Inside the Moon
Texas Women Anglers A2, A6 & A9
Black Smoke, Cold Beer A5
Record Hardhead A7
The
Issue 593
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
August 27, 2015
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com There they were, a work crew getting ready to start putting in a new waterline behind Doc’s and Snoopy’s when Ernie tried to head off trouble.
Live Music A16
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Diving the Nearshore Reef a Cool Experience This Season
When a Few Seconds of Video Means $317,000 Winner of Catch-and-Release tournaments decided by two quiet guys sitting at a table By Dale Rankin
“You can dig over there, but don’t dig right here or you’ll hit my waterline,” Ernie told the crew. “And if you dig right here don’t use the backhoe, do it by hand because if you use the backhoe you might bust my waterline.” A couple of days later Ernie was standing in a watery hole knee deep in wet sand digging while the guy driving the backhoe who had just busted his waterline looked on. Ernie is a patient man but it is rumored that on this occasion he might have used words not found in the Bible. We have found over the years that things go a lot better on our Island if people will just listen to Ernie; especially if they are operating backhoes around waterlines. But all ended well as the work crew got a free lunch at Snoopy’s and the city is about to let a contract to build a new road from Doc’s near the JFK Causeway, behind Snoopy’s to Marker 37. It is scheduled to be finished by next spring; that is unless they hit Ernie’s waterline again, then all bets are off.
The cool water flowing along the Coast from down Mexico way continues to arrive making near-shore water murky along beaches. Divers to the Nearshore Reef, nine miles out of Packery Channel in about 75 feet of water, report that the currents have kept visibility this season down. They say that while visibility close to the surface is only slightly less than normal, as divers approach the Kinta S, a Japanese Coastal freighter sunk
on the reef several months ago for diving, visibility drops to less than three feet due to a sand slurry swept across the area by the current, and a water temperature drop quickly to wetsuit conditions. They do report that the Red Snapper population on the reef is growing. Moon reader Mike Hurst dove on the reef last weekend and sent us these pictures.
Paddle for Parkinson’s Set for Saturday, September 5 at Billish Park
Hot weekend Once again Mother Nature reminded us this week that is it in fact both the heat and the humidity. The lack of afternoon wind most days last week drove home the humidity factor, but the heat is here folks so drink lots of water; and no, beer doesn’t count – wine maybe. This weekend will likely see a let up of OTB Tourist Traffic as the kids are all now back in school and we may have a lull before Labor Day as the week of September 4 brings us the last of the Big Tourist Crowds. But this summer the visitors from Corpus and the Coastal Bend alone have been enough to fill the beaches with door to door traffic.
Cell towers One of the ways we locals have learned to judge how many people there are on our beaches is by how long it takes to get reception on our cell phones. When The Island is awash with visitors sometimes getting even one bar of reception is difficult. Verizon has apparently noticed this and has applied for permits to build two new towers in the area; one in the 15000 block of SPID, and one on Waldron Road in Flour Bluff.
Port A golf carts The number of golf carts on the streets in Port Aransas and how they are sometimes driven by visitors has become a concern for the city. Police Chief Scott Burroughs told the City Council this week that his department received over 2,600 calls in July, and that out of 182 citations issued 51 were golf cart related.
Hurricane Season As of this writing Tropical Storm Erika is churning away way out in the Atlantic and doesn’t look like we will have to play chicken with it. El Nino has kept us relatively hurricane free this season. We are now entering what is historically the busiest time of the hurricane season for our Island. Most of the big storms we have had over the years are late in the season and low in the alphabet; Allen in August, 1980, which brought a 12-foot surge tide; Beulah in late September, 1967 which made 31 cuts through The Island; and the Last Big One, Celia, in August 1970, which brought a surge of 9.2 feet and winds so strong they literally twisted the anemometer at the Weather Service station off its
Around continued on A3
Texas Women Angler’s Tournament participants Ryan Maspero, Merideth Berry, Celeste Edwards, Sarah Davis, Ashleigh Robertson, Shana Gann – Celeste is holding the first fish she ever caught. As $30 million-plus worth of Vikings and Cabos lined up at the Roberts Point Pavilion dock on Saturday the water and wharf were abuzz with activity. The boats backed in, the water balloons flew, the announcer announced and everyone waited in dreaded anticipation for the one captain who always comes in a little too hot and smashes his transom into
the bulkhead with a ground-shaking thud, and the heartbreaking crack of fiberglass. “That won’t be cheap to fix,” someone says, while everyone in the crowd wishes it was a problem they had. The crowd cheered as the ladies in pirate-themed bikinis began to unload
Anglers continued on A6
When is it Legal to Salvage a Boat? Parky the Pelican Nine years ago Islander Mona Singleterry came up with an idea. Why not do an event to raise money to fight Parkinson’s Disease by using the natural environment here on The Island. Paddle for Parkinson’s was born. The first year it was called Catch The Cure and was a fishing tournament. but over the years the event has grown into the Island tradition that will take place at Billish Park at 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 5. While the tourists are starting to pack the beaches, locals will head to the park for a morning including a professionally timed kayak/standup paddle board relay; live music; BBQ;
Paddle continued on A2
'Parky the Pelican' was crafted by gifted local artist Sharon Craig. It was won in an aggressive bidding auction war that was part of the 2006 original Parkinson's fundraiser. Parky is a concrete statue adorned with broken chips of glass. Before attached to the sculpture, each piece of glass represents us as individuals. We all have rough edges caused by life experiences, losses, relationships, and illness. But when these fragments are brought together, they (we) become a beautiful work of art. Each one of you that has come together over the past eight years to support Paddle For Parkinson's have created the beautiful image of HOPE that shines through Parky. Photo by Mona Singleterry
Wednesday, September 9
State Representative Todd Hunter to Speak With Islanders
Part of IUPAC Winter ‘Meet and Greet’ Speaker Program By Brent Rourk In the interest of keeping Islanders informed the Island Unites Political Action Committee (IUPAC) has a series of ‘Meet and Greets’ on the Island in the next few months. Various government officials plan to inform Islanders about the latest developments. The IUPAC invites all Islanders to join our Honored Guest and Speaker State Representative Todd Hunter at Doc’s on Wednesday, September 9th
IUPAC continued on A3
No state rules for boat salvage on public property The issue was complicated by the fact that the registration numbers and other identifying items had been removed, the spot where the numbers had been had been spray painted over to make discerning the numbers even more difficult.
By Dale Rankin When the sun rose on the South Packery Jetty Saturday morning beachgoers noticed this shell of a boat, with the 115 horsepower Evinrude motor still attached, jammed up on the rocks about halfway out the jetty on the Gulf side. Immediately the phones here at the Island Moon started ringing with the question, “Is it legal to salvage the motor?”
We called the Corpus Christi office of Texas Parks and Wildlife and were referred to their Austin headquarters. They told us that when it comes to a watercraft that washes up on private property the property owner has the right to have the craft removed and, if he/she so chooses, to begin the process of getting title. If it is a safety issue, the TPW spokesperson said, then local law enforcement can authorize its removal and sell the vessel at auction
Salvage continued on A15
A little Island history
The Texas Revolution Comes to the Coastal Bend
This is the second story in a series based on the writings of Herman Ehrenberg who in 1836 immigrated to Texas from his native Germany to fight for Texas’ independence from Mexico. He fought at many of the early battles of Texas’ War for Independence and was one of the few to escape the massacre of Texian troops at a Goliad by the Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Fortunately for us Mr. Ehrenberg was a literate man who kept a full diary of his experiences in the struggle. But his journal was lost to history for 100 years until 1936 when “an ancient German manuscript was found by instructors at the University of Texas” but the language was old German that was not understood by any of the professors at the University.
San Patricio Graveyard As fate would have it a student from Refugio was working on his Master’s Degree at the time and he recognized the language as the old German dialect that his mother had taught him as a child and he translated the 100 year-old story to English and wrote it down in two versions; one is still on file at the University
of Texas Library, the other was a red-bound folder which was passed down through his family. In June, 1975, as part of the 140 anniversary of the original events the Refugio Timely Remarks newspaper printed
History continued on A15