Inside the Moon Sailing A2 Turtle Rendesvous A7 Deep Sea Round-up A13 Sandcastle Run A14 Dine Island Results A16 Issue 744 The Island Free The voiceMoon of The Island since 1996 July 19, 2018 Weekly www.islandmoon.com FREE Photo by Debbie Noble Around The Land Under Island Choke By Dale Rankin By Dale Rankin Canyon to It’s been a big week here on our little sandbar. We’ve had visitors from Austria, Serbia, Turkey, and Go up for maybe even a couple of wandering Croatians who came OTB from the Youth World Sailing Championships Lease on the bay, we had a large turtle that had been attacked by an even larger By Matt Briscoe fish wash up, a local man caught a The Federal Government announced 14-foot hammerhead shark on PINS, plans recently to auction off public a summer power outage on Friday, land for fracking beneath one of two guys from north of Swinney the major reservoirs utilized by the Switch who got their bus stuck in the city of Corpus Christi and much of sand, and it all happened under a pall South Texas for drinking-water. The of African dust that blew in over the proposed lease sale would take place Gulf and is still lingering in Islanders in December and would offer 4,200 eyes and scratchy throats. The dust acres for leasing under the Choke has started to settle out but we’ve had Canyon Reservoir, where according a few Saharan sunsets along the way. to some environmental groups, fracking would risk toxic spills, Turtle water contamination and earthquakes that could jeopardize dam stability and harm downstream water user, Canada and France racing. Photo by Judith Cutright, Cutright Communications particularly in Corpus Christi. Last year, The Bureau of Reclamation agreed not to lease the land because it has not studied the Serbian Sailors Blown potential harm from new fracking technology at Choke Canyon. However, a government policy issued in January now requires the Bureau Away by the Island of Land Management — the agency in charge of oil and gas leasing — to The remains of a turtle washed up By Mary Craft offer industry-nominated parcels for at Mile Marker 280 about five o’clock I had the great pleasure of being the lease, and that now poses concern Tuesday. Ken found it and sent us this among many residents who depend photo. Hospitality Host for the Serbian team at the Youth World Championship on the water. Event. There was only one sailor on Choke cont/. on A4 the team, 16 year old Nikola Banjac, who was here with his father Vladimir Banjac. They had already been here a Boaters Warning few days when we went to meet them at the Emerald Beach Hotel. We had Issued for room for one more sailor so were trying to find one of the six Croatian Mansfield Pass team members Nikola has been The Willacy County Navigation training with for several summers on District has issued a warning to Photo courtesy of South Texas the Adriatic but could only find their Fishing Assoc. boaters to be extremely careful when two coaches. We chatted with them navigating the Mansfield Pass. and discovered that Vladimir is a The hammerhead was caught pilot for Air Serbia and has traveled The action was taken after a vessel Saturday afternoon after an hour- internationally for years. The next ran aground during Hurricane Harvey long fight. The man was not able to but before a recent fatality, when a day I Googled him and learned that town Vodice where I stayed that is the Art Center, a Hooks game and a save the fish and donated the meat to he was a hero in Serbia after having fisherman died during a recent storm. a local homeless shelter. We have had near their Sailing Club. concert at Cole Park. The hosts were helped hundreds of Serbs in Libya instructed that they could entertain “We have told mariners, it is not a several reports of a large number of As we were walking out I told them escape Col. Qaddafi forces in 2011. with any other options. I thought it good idea to go through there unless sharks along our shores of late and that they were going to ride in a big strange that The Island, especially the you know what you are doing and anglers in the Deep Sea Roundup I was hoping to brush up on my Texas size truck. Dale had recently beach was not included in the Corpus are familiar with the area,” said last weekend reported catching large Serbian. My parents were Serbian purchased a Raptor which we came Christi attractions. At the time I Ron Mills, port director for Willacy numbers of sharks offshore. and I spent nine summers in my to understand why Nikola had this met Nikola he had only been to the County Navigation District. “Sixteen- youth with my aunt and uncle on the excited look on his face when he saw Aquarium which he enjoyed but after foot boats and six-foot waves are not Adriatic coast at Vodice a resort town it. It has been his dream vehicle and hours in the heat was not interested made for each other. A vessel went where they had a bed and breakfast. so it was unexpected to actually be a in a baseball game. He said they had out through the Cut, in high winds In fact, that is where I met my first passenger in one. husband Bozidar “Bozo” who was taken an Uber to the mall and that and six-foot waves. Just as he cleared Croatian and spoke no English at the As a host I had received the was the extent of his experience in the jetty, the first wave took him time. They all spoke English fluently excursion options that were arranged Corpus. airborne, the second wave stalled out so I would just inject a Serbian phrase which included the Aquarium, his engine, the third wave flipped him every now and then and talk about the Hurricane Alley, the Farm Market at Sailors cont/. on A4 Warning cont/. on A4 A little Island history How Padre Became Two Islands We are often asked, primarily by In 1933 the Civil Works newcomers to The Island, how there Administration was formed to build came to be North Padre Island and public projects and in 1934 Congress South Padre Island. The answer lies appropriated $7,000 for construction in a man-made project which marks of a good road to the landlocked The number of boats in the Deep the line of demarcation between village. During the war years the Sea Roundup this year seemed larger North and South; Mansfield Army Air Corps used the Laguna than last year, and so did the size of Channel. Madre and what is now North Padre the boats. By the estimates of those Island for a bombing range for Redfish Landing in the crowd on Saturday at one point pilot trainees and for trainees at the there was nearly $30 million worth In 1933 a hurricane hit just north gunnery school in Harlingen. Even in of floating stock lined up at Roberts of the mouth of the Rio Grande recent years beachcombers looking Point. Bert’s 81-foot Viking was the River and sent a twenty-five foot behind the dunes on North Padre have star of the show. tidal surge into South Texas for found the three-feet long wooden more than twenty-four hours. Bed and breakfasts training bombs dropped from the Fifteen to twenty foot waves airplanes. A 10-guage shotgun shell We get regular inquires here at the crashed into the shore at what was detonated a powder-filled magazine Word Factory about what action to then called Redfish Landing (now in the nose of the wooden “bomb” to take if a neighbor is leasing out their Port Mansfield) which was named show the pilot where the bomb had Island house for overnight stay. A for giant redfish in Baffin Bay said hit. check of bed and breakfast websites to be over four feet long. The road It was said by cowboys on the Dunn at any given time will usually find to Redfish Bay from the land side Ranch at the time that when the cows was washed out and the tiny village Around cont. on A4 was only accessible by water. History cont. on A4 Mansfield Pass July 19, 2018 Island Moon A 2 Youth International Sailing Championships: the Gold Standard GULFSTREAM BEACH CONDO Beautiful updates! 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By Mary "Scoop" Craft Editor Thank you again, Dale, and please invite the Island to our new event, “Christmas in July” at the Angry Marlin on Friday, July 27.