where it all began; with an idea among Island boaters. It started in the early 1970s when Island houses were rare. The informal “parade” started at the Club House at Anchor Resort which was the original home of the Padre Island Sailing Society by a group of sailing enthusiasts who liked the acronym. Boaters began making an annual pilgrimage from dock party to dock party – a very informal affair. Then in 1974 with the Gospel books of the Bible in mind Bishop Thomas J. Drury from the Diocese of Corpus Christi decided to begin
Thousands of toys are collected each year for Toys for Tots during La Posada blessing the fleet in commemoration of the search by Mary and Joseph for lodging as described in the Bible going from house to house in their symbolic search for shelter. The
boaters decorated their boats and sang Christmas carols at each stop. In the beginning the boats set out from the canal across the street
History continued on A4