Porch
Oh so many things to love about living up here, not the least being the traffic on the Bay. The clouds, the Bay itself in various moods. Looking across and over Shell Island into the Gulf. The sea life below, minnows, skates, rays, mullet, sharks now and then chasing their dinner, once or twice a porpoise.
And the birds, seagulls, heron, osprey carrying a fish, many pelicans.
The pelicans fly east early morning, back west every evening, sometimes single or double, but most noticeably in long v-flights of a six, eight, a dozen or twenty. The v-flights are interesting in that there may be fifteen pelicans on one wing of the formation and only two or three or four in the other wing. How the flight leader comes to lead I don’t know, maybe there's an alpha bird, but as they sail along, when the leader flaps wings, the flapping works back one bird at a time to the last bird at the end. Jeremy got these photographs from the porch when they were here the end of June.
Parasailers, especially over Shell Island to the south, and out over the Gulf along Thomas Drive to the west of us. Not much air traffic, little from Tyndall unless an exercise is in progress.
And the birds, seagulls, heron, osprey carrying a fish, many pelicans.
The pelicans fly east early morning, back west every evening, sometimes single or double, but most noticeably in long v-flights of a six, eight, a dozen or twenty. The v-flights are interesting in that there may be fifteen pelicans on one wing of the formation and only two or three or four in the other wing. How the flight leader comes to lead I don’t know, maybe there's an alpha bird, but as they sail along, when the leader flaps wings, the flapping works back one bird at a time to the last bird at the end. Jeremy got these photographs from the porch when they were here the end of June.
Parasailers, especially over Shell Island to the south, and out over the Gulf along Thomas Drive to the west of us. Not much air traffic, little from Tyndall unless an exercise is in progress.
And interesting people. There’s a gate in the Harbour Village garage and residents and guests come and go, playing on the beach and wading. Others too, as Oaks by the Bay city park is next door, and people wander down the boardwalks and onto the decks, thence to the beach. We often see weddings on the beach below our porch. In the pure white beach sand last week someone formed a huge sign in seaweed, TIFFANY WILL YOU MARRY ME? There are folks in canoes and kayaks and standing up paddling water boards. Now and then someone comes up close in a small boat to cast-net for mullet. Several times since we’ve been here, someone, evidently tourists renting the boat for the day, have tried to shortcut across too close in, only to run aground and have to jump out and push the pontoon boat off the sand, as it’s pretty shallow here.
Most interesting to me is the seagoing traffic. ShrimpBoats back and forth all night long. Weekdays the Navy comes and goes in a couple of large smallcraft, keeping strict office hours, out at eight thirty and back in time for Happy Hour, though I haven’t run a timeclock on them. Friday afternoon we watched one of the Navy craft being towed back into port. Two large Navy ships stationed here come and go, both odd looking creations. Some small ships, commercial vessels, entering and leaving, but most interesting are the large ships, entering the Pass, some headed straight east to the paper mill or Eastern Shipbuilding, but most turning at the hairpin into the near channel and coming a stone's throw from our porch enroute to the Port. Beyond Shell Island we sometimes see ships standing offshore in the Gulf for a day or so waiting to enter port.
Watching the tallest ships as they enter the Pass, out of sight beyond Courtney Point but superstructure, bridge and masts visible above the trees, moving into the Bay. The largest usually have one or more tugs waiting for them, the other side of Redfish Point if headed east, just off our porch here if headed for the Port of Panama City. Can’t say anything about their use of pilots, because only once have I seen a pilot boat, “pilot” painted on both sides. Most of the ships are regulars here, calling in and out, and the Vessel Schedule emailed by the Port Authority tells owner, ship name, ship size, arrival and departure date, cargo, last port of call and next port of call.
Watching the tallest ships as they enter the Pass, out of sight beyond Courtney Point but superstructure, bridge and masts visible above the trees, moving into the Bay. The largest usually have one or more tugs waiting for them, the other side of Redfish Point if headed east, just off our porch here if headed for the Port of Panama City. Can’t say anything about their use of pilots, because only once have I seen a pilot boat, “pilot” painted on both sides. Most of the ships are regulars here, calling in and out, and the Vessel Schedule emailed by the Port Authority tells owner, ship name, ship size, arrival and departure date, cargo, last port of call and next port of call.
Waverunners or JetSkis are numerous, small personal boats heading across to Shell Island and back. Spectacular last week was being up here on the seventh floor to watch the PC fireworks for the Fourth of July. More than the pyrotechnics were the boats gathered from one end of the Bay to the other, mostly concentrated over by Shellfish Point, “thousands” may be an exaggeration, but there were hundreds of boats. Police boats, Coast Guard boats.
Just to the east of us, the other side of the city park, a long dock juts way out into the Bay. Looks to be in good condition, boathouse at the end, with a tin roof. Someone fishes near it, including someone with a light at night, sometimes every day for weeks, then nobody for months. But in our six months living here I’ve never once seen anyone out on the pier.
Saturday afternoon Linda noticed someone lying on his back beside a jet ski in the shallow water just offshore, some yards out. Neighbors also had spotted him and in a few minutes a neighbor ran out to him and found that he was in distress. He may have run the waverunner aground and been thrown from the craft. A woman on the next balcony, sixth floor, called 911 and in short order police and EMS were on the scene. They strapped him onto a board and carried him away.