Why don’t the wild ponies need regular hoof trimming, like your domesticated horse……watch and learn.
Some of our ponies do get some hoof maintenance during the spring round up, but not a lot. And that’s only once a year. If a pony is predisposed to needing regular hoof maintenance, it might be removed from the wild herd, because they won’t get monthly hoof trimming.
Capt. Doug found a whale while searching for dolphin on his 11am trip on the “Ripple Effect” 🐋 😳.
Sometimes things just come together perfectly, even if they weren’t planned that way. Blew the power head in Doug’s boat, the day before his new boat got certified.
Sometimes even a blind squirrel 🐿️ 😎 🥜 🤷♂️
🦅 Awesome eagle sighting the other day. Apologies for the shaky camera work, we were pretty far away. 🔭
Abby says “so you’re not working today?”
“No babe, I’m going to the dock at 7:30 am, to unload a truck, and move 300# dock sections around all day by myself, and attaching them together. I hope to be home by 7pm, but no, I’m ‘not working today’”🙄
I had to remove 100’ of pier to prep for dredging over the winter, so I replaced it with 100’ of floating dock, so that future dredging would be easier. But that meant we lost most of our floating dock for guest loading….so I found a deal on 100’ of used EZ Docks, and we are back to normal again.
These things are expensive, but the flexibility to rearrange as needed is awesome! It requires some special tools, and a little practice, but I’ve got enough hours screwing with them to pass an “EZ Dock masters class” 😂 👨🎓 .
It only happened a piece at a time, but I’ve now got an obscene amount of money invested in docks and gangways. Probably twice as much as most ppl have in their boats.
Awesome trip today, with amazing weather!! I didn’t take photos of everybody, but we got great views of Norm, Ace, Chief and Rider with Sunny Skies.
Forecast is calling for “dense fog” 🌫️ until 11am (it’s already really foggy on School Street now), so Capt. Doug and I are taking off the 10am trip. Other than the fog, Wednesday looks like the best forecast for the next 3 days, and we are nearly full.
It’s nice to have some 70-80° wx again!!
Another COLD 🥶 day on the water…..but worth it if good pony viewing is your thing. In this one spot we ended up seeing Hoppy, Maverick, and Ace all within a couple hundred yards of each other. Then we “plowed into the wind”, and found Chief hanging out on the waters edge too.
And we didn’t get rained on 🙏. Supposed to warm up a little Sunday, only a 20% chance of rain. Then it’s a “unsettled forecast” for the coming week. Some warmer temps, but a chance of showers, and even some thunderstorms a few days this week.
Behind the scenes of “Discovering Foal #45”
So there we were, on our 1pm tour looking at Hoppy and Ace in the distance (still buzzing from discovering foal 41)….when all of a sudden Rumor and Rider came running down the road, right in front of the boat!!!
Rumor did not appear to be welcoming Rider’s advances. But they put on a good, albeit brief show for us. One of my guests was in the potty during the excitement, and missed it 🫤. We did catch them running back thru as we were leaving, but it wasn’t as good a view as the first surprise sighting.
First day I didn’t need my coat at all. We weren’t the first to spot Ember’s colt this morning, but we did get to see it up close! I guess I’m gonna have to get up earlier in the morning if I expect to get some first sightings. The last 18 years, it’s been easy to win a game no one else knew they were playing 😂 Pony and foal viewing was great today. CaptainDansTours.com
We had a great first day of the season Monday! Spring is always the best pony viewing season. We saw 8-9 bands along 5 miles of northern herd coastline. The pony viewing can be so good up there this time of year, it’s common for us to stay in the northern herd territory for the whole trip.
Wx forecast for the second half of the week looks questionable (breezy, cold, some rain). That’s to be expected this time of year, so we will just do what we can.
Cancellations and poor wx are unfortunate, but it’s part of the business. For those unfamiliar with my inclement wx cancellations policy:
I like to wait until the day of the trip to make MY final decision to cancel. Sometimes just an hour before departure or less. That gives me the most accurate forecast, and current observations.
But I don’t expect everyone to wait til the last minute for my decision. So I email or text a wx warning the night before, and give guests the option to cancel at anytime with no charge, right up til departure time.
Forecast can and do change, sometimes overnight. Sometimes the conditions don’t match the forecast. For those reasons, it makes more sense to relax our cancellation policy, and just wait til tour time to make that final decision.
Our primary wx concerns are: high wind, thunderstorms, rain, cold.
Clear skies and warm wx are coming….not sure when, but they’re coming!
CaptainDansTours.com
Hey Danimals!!
I finally got the boat launched!!! So we are on schedule to start cruising 4/1.
I’m still finishing up some work around the dock, so you may see some material and debris in our waiting area. I’m hoping I can get that all finished up during the un-cruisable wx days this spring.
While the trailer was out of my yard, I went ahead and cut the grass under it. On Sunday…..Easter Sunday 😳 IYKYK
We’ll see you on the water 😉
Ugh….think I’ll take a personal day? 🥶 💦
I feel like Sisyphus, rolling his boulder uphill. But I am starting to see some progress. Still a lot of work to get done in under 2 weeks.
If I can just get my boarding area squared away, I can make a little time here and there to finish the rest. And I may have to clear a day or two in April to get the other side of the slip dredged. But hey…it beats working for a living 😂
2024 Schedule is open for booking!!
Go to CaptainDansTours.com and click “book now”.
A couple changes this year:
1. We reduced the cost of our “big boat private tour”. That boat is certified for 16 passengers, but we limit it to 12 adults (it’s a weight thing).
So a private trip for up to 12 adults is $600 ($540 cash). And 13-16 ppl for $700 ($650 cash). *12adults max, so the additional 4 seats must be children or small adults under 90#.
For a private group of 13-16ppl…..you check the “book entire tour” box during the reservation process….then on the “option” section, you can leave a comment identifying the size of your group (10a, 5c….etc).
2. We dropped the name “Afternoon Pony Tour” from our 1pm and 2pm trips. (It was causing some confusion. Ppl thought we didn’t see ponies on the other tours 🙄 ).
I’m going looking for ponies on every trip anyway. So if I need to modify our route, or speed up my pace to get a better view of ponies…..I’m doing it, on any trip. So the trip is the same, we just aren’t calling it that anymore.
3. Capt. Doug plans to return in the late spring. I have a schedule ready for him, but I’m not going to open it to the public until I actually see him here. So…..if you don’t see the tour/boat you want now…. We may have other option’s available by late spring.
I still need to get a lot done before 4/1, but hope to have the boat in the water by then.
Thank you!!!
Hey Danimals!!!
It’s like the monkey said when he cut his tail off….”it won’t be long now!!” 🙈
Online booking opens 3/15 for the 2024 season. I’ll start cruising 4/1 (weather permitting) ☀️
We DO NOT have any seats available for the pony swim, return swim or round ups at this time. We have a large group with standing reservations for those events. If something comes available, it will be very last minute, and we will post it on our FB page.
Reservations exclusively online at CaptainDansTours.com 📱 💻
It’s official…..plan on an early spring!!
Making room for dredge equipment.
Abby says she doesn’t want to play with me….because I do awful stuff all the time. 😂
I can confirm….no one came out to check on me, or see if I needed any help. 👀
New Year! Same gear work….lather, rinse, repeat.
🎉 Happy New Year Y’all! 🎉
We made it to Jose Monkey!!
If you don’t TikTok, Jose Monkey is a guy who finds ppl (by request) using just a few seconds of image from their video or picture.
He “finds” ppl all over the world (but mostly the US). And while it’s really neat, it’s also kinda creepy when you figure someone could locate you from just a few seconds of video or a photo you uploaded to the internet.
Any who……In my feed this morning was one from Tom’s Cove. Pretty cool 😎
