When we were at Blue Dolphin about a year and a half ago, there was a, let’s say family, of ducks that we would feed Cheerios to. I’m not sure that’s Leave No Trace agreeable, but every morning they’d paddle over to Emet and “quack, quack, quack . . .” It was time for breakfast. And then again in the evening. “Quack, quack, quack . . .”
They had us trained pretty well.
All told, there must have been 8 to 10 ducks. Caroline loved feeding them and the dogs and our cat got in on the Cheerios action as well.
We left and went to Harborwalk and honestly, the ducks slipped my mind as time went on. There were pelicans and cranes and alligators and dolphins and jumping fish to occupy my interest, though we didn’t interact with any of the wildlife over there.
Then we came back.
Jodi was on the dock waiting for Emet to slide into her slip and she said that the minute Emet got into the slip the ducks came out paddling and quacking. “Quack, quack, quack . . . Where’s our Cheerios?” There were only 2, a male and female. She asked me if I thought they remembered us. Of course they did. No ducks just randomly swim up to a boat and start quacking. Especially as close as they got to the boat with us on it.
It’s delightful to have friends in nature welcome you back “home”.
And the sunrises. Sunrises and sunsets never get old. They were beautiful at Harborwalk and they’re beautiful here still, too.
The one significant difference between Harborwalk and Blue Dolphin, at least in the slips we are in at BD, is the sailboat “noise”. The halyards and lines tapping and singing in the wind against masts and rigging. Some people find it annoying. I enjoy it. As long as it’s not on our boat. The rhythmic “clang, clang, clang, clang” in the night is comforting and relaxing.
We didn’t get that at Harborwalk as there weren’t as many sailboats and owners were pretty religious about tying the lines up to prevent any noise. Mainly because it was marina policy. Their loss I suppose.
All things being equal, it’s nice to be back.