On the Beach #21

[Riley Smith]

We decided to take a Sunday drive. Even Sunday drives need a cover story and gasoline was this excuse. It's always much cheaper in town ($.20 this time) so we filled up and then proceeded to sightsee around our little town. At a speed conducive to Sunday drives. Luckily traffic was very light and I didn't blow anyone's gasket driving like an old man.
 The leaves have finally turned color here and the invasive popcorn trees are putting on a show. The cypress trees have turned their winter reddish color too. We passed by the seafood museum and they have a pretty nice catboat for sale. And we counted empty lots and slabs on Front St. The memory of Katrina is never very far away here. 
 We drove along the shoreline around Lake Yazoo watching a young man row a very nicely refurbished small sailboat with a set of huge oars. Charlie Jones will remember that place but you'd draw a blank from most residents if you called it that name. It's the Inner Harbor to us.
 And as always, we ended the dive on Beach Blvd and Jimmy Buffett Beach. They've finally made the point at the end into a pretty nice area and it has a good boat ramp too. The big joke during high school was parking at the Point and watching the submarine races with your main squeeze. This evening there were a bunch of kids playing soccer and a food truck, so we got tacos and looked out over that view of the Gulf that every human that lives here is intimately familiar with.
 The Zumwalt was up on the drydock across the river at the shipyard, the transom adorned with a huge Z . That made me remember working on the John Hancock and that transom bearing the reproduction of that famed signature. There was a mini-carrier  (LHA) and a couple of other ships there on the "wet" docks. I call the shipyard "the yacht club of the United States."
 The Gulf was as empty as it gets, and there were no trailers at the ramp either. Probably due to the storms on Saturday. Earlier in the year, the ramp is very busy on Sunday, with boaters coming in from the islands offshore. The season is basically over now, and the flood of freshwater coming down the river from those storms will drive a nail in the coffin. It was pretty nice though; made me wish we had the catboat with us. And that Puerto Rican guy running the food truck made some of the best tacos I've ever had.

[Riley Smith]

I could have sworn I had a picture of the catboat for sale. If anyone is interested I'll get one. It's a decent boat ( I hate the color) about 16 ft on a trailer. Found it! There's a picture here: https://msmaritimemuseum.org/

[Timm R Oday25]

Oh lordy .that catboat really needs to come home with me ..

[Norm L.]

That is an interesting looking cat. That is the Yankee version with a deep hull and like a lot of northern boats, a blue hull.

I've only been in that shipyard once. It was many years ago, an insurance survey, after one of the hurricanes. One of the rail gantry cranes came adrift and went on a short walkabout down the dock. It stopped, Luckly, when one set of trucks and the rail went in different directions. Otherwise, it could have gone on to the end of the rail and possibly into the harbor.

[Riley Smith]

I try not to go close to that Siren   I do like the deep hull and the cabin is a plus ( despite my contention that  in anything under about 20' it is a colossal waste) but the metal pole and the color are red flags in my book. And I can imagine wrestling her tiller.
 That gantry story reminds me of when the water spout hit the shipyard here. There was an LHA ( read BIG ship) in the water and it BROKE the mooring and all those electrical lines too. They said it was a big fireworks display, and you can add acetylene to the mix too  because EVERYTHING broke. People on the boat were in the dark about what was happening, literally. It wound up across the river and caused a major scramble. During that time one of the gantrys sailed off the railway and went in the drink too, so it can happen very quick. I think the gantry operator managed to jump before he got wet. Happened about 1973-4 or so. Don't remember anyone getting hurt, although the gantry operator may have broken his legs. It was long ago.
 Those storms can be VIOLENT!!!! Often if they come ashore, they break up almost immediately, but THAT causes some really serious fluctuations in the ether. And you've never seen lightning until that happens.