Polly Anna Gulf Shrimp Boat

johnt75, on May 21, 2007, said:

If you want to get a good idea just how big this shrimp boat is, just zoom in on Google Earth. I marked the picture on the actual boat. Notice how much larger it is compared to any of the other boats in the area. This is a monster shrimp boat.

©Würmer, on July 5, 2007, said:

seems like a rather ordinary sized Texas shrimper... (maybe they are smaller elsewhere ?!? ;-)

one has to consider THE SIZE of Texas shrimps, too. Everything's bigger in Texas... ;-)

p.s.: noticed those flopper-stoppers dangling off the end of the outriggers? I was impressed by how much of a difference flying those made (~15 feet underwater)

BillWilliam, on September 12, 2008, said:

There are local or "bay boats" that stay near shore or shrimp in the bays and "offshore boats" (my term) that may stay out for a month or more and go as far as Central America shrimping. Thay may offload their haul in Central America for heading and packaging then pick it up and bring it home for sale. This is where the big brown shrimp come from. For the very best shrimp go get some "live bait" shrimp and boil them. use your favorite shrimp boil and have a little butter in the water. Like all fish the fresher the better.

BillWilliam, on September 12, 2008, said:

As you can see from the scale in the lower left the shrimp boat is about 100' long. most of these size boats dock in Aransas Pass at Conn Brown Harbor. Look over there and you will see a lot of shrimpers in the 100' range. I have rode boats to offshore drilling rigs and on bad days a 125' boat is too small. I have been on a rig when the seas were running 37'. No boats left shore. When we landed in the chopper the pilot said the wind was blowing 55 knots. For most of the 2 weeks I was there no boats could come out. We almost ran out of everything including food. The cooks were great at improvising what they had. We are watching hurracane Ike so that is why I am thinking about storms. When working offshore every job is an adventure with a story. Some you do not tell.

©Würmer, on September 13, 2008, said:

worse than being on an offshore rig is getting caught in a boat on the open water in such weather. Grown men cry... if they are still in good enough shape to do even that!

BillWilliam, on November 28, 2008, said:

Hi Bart, I'll pass on the life as a sailor. When I was younger it sounded like fun. After seeing what the sea looks like from the safety of a semi submersible 70' above the water the thrill of sailing a small vessel across the Gulf faded. The vessel I was on was the sister to the one that turned upside down near Nova Scotia. When they were setting the anchors for the rig I was on one of the anchors slipped a little sideways going into the water, it took the 220' work boat with it. No one was badly hurt.

©Würmer, on November 29, 2008, said:

I'll pass on the life as a sailor.

well, I did! ...at first, at least! (the attempted second kidnap episode of my life, when...) The draft noticed arrived, stating "Report June First to that-there Navy Base" (pointing to the other end of the country, which I had never been near to before, nor ever felt a desire to). I fought them, until June 1 passed and I was reassigned to defend NATO (from the French in the west?) from a base in the southern Rhine valley (not a bad place to be if you like food and wine ...AND get paid a living to afford it -- and there was the rub!). Well, I scared 'em silly, so it worked (or was it me?)!

thanks for that "nice" story about your experiences on a rig at sea... I won't bother making you envious telling stories of my stint in that industry, living in a brand new house trailer in a country club on the shores of Lake Maracaibo... where speed-boots would take you out after breakfast and bring you back home from the drilling rig for "lunch and a little siesta" ...before taking you back out for a couple of hours to check on progress of whatever task or experiment one was taking care of that day... but, nope, I wouldn't want to have to do "often", such things get boring quickly. So I had my own little plane (kind of a 2+2, like an antique Porsche: either +2 kids or +2 suitcases -- makes for wonderful weekend outings into the Andes or Llanos or a quick evening flight (30 minutes) out to Curacao or Aruba for "dinner and a change of action". That got boring too... better than the daily commute through Caracas traffic though, where I could barely keep myself from buying a houseboat anchored about 90 miles north (inside a beautiful coral reef lagoon) and commuting to work with a (home-built and maintained) little 2-seater chopper using a VW-engine... just as fast, even cheaper than most new cars then... but, no sir, it wasn't that tempting to overendulge on lobsters and all the other maritime goodies that fishermen would bring in large quantities (at little or no cost, given that you were their best buddy AND "the best and fastest ride to town" ...and master of favors, like same-day-delivery from the big city of something urgently needed... otherwise unaffordable and unavailable at any price). I figured out all on my own that "that stress alone" would kill me, if the weather didn't do first...

...but cruising the Caribbean, circumnavigating the North-American continent (using the inner-coastal waterways mostly, competing in regattas on those huge lakes everywhere... quite entertaining thing to do for "most of the year, for a couple of years" <-- it definitely beats letting yourself get dragged around by an expensive to own propeller attached to a tiny cabin. There simply is nothing like a VW-camper of the skies -- but there are many of those floating on top of H2O.

oh well, the hole day passed me by and I never finished writing this little note of response.

Gobble-Gobble, I saw no turkey meet all week long (I hate the stuff), but the venison had on Thursday (see photo) was delicious!

so, how was after T-Day Shopping this year in your neck of the woods?