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Christmas always means new boat parts around me…..  Woo hoooo!  I got a new mainsail and lots of cool stuff for my sailboat.   We spent time and money on the boat when we first got it so even on our first big trip… she was nice.  Since then we have more than kept up with maintenance.  I’m not saying ours is the best Seawind 1000 out there because there are some nice boats floating around, but I’m sure proud of “Sea Yawl Later !!”  We have just about every trick known to man on that boat/… lol.

This trip I added all new rope clutches, new traveller hardware, added a cool 3:1 outhaul that leads back to the winch, and a brand new high tech Calvert radial cut mainsail!!!  We also had quite a few maintenance items taken care of, fresh varnish on much of the interior, she will have new bottom paint and safety lines before we go, just stuff you have to do… but I’m super excited about the new main.  I know it will look pretty, but I’ve felt that my pointing ability has fallen off with the 8 year old mainsail.  I’m going to lead my lazy jacks back to the cockpit as well.  My new Calvert is longer, so I’ll need to slack the lazy jacks manually now.  My old sail lifted the boom sufficiently that the lazy jacks slacked on their own.  The new setup will be a bit more effort to operate, but it should really pay off in light air.   Another great advantage of the new radial cut sail is.. she should be easier to haul up.  The sail is lighter, and the last 3′ of halyard won’t be lifting the weight of the boom anymore…  nice.

While the main was off we had the boom sandblasted and powder coated, we also upgraded the gooseneck.  Normally the gooseneck connection is just a bolt thru a hole, we are adding a nice brass bushing and side spacers as an upgrade.  I can’t wait to go sailing with the new main!  Dave Calvert is a multihull expert, I have his square top main on my 27 Stiletto… it’s a sweet setup on the 1,100# cat.  Dave and I discussed a square top for the Seawind… but there’s just no advantage.  On the Stiletto I can lift a hull by moving lift up the sail to create less hull drag… on a cruising boat lifting a hull is not something you ever want to consider.

Anyway…. we hope to leave for the Bahamas in late March.  Some good friends of ours may sail the boat down to Florida for us so we can spend more of our time off in the Bahamas.   The way Linda and I travel (sleeping somewhere almost every night) it takes a couple weeks to get to Florida.  We have made the Gulf trip a few times now… yeah I’m sure it would be fun to go offshore… but I’d rather start my vacation in shirt sleeve weather.  we’ll see how that plays out.

The weather is getting cooler as Halloween approaches, fall is in the air, and I have weekends off again.  We took full advantage of the situation Saturday and Sunday….  Since Corpus has some neat destinations you can reach in a few hours, our little crew cast off just before noon, sailed to Port Aranasas and was docked before 5PM.  The morning’s nice breeze steadily turned to wind as we gained momentum on three long tacks beating to wind in Corpus Christi Bay.  We didn’t see much over 2’ seas, but beating to the waves at 7 knots is considered an “active” ride in anybody’s book. 

Ride comfort became more important than the captain’s best point of sail.  There’s always that sweet spot angle you can find where a catamaran walks most comfortably into the ranks of the relentless wind driven soldiers on that upwind battlefield.  It’s a little different every time because of the distance between waves, but normally when seas reach 2’ I like to fall off my best point 8 or 10 degrees, ride quality is significantly better and “Otto” the autopilot enjoys it too.  On a “full wind” day I like to set the main a bit tighter than the jib so the slight imbalance drives the boat a little higher and faster in the puffs.  That setting helps a cat take better advantage of apparent wind and gains angle of point automatically when it’s most appropriate to do so.  If I’m 8 degrees off best point and we get a puff, a tight main points my bows up closer to best point of sail and squirts me right along…..  Conversely when the sails aren’t as loaded….  angling away keeps stabilizing pressure on the sails and lessens the severity of blows on the bow.  I guess what I end up going for is consistent pressure on the standing rigging.  Nothing makes a cat buck as much as getting too high in a seaway.  When your sails aren’t driven hard and the bows see more pressure than the keels… yeeee-haaa.

My little boat points really well (for a cat).  If I’m out rodeo-ing (racing) upwind in 25 to 30, I can point as high as any boat near my length.  My cat has a bit of an advantage when the wind pipes up because its upper speed range is a bit higher than similar sized displacement boats and she has a heck of a strong rig.  Above 25 knots most displacement hulls limit out, but my boat will lift and go over more water than it plows through given enough horsepower.  During the summer I sailed with (unofficially raced) a nicely kept and often raced 36’ Catalina in an upwind slog across Corpus Christi Bay.  I came upon him low and from behind, winds were gusting to 25.  I think he made a tactical mistake once he saw I was gaining on him.  Sailing on the same heading he could see I was faster so he kept falling off to load his sails attempting to speed match.  He should have fought a pointing battle and stayed high because no matter how much you load your sails a displacement boat has a given top speed.  It appeared that he stayed close hauled, steered down to the point that lee slippage was his only payoff.  When I passed his stern I was well above him, we were rafted up to the flotilla about an hour before he arrived.   If the waves aren’t too choppy and short I have a sweet spot upwind that I’ll pair against a 40′ cruiser.

Back to the weekend sail… When we reached the calm water of the Aransas Pass the evening winds had built to 20+, happily we could hold point in the calm water of the Aransas cut and sailed the second half of the trip on Port tack alone.  SYL spent the evening and night tied up at a nice little dockside restaurant… Being part of the ambiance tied up at tableside was fun for us as well as the tourists.  We all enjoyed the local cuisine and caught up with good friends over dinner.

With flight reservations to meet in the early evening on Sunday, we ate a late breakfast and departed Port A at 10:30AM.  The day was less cloudy and to paint the first corner of the weather portrait for you …. I raised the main before I untied the dock lines with the wind at my stern…….  Yep.. nada.. no wind.  I knew it would go lighter on Sunday, but I wasn’t expecting two knots!  I lit both Yamahas and drifted out of Port A Harbor heading into a slight outflow.  Almost half the trip home happens in the channel, so tide plays a big part in your progress.  This day the conveyor belt was going to sea, not to Corpus.  Luckily we were near slack tide so it wasn’t screaming out, I guessed we were losing a half a knot of ground speed due to current.  I like to stay on the North side of the cut in the shallows driving against an outgoing tide.  In a slow outgoing current the North bank is near neutral, and when it’s roaring you actually get a little counterflow.

All of the cut and most of the bay crossing was dead flat.  Laying on the tramp and watching for dolphins was much more the focus than sail trim as we motored along.  You could follow your wake all the way to shore… it was that flat.  The sights were different on the way home, no tacking… no surf… no angles of attack…. just burn gas and watch your wake, the jellyfish and the butterflies.  Did you know that butterflies can outrun a sailboat at 5 knots?  I’m here to tell you it’s a fact.  I had butterflies outrun me in the ICW coming home from Florida last time…. and not just running downwind either!  I saw the little grin on his pointy face when he passed me Sunday in the cut….  He passed me several times in fact just to prove he could.

Linda made a great salad for lunch and I turned off the motors to ghost along at 2 knots while we ate.  I even turned the radio off to get the full effect of “quiet”.   The water rippled behind the sterns as we coasted along 3 miles out of the harbor for half an hour.  It’s a pitty we had a flight to meet or the rest of the day would have been at that same volume.  Eventually I cranked back up and as we all know how it works…. The wind filled in strongly as I was docking the boat….  The only time I didn’t need it… lol

 When you first buy a boat… new owners have an overwhelming desire to add or subtract equipment in an effort to make the boat exactly what they were looking for during that super fun phase of boat ownership “the search”…  We were no different, our first makeover was our most expensive because we made all the repairs AND added new parts that will also wear out or break at some point too!  I certainly don’t regret any of our additions… Linda and my definition of a minimalist is a guy that doesn’t care if he keeps his boat at a marina that has floating docks or not…. lol.  Don’t get the wrong idea, we like to anchor out better than use our boat as a condo like 90% of the boats you see… we enjoy days on end at a remote beach location.. not seeing another mast or hearing as much as an airplane passing overhead, where the only sounds are the sea birds, water rippling against the side of your hull and beach waves..   In paradise, on the rare occasion that it rains all day…. I have the tools to make us comfortable… if it’s muggy I’m running the AC all night to dry out the boat, we like to sleep in comfort.

Now that we have the systems we want it’s all about keeping the boat fresh.  When we moved SYL from Georgia last year I “put her up wet”.  What I mean by that is I didn’t fix some the things that wore out or broke on the last big Bahamas run.  SYL is now getting the makeover she deserves after carrying us about 4,000 miles to another country and back.  Saying it that way sounds wierd… that after 4,000 miles you need a refit.  That’s like saying every time you change oil in your car you need to do a list of maintenance items too….  You must understand that 4,000 miles on a sailboat is a considerable time investment, especially when you stay in one place for several days then move to the next place at a blistering 5 miles per hour.

If you have ever owned a non-trailerable boat you know it’s similar to having a swimming pool.  You either love it, or regret the money and time you spend on it.  Boat ownership should be your passion more than a single plane desire… if your not deeply passionate about owning a boat, I suggest finding something you are passionate about and spend your recreational time and money there.

That being said, Linda and I have a deep emotional connection to our catamaran.  Buying our little ship… the initial search and eventual purchase was the biggest “retail high” a water lover can experience.  I have fond memories of going through the tall stack of printouts from Yachtworld…. years of thinking about the boat buying process and making the multifaceted decision of when, where and what boat to invest our future in.  Beyond the ultimate retail high of the purchase, Linda and I deepened our commitment to the boat with fountains of memories over the years… sharing baby blue anchorages…  good an bad passages…  epic miles per day records….  friends we love that we would have never met otherwise… tales of how clear the water was in the crooked islands and tons of mental snapshots that will be with us forever while aboard SYL. 

I remember the time we first met our Crooked Island friends.  People from our home town that we had never met until we found them in the Bahamas.  They settled and built a house on a remote island before there was even electricity available in the mid 80’s.  If you have been around us very much you have heard this story because I keep it in my scabbard.. close to me, available to pull out on a moments notice.  A mental snapshot that was worth the whole price of admission to me.  Returning from the Turks and Caicos, Linda and I had strung several of those 5% days together…. you know… the rare times of wonder that is every sailboaters dream, an experience that encompasses everything you think about when you imagine sailing across wild blue seas in perfect conditions.  The Crooked Islands alone… paid for our boat with it’s lasting memories.   We have many loving cruiser friends.. the story to follow is about one of these couples and the special days leading up to our meeting.

After a couple picturesque weeks in the Turks & Caicos SYL was returning to the Southern Exumas.  Along the wild and remote path we sailed over the deepest most beautiful water we would transit in the finest conditions you could ask for.  This path has to be planned well because there are no marinas, not even places to buy fuel for hundreds of miles.  The Crookeds are just over half way back to Georgetown.  Our first landfall after leaving the T&C was Mayaguana where we had the second best boat / dolphin experience of our life.  You almost always see dolphins out and about, but this was special. 

That first day out we had good winds and a strong current behind us… we saw a whale and about 4PM we pulled into an amazing shallow bay on the Eastern Tip of Mayaguana.  As we entered the very shallow bay a pair of dolphins came out to meet us and escorted us into the mouth of their 5′ deep personal resort.  Very few boats pass buy.. much less enter this shallow bay because most boats draw 5 feet or more.  This was very seldomly travelled so it was of great interest to me.  Being the clearest water we had experienced and the shallowness of the bay the pair of dolphins were 100% visible anywhere they swam.  They circled and played around SYL as we poked about looking for the perfect spot to anchor.  The rattle of the anchor chain and sandy prop wash as I set the anchor sent them bolting for a second.. but they came right back to check my anchor for me.  The two crisscrossed the little bay for hours with us as their focal point.

The next day our sail would only be a short 30 miles, to the Western lee of the same island (Mayaguana) so my leisurely morning was spend on the beach shell hunting while Linda squared the boat and made breakfast.  Without many “finds” along the shore I raised the dink and we slid out of the bay mid morning watching for our dolphin buddies…  They were otherwise occupied I suppose, because we never saw them again. 

Atlantic trade winds are from the SE so my plans were to slowly wander the 30 miles to the other end of the island… anchor out on the West coast of Mayaguana where the sea had no fetch so we could break out early the next morning with no obstructions to worry about for the long (90 mile run) to the same west end of the Crooked Islands.  The short sail was nice with following currents and favorable winds.

80 miles is a good daily mileage target when you sail sun up to sun down, the 90 we wanted to make the following day would require leaving early in order to arrive at a new anchorage with plenty light to find our way in.  But for this short days run from one end of Mayaguana to the other, we made it a leisurely day.  We rounded the north western corner quickly and set our anchor behind the island on a marled bottom in super clear water 20 feet deep.  Other than the awesomely clear water that looked non-existent when the waves laid.. not much to report about Western Mayaguana other than it was the predecessor to the focal point of my story.. the next day.

MAYAGUANA TO THE CROOKEDS

I was up well before dawn and roused Linda a few minutes later with the sound of the anchor chain as it rattled over the bow roller.  I nested the Manson in her blocks on the front beam and we were off!  Our direct departure was all set up the night before, the sailcover was off, the GPS was all set.. my plan was to get everything poised to sail off the anchor as early as I wanted the next morning leaving Linda to sleep if I could sneak off without waking her.  SYL’s engines would not touch the water all day.. I quietly raised the main and drew out the jib while anchored.  After setting the interior lights on low I left the mainsheet loose…. snugged the jib and drew us forward then to port with the windlass at a half a knot.  We sailed off anchor beautifully angling away into the early morning darkness.  The tight jib drew the bows Westward as the anchor found home… then finding my required heading off the wind to the WNW I engaged the autopilot…. by now the main was pulling nicely and I loosed the jib to match.   Down wind and down current the day was all set!  With “Otto” steering I stood outside the cockpit to watch the end of the night and look for any evidence of sunrise over Mayaguana distancing itself behind us.  Soon Linda joined me and we saw the sun rise through broken clouds over Mayaguana as we glid further and further away from it’s well provided protection.

Off the wind we had a very comfortable ride.  Long lazy swells that were far enough apart to not push the sterns around as they pass…. nice.  Linda’s coffee tasted good as she joined me to watch the sun paint the deep water purple once again and talk about memories we made over the past few days.  We talked about me spotting a whale broach off the stern in the distance as we left the T&C…. and later when we almost ran over another one baking his big sides in the mid day sun.  I remembered sitting at the table across from her when I saw Linda’s eyes get really big and try to form words….. but nothing came out.  The whale passed to starboard (behind me).  The big fellah heard us coming and his hump and tail rose a bit to eye level as he rolled flat to ready his dive.  It was so close Linda could not figure out what she was looking at!  then it lifted it’s tail 10′ in the air to sound, and the flukes dissapeared underwater as the tons of weight sank into the sea.  That’s when Linda finally got out the word… “whale”!  I never saw it……..  Linda shared that her first sight of it looked like the round bottom of an overturned boat off the bow as we approached, that was puzzling enough.. but then thru the side windows she struggled to decide just what she was seeing as the magnificent beast dove to safety.  It was like trying to figure out the outlines of a bus in the next lane looking out your car window.  But fun none the less.  I confessed a bit of news that I held back about the last couple days….. I spotted two waterspouts off the port stern many many miles away soon after I saw my whale broach.  I lit the radar, did some ranging and found out they were over 20 miles from us, but running a parallel course.  After a couple hours the cell dissipated and clear skies prevailed.  I let her know SYL was never in any danger because of the distance, and that I monitored the movement carefully.  We shared memories of the past weeks and watched as the sun filled in the day.

Our early departure allowed us good progress on the day… the longish trip went by nicely as we enjoyed great sailing with lots to look at along the way.  In this part of the Bahamas you seldom see another boat.  When you do there is always radio contact and a friendly exchange, if nothing else…. lone sailors often trade routes and sail plans as they pass in the distance.  SYL passed the North coast of the Crooked Islands comfortably with several daylight hours to spare.  As we approached Landrail Point the lighthouse eventually came into view off to port, and I thought I saw a mast off the starboard bow too.  Sure enough as the hours passed a large ketch became a clear outline a bit further offshore and headed in the opposite direction. 

I had acquired some local knowledge while transiting Mayaguana on my way to the T&C (his direction) about how to avoid some of the current that is now pushing us home.. so I made a VHF call to the passing boat.  Shortly he responded, I told him to hug the SE tip of Mayaguana as the Southern passage is most favorable, and to not swing wide off the land point, if you do…. the current gets very strong in your face offshore.  Additionally there is a nice back current skirting much of the Southern coast of the island.  His intent was to anchor in the exposed bay on SW Mayaguana for the night so the information would be useful on his way to the Carribean.  On our trip out… we used the same anchorage so I told him where to find the best sand bottom for his anchor, and mentioned that it’s a deep beach so you could get in close.  We shared the same anchorage with “Zero to Cruising” and “Texas Two Step” when we came thru there.

In the radio exchange we swapped home ports, I told him Beaumont Texas and he shared Anchorage Alaska.  He had transited the NW passage on his way to the Carib.  What a trip!  I thought it was a long way home to Texas!  His mast had not fully faded behind us when we rounded the lighthouse at Landrail Point to again anchor off the lee side of this island.  Nice sand covered the bottom everywhere so finding a good place to anchor was brainless.  Our 90 mile trip went by quickly.  We put the manson in the sand through 25′ of invisible water well before dark.  Linda cooked us a nice meal, we sat and ate, then out of the blue… a call came over the radio!  “Sea Yawl Later this is Island Time”…..  Linda and I scanned the horizon thru the windows and there were no boats to be seen in any direction… Linda asked; who is that?!  I instantly said “somebody with binoculars” because there was no other cruising boat as far as the eye could see.  The call was loud and clear so that made it even more amazing…. a scratchy hail would not have given us as much start.. but this one was wall to wall and crystal clear!

Normally my back is to the radio when Linda and I are in our customairy seats.  I am on the starboard side of the salon because all the controls are there, including the electronics that nest just behind my head while seated.  The radio is in the companionway as you step down into the hull.  I stood and turned, opened the mike and returned the hail.  “this is Sea Yawl Later, go ahead”…..  We didn’t know it then but a lifelong friendship had just been born.  We first met Jim and Lynne Finley on April 18th 2011.

Apparently everyone on the Crooked Islands uses a VHF radio to make house to house calls because there is no telephone service.  Only recently… centrally transmitted electricity came to this historic outpost of the far Bahamas.  More… on the rich history of the Crookeds later….  Lynne had heard us talk to the Alaska boat on the radio where we mentioned we were from Beaumont.  Amazingly we had parked our boat directly in front of their house, she too was from Beaumont Texas.  There was no hesitation when they invited us ashore for the evening.  I lowered the dinghy as Linda got ready and we were walking up the beach trail 10 minutes after the more than surprising radio call.  Jim and Lynne never met a stranger and took us in like lifelong friends.  Our sail plan had been to strike out for Long Island the next morning but that all changed.  As the girls shared names of friends both women knew, Jim and I talked about his place, when they built it and how long they had been in the Bahamas. 

As it turned out there is a small community of mostly Louisiana folks that built up a fly in destination on this remote island.  They all had private planes and used the houses they built as a respite until they retired here a few years back.  The runway was improved and life began again on the Crooked islands.  In the square rigger days Landrail Point was a major shipping port of call for travelers and merchandise going to and from the new world.  Eventually the port (I use the term “port” loosely) fell out of favor when bigger faster ships no longer needed the respite of landrail point.  Crooked island dwindled to only a few scattered shacks and “Gibson’s Lunchroom”.  Mrs. Gibson always had something to cook for you.  Generations of Gibson’s have kept the business alive thru thick and thin, mostly thin…..

We talked and enjoyed Jim and Lynne’s gracious company at “Island Time” well into the night.  We were invited to stay but our ship lay a only hundred yards away with everything we needed in it… so at 11PM Linda and I loaded up in the dink and putted home to SYL.  The slow trip out to the boat in dead calm water spread a memorable icing on the wonderful day’s cake.  As we idled out under a full moon… not wanting to disturb the evening, I got to noticing something in the water behind my smooth little bow wake.  Amazingly… what I was seeing at 11 o’clock at night…… was the shadow of our dingy in the moonlight on the bottom….. in 20′ of water!  Minds were blown.. what a day!  What a week…….

Instead of leaving the next day we repeated the visit to Jim and Lynne’s for 7 days.  Eating together, driving to town and learning the history of the island…. then the wondrous trip home to SYL at night over virtually invisible water in the dinghy was amazing.  I discovered sea glass during the visit and began making a bit of jewelry.  We will see them again….  such is the life (on a good day) of a sailboat cruiser…..

sv “Sea Yawl Later”    Rusty and Linda

The passage home included a crew change.  Three friends from the Bay Yacht Club drove my car down and Linda drove it back home.  As Linda loaded the car for home, the four of us prepped SYL for the offshore run.  Crew arrived shortly after lunch on Saturday.  I had pizza delivered for the night and tomorrow’s lunch.  Today’s lunch provision was a platter of 40 fried shrimp and fries from Dirty Al’s.  The all male crew didn’t spare a shrimp… we were fed and ready to leave in short order.

SYL cast off her lines at 1:00PM leaving the southern end of the ICW in it’s wake.  We happily raised the main sail inside the South Padre cut breakwater with a light East wind in our face.  The passage was indeed expected to be light with leftover waves, so any true sailing we got would be a bonus.  We angled off the Jetty 90 degrees to port at the first red mark.  Anxious to see if we could hold rhumbline to Corpus, I watched the sails and GPS speed with high hopes.  The starboard bow breeze was enough to hold our line…. bumping around 5 knots.. the boat was happy to be sailing instead of motoring as we made our way across the bright green water of the Southern Gulf.  In the light air, apparent wind came around pretty quickly so the 90 degree turn yielded just enough apparent wind, but only just.  It appeared the day would not be fast, but tennable.  As we settled in, everyone tried out a favorite seat for the single tack 24 hour run to Corpus.

We sailed until almost dark.  When the sun set so did the winds, for a while we teetered around 4 knots under sail alone…. soon I cranked the new port engine, that helped us manage 5.5 knots again.  Eventually we lit both motors and would motorsail / motor all the way to Corpus Christi Marina.    Most of the night the sails gave us a bit of help, but they often were only limp decorations against the moonless night sky.   The dark hours proivided us with a massive solid blanket of stars overhead.  My daughter Karen would have loved it.  I stared at the heavens all night long and counted 5 falling stars!  Offshore skies are wonderful, easily the best part of a night passage.

When the wind laid, the 4 to 5 foot ground swells lost their form and the gulf became a confused jumble of jabbing peaks with no winds to hold our little ship straight.  We bobbed along all night in one of the worst seastate I can remember in quite a while.  Much of the night was spent under tight hauled main attempting to dampen the nights sea jumble.. without much success.  New catmaran riders must have said to themselves “this boat rides like a truck!”. 

Hopefully the sea state didn’t wet everyones blanket of joy, I got 4 hours sleep during the passage so that was a big plus for me.  During a night passage the visual wonder turns your attention from blue water to twinkling stars.  In that regard…. we were highly blessed.  I have rarely seen so many stars during a night passage.  Most of the night was clear and unobstructed, the very early morning hours produced some offshore lightning and clouds that loomed well off the starboard beam.  Stray clouds drifted overhead from the localized cells but generally we were clear all night.  I expanded the radar screen to it’s full 32 mile range in an effort to electronically sample the rumbling event.  

Storm clouds were further away than I could detect either electronically or visually (other than by oftlit claps) and remained that way until dawn.  The only thing the weather gave us was a bit of sporatic fresh breeze from the built up CCW outflow.   Morning light found us close to the Aranasas Pass jetties.  The calmness of the Sunday morning brought lots of fishing boats outside the breakwater.  The sea lost much of it’s lumps during the night as the windless sea returned to a more stable state.  Morning at sea always provides a lift of spirits.  The water goes from ink black under the dark night to gray as the sun bounces across it at first light… then to it’s full vivid green when rays gain the angle to pentrate deeply into the depths.  Cold pizza and burritos Linda sent along with a swig of coke from the bottle was our first taste of the new day.  The night had been interesting but not as luxurious and lazy as it could have been.

We motored in the Port A cut with a fine little current.  Zipping in at 3/4 throttle over 7 knots was just what the doctor ordered.  In the land cut and across Coprus Christi Bay the crew gained it’s day legs in clamer water… a nice relief from the nights sea jabber.  Just under 600 yards from the home port entry breakers… we got WIND!!!  I still had full sails up so I keyed off the Yamahas and left them in neutral… dragging in the water for the last 20 minutes of our passage.  Luckily the wind was on our nose as we docked so it didn’t present a problem….. SYL seemed all in the world “home again”.. bouncing alongside E dock in the wind as we washed the salt off her back and zipped up her sails.

Thanks went all around.. and wives there to meet us; the crew parted ways and the passage was over.  A fine sail vacation to the end of the Intercoastal Waterway and back.  Good friends and food, descent weather and water….. yet glad to be home.   It’s funny how driving a nice car with the cold air conditioning in your face after a night passage feels so luxurious.  Our moving average was 5.6 knots, not great but not too shabby.  Top speed was over 8 but only for nanoseconds.  My eyes were full of vivid night stars and the memory of the 4th of july fireworks…. a 10 day boat trip… all mental food to consume next week at work.  Nothing broke, no blood was let that lasted over 15 minutes….. all in all an early summer success.

sv “Sea Yawl Later !!”    Rusty

We continued our vacation on South Padre Island with friends that drove in for the holiday.  “Sea Ranch Marina” hosted us well…  As is frequently the case because of our width – we were on the tee head.   However the docks are only 7 slips or so long so a walk to the tee head is not the chore it is at some larger facilities.  Land access was easy and comfortable.  We enjoyed the little marina, $65 a night is a little pricey for Texas, but all in all a good value.

The 4th:  We made a short sail out into the blue green gulf.  Winds were light, but we did not have an agenda or distance to make so the sail was easy… leisurely.  After a good meal at Dirty Al’s, I sailed my RC boat in the harbor until almost dark and visited with friends.   It was an easy day, nothing big to report… just lazying around on the sailboat acting like tourists…  waiting for dark to see the big fireworks show.  About 8 we slipped out of the marina to station ourselves in the open water for the show…. It’s my experience that fireworks refelcting off the water greatly improves the event.  By 10:00PM we were back in port with the afterglow of the fireworks fresh in our eyes.  What a nice day with friends.

The 5th:  Today we did it all… we ate a good breakfast on the boat, made quite an excursion in the full day sun out to the big water.  On the way in we stopped to bob under the boat on a nice hard bottom sandbar at the harbor entrance, then we docked and cooked steaks, baked potatoes and had a nice spinach salad for dinner.  After a great meal we went to town for an ice cream dessert… back on the boat some napped while I sailed my RC boat in the harbor until dark.  That’s a good day of vacation…..

Late in the day I started looking at weather for the trip home and made my sail plan.  Our little boat is shinny as a new penny… all the rope clutches are brand new and wonderful to use, fresh “SYL” logos and so much more.  It’s sweet to have the boat in such good shape.  Still more to do, but she’s fun to sail looking so spiffy.  The fresh wax feels good under your feet.

With low pressure building over the Gulf, we decided to head home mid Saturday.  Our trip would be an offshore direct run to get her home and settled in the nest Sunday, and go to work Monday.  Phone calls made, plans for crew settled, this would be the last night for SYL in South Padre Island for this vacation.

The perfect day….. huh!!!?  I sailed all day long and never took the dock lines off the cleats at sea Ranch Marina SPI.   Hmmmmm you say…how did you do that!  Here is the itinerary for the perfect day for a Tuesday on South Padre Island:  I woke up at 9:30AM to a cabin on a boat that was the perfect 70 degrees, probably 37% humidity (inside).. crisp clean sheets on a king size bed… to the sound of my wife bringing me coffee and strawberry cream cheese on bagels…… the sun was bright, almost no wind… a bluebird day in the making.  After good conversation and breakfast, the perfect day blossomed.

Mid morning included lots of work….. well.. work might be an overstatement… here’s what I did:  I took my new radio and receiver out of the box for my remote control sailboat and installed it.  “Work” on vacation means you have to actually use your brain…  Well I had to read instructions written in english by japanese… and decipher a bit of electronic wizardry.  Taxing.. treaturously terrible I tell you for vacationing…. but within an hour and half I had the new radio talking to the boat and doing all the things it was supposed to do!

SAILING a 57 monohull!  Other than eating lunner (lunch and dinner combined) at 2PM at “Dirty Al’s”  most of the day was spent in the dingy patrolling the harbor sailing my 57″ carbon fiber RC sailboat…. talking to little kids about sailing, and sailboats and the America’s Cup that the boat I was sailing was modeled after….  What a glorious day!  The “project” of getting the radio set up was a success, then the wonderful day of sailing was so much fun….,…!  And we never untied a dock line.

Killing time aboard a sailboat with your wife.. sailing around the harbor without leaning over one time….. for me it was nirvana….  The epicenter of enjoyment…. Linda was happy, my electronic efforts rewarded (which is not always the case)… I call that a GOOD day of vacation. How do you cap all that off?  Well, with the perfect end to a perfect day!  M&M candy drops, frozen, with ice cold milk…… wish you were me right????

Sea Yawl Later  !! Rusty

Day 3: Monday

We left Port Mansfield at 8:30 on flat calm water.  We motored the full 30 miles from Port M into South Padre Island.  The only help the Yamahas got was from the jib.  There was not enough wind to raise the main.. but it was over the port beam so I rolled out the jib for balance, it probably made ½ a knot difference.

The Lower Laguna Madre is wider than the upper.  There were times we could have ventured out of the channel and sailed (if there had been wind to do it) but we putted along at a leisurely pace, not having a long run to make.  Linda took on the chore of cleaning out the 90 quart cooler we use for storage.  It was a dirty job.. she scrubbed the chest out and I knew she would be ready for a swim when she was done.  I scoured the edges of the channel for a spot with no grass to pull up on and bob.  When I found it she was just finishing the project.  We were both ready for a core temp adjustment.. the cool Laguna Madre was just the ticket.

We turned up the music and bobbed under the boat with drinks for about an hour… then loaded up and finished the trip.  Today I found something weird… in the upper Laguna Madre you stay in the dark water… because the shallows are lighter colored.  In the Lower Madre it’s just the opposite.  The channel is light and the sides are dark and grassy… weird huh?  Yeah I only went aground once today to find that out.  Not bad…. The color change was indeed confusing so I approached the dark water (outside the markers) at 2 knots.. so it was easy to back out and say… OK…stay in the light colored path now.

Sea Ranch harbor on SPI is a tight little place.  Boats are packed in here to almost capacity.  We took the last available tee head.  The island sports the same tourist attractions that all coastal tourist towns have.  7 miles away we could see the tall condos, an airplane pulling a banner over the beach, parasails’ in the bay.  When we coasted into Sea Ranch harbor… there they were… the dolphin tours, deep sea fishing guides, all crowded into the little harbor.

We ate dinner at Dirty Als’.. here in the marina.  The establishment is highly touted… we found it good.. more hype than substance but the food was really good for the price, 10 to 14 dollar combination platters and worth every penny.  There are two more eateries here in the harbor.. the “plan” after sleeping in not having miles to make in the morning is to get a map of the island from the local marina and sample another restaurant within walking distance.  That’s about it.. our plan is a lazy day tomorrow.. but you know how plans are…… ours are always drawn with a stick in the sand at low tide.  The best thing is.. we are on vacation and don’t have to do anything on a schedule.  We are on the boat.. life is good.

Just before dark I jumped in the dink and made a 2 mile ride.. I went out of the harbor and back up the bayside quite a ways.  The water was dead calm save boat wakes so it was a fun ride.  If tomorrow is as calm I’ll do more reconnoitering in the dinghy.  She sure is running nice…. I cleaned the avocados out of the carb…. Man whoever thought of putting corn oil in my boat gas is truly my friend.  I don’t know what I would do with all my time if I didn’t have to clean one, two or all three carb on this boat so often.  I changed the fuel hose, screwed new plugs in the little 9.8 Tohatsu… charged the battery and man she runs sweet.

Lots of dolphins today too….  When we were bobbing under the boat 6 of them porpoised by within 15 feet of me and Linda.  Linda yelped at them trying to draw their attention (so they would come see us) according to Linda.  I would have much rather heard them blow and pass in silence.. but Linda’s “call” was apparently more important… too bad it didn’t work… who would have thought.

Tomorrow is a new day.. it’s 10:19PM, and since I’m still vertical you can rest assured that I AM on vacation.  Up.. but not for long.  I haven’t shaved since I left work Friday.. I’m interested to see how white my beard is.  Not papa smurf yet… but getting there.  Time to turn off the XM “love channel” and go to bed.  The cabin is a nice cool 70 degrees…again life is good.

Day 2 of Laguna Madre

We woke up around 6:00am to high winds, the standing rigging was singing to us.. dark clouds, and lightening all around.  The winds can be impressive in this part of Texas.  I suspect we had winds close to 60 miles per hour during the height of the storm.  I love our Manson anchor.  I never worried a moment that she would hold.  We have had other anchors that would have given me worry but our Manson.  She has proved herself over and over again (and no I get no kick back from Manson).

We could see the storm cell on radar so we knew the cell was only 12 miles wide so we would only have bad weather for an hour or so.   With the storm past we left our lovely little spot we named “flamingo island” around 7:20 am.  Given the prevailing SE winds… we expected to fight the waves and wind the whole trip but the storm changed everything.  The little front pushed us right along on NW to N winds.  We were able to sail all but about 2 hours today.  Wind was on and off in great quantities.. with storm cells about, as the direction changed we would go calm.. then wham.. form another direction.  We went from motoring at 5  to sailing downwind at 11.9 knots.  We put two reefs in the main to have better control on this blistery day.  Part of our sail was a little lively before we reefed!

The Laguna Madre is a long shallow hypersaline lagoon along the Southern Texas coast.  It is separated by the roughly 20 mile long Saltillo Flats land bridge into Upper and Lower lagoons.  The two are joined by the intracoastal Waterway, which has been dredged throughout it’s length.  The Laguna Madre is about 130 miles long the full length of Padre Island.

Rusty and I both had called Port Mansfield several times checking out dockage.  We were told that the cut gets to 2.5 feet with fine silt.  We draw 3.2 but thought we would give it a try since we were told we could push through the silt.  We made our way slowly into the cut and though we found the silt, it was thin so we never lost forward progress.  We had made reservations at Harbor Bait and Tackle…. Double checked several times to make sure they had power, we arrived to discover but their “power” was a rusted and rugged looking household outlet half nailed to a broken down creosote post.

Obviously, the main traffic here is shallow draft fishing boats that would like a place to plug in the battery charger… but no big deal either way.  We were about to give up on having power for the AC at night when a good Samaritan heard of our situation, made some calls and found a place with 30 amp electricity.  Awesome!

The municipal docks had real boat power, so we hooked to the grid and slept very good in the calm little harbor.  Port Mansfield has power at the municipal marina, another had fuel and ice at another but no singe facility has everything…. I guess that would be a monopoly…  There is one small restaurant in the harbor.  Think “biker joint” only it’s for shrimpers….  Basically a rough little club that serves food.

Fishing is the industry around here.  Everywhere you look there is a boat out fishing.  You will find makeshift cabins on stilts and some very nice weekend cabins spotted all along the Laguna Madre.  It reminds me of Stiltsville in Key Biscayne, Florida.  They are not as large but much more of them.

 Laguna Madre

We left Corpus Christi Municipal marina at the crack of 10 or thereabouts…..  The plan was to get up early and strike out for points South but we stayed up late / went to happy hour with Mark and Julie at Landry’s Friday night so we weren’t perfectly fresh come early Saturday morning.

Linda packed early Saturday morning while I slept in, I guess I got up about 7:30, around the time we planned on pulling away from the dock for our 10 day excursion to South Padre Island.  Anyway, we were on vacation so timetables are not as tight as work days.

The 2 hour sail across the bay was nice.  Quite often the wind blows like stink here in Corpus, but this morning we were looking for a bit more so we motor sailed half the time to keep 5 knots.  Luckily the wind was on our Starboard beam… what there was of it.  We expected to have it on our head most of the way South, but Saturday proved to be better than expected when it comes to wind direction.  By 2:00 we were sailing down the ICW at 5 to 6 knots.  It was a bit of a pinch to hold 200 degrees, but it worked!

The channel is very narrow in places, and the hard part is… there is shallow water for acres either side of the channel so it’s difficult to see the fairway.  The first time I ran aground was outside the green cans dodging a huge tug boat.  The second time I was dropping sail to stop for the night (at 4:30).  I was paying more attention to the sails than my position in the channel… whommmp… aground at 4 knots…. It took a bit to get off.

We stopped early because I found val-halla.  A picturesque little sand spit island that begged to be explored.  My target destination was still 14 miles away, but I’d only seen the cut I planned on stopping at on Google Earth.. and I had my eyeball on the perfect little spot so we pulled the pin.  Our little sand top island proved to be a great spot to swim under the boat.  There was a bit of grass in spots I hadn’t planned on, but other than that it was wonderful.  We bobbed in the warm bath water of Laguna Madre for 3 hours.

Our Saturday night island is a few miles short of Baffin Bay.  Tomorrow we will probably hook up to the grid in Port Mansfield for the night.  I’m not sure how far that is, so if we see another great “bobbing” spot, chances are we will stop earlier…. before we reach Port M…. who knows… we are on vacation.

Laguna Madre has not disappointed us… we have travelled much of the ICW and this is as pretty a cruising ground as we have seen along the big ditch.  Linda made a great little dinner… we both showered, enjoyed our meal and watched the pink flamingos feed around the shallow skirt of our own little island 200 yards off the beaten path of the ICW.  We are parked in 41/2 foot of water, there is no perceptible tide this far from an outlet to the Gulf.

Well, its very dark, the little Honda generator is running the boats AC, I made the bed and I’m not far from climbing in it.  Before I go I will check the distance to Port M.  Decide how early we want to get up and head out.  Today we sailed a lot, tomorrow once we round the corner at Baffin Bay to head closer to true South, I expect the wind to be more in our face, it will probably be a motor sail on the main all day.

I like this place….  The water is nice, there are several very nice sailing destinations within a 2 to 3 hour sail.  Again my only downer is the distance home.

The July 4th week will be a big sail for us.  I say big sail… we are used to sailing locally now so a 150 mile trip seems like a distance.  When we were coming back from the far end of the Bahamas we made 100 miles in one day sun up to sun down.  Traveling from Kemah to Corpus we made 160 miles in 24 hours!  Nowadays a trip over 3 hours is long I guess.

This weekend we are taking SYL as close to the Mexican border as I hope to ever be – South Padre Island –  Mexico will be 7 miles away.  I’m anxious to see the area, I have heard good things about the Laguna Madre and SPI itself.  I guess it’s always fun to find the end of any road, especially a waterway like the “big ditch”.  SPI is truly the butt end of the mighty Intracoastal Waterway.  After this trip we can say we have run the ICW from Mexico to Georgia.  I guess if we ever do our East Coast run we can touch the rest of the ditch and claim it all.

I’m sure SPI will be a zoo for the 4th of July, no problem though…. if we get “peopleoverload” we can always get on the boat and float off the beaten path.  It’s like going to the circus for us… “it’s fun but you wouldn’t want to live there”.

Saturday evening my plan is to beach the boat on a sandy bank 15 miles South of Baffin Bay along the entrance to “9 mile cut”.  I talked to a fisherman here at work, he said it’s a nice spot.. a good camp…  and I love Google Earth……  I have planned more trips on that tool than with any guide book in existence.  I plan on doing a mere 40 miles per day so we can take the time to stop and lounge around on any likely sandbar we choose during the heat of the day. 

Sunday we will probably motor-sail to Port Mansfield.  That will give us 2/3 of the trip and a new option.  The trip from Port M to SPI can be made offshore if you choose.  If conditings are sweet we will go out the Port Mansfield cut and look at some blue water for the last 50 miles.  If we are liking the Laguna Madre or there’s too much wind offshore we will stay in the Laguna Madre for the last leg.

The trip down is almost dead into the prevailing winds.  Saturday may provide a 25 or 30 degree point, but it won’t be much.  Sunday is likely to be on the nose.  Luckily the wind is normally lighter as you gain South from Corpus Christi.  This is one windy bay!   Hopefully our face in the wind trip won’t be too bad on the way down.  The good thing is we have as much time as we want going South, and will be riding the wind and waves back home when we need to hurry.

I talked to the dockmaster in Port M and it sounds like a good stop.  I expect Monday we will cruise from Port M into Port Isabel / the sister city to South Padre Island where my anchor will taste the bottom at the end of the ICW Monday night…..

Arriving on Monday night will give us 3 full days to explore the Southern reaches before the fireworks on Thursday.  I expect we will find a nice anchorage for the” big show” just off SPI.  So we will have 6 nights in all.. to explore South Padre and Port Isabel before the sleigh ride home.

SYL is looking spiffy, we had her compounded, then polished then waxed.. she looks like a new penny!  I bought new SYL decals to replace the faded ones.  This week I’m having all the rope clutches replaced and changing the house batteries.  Getting 4 full years on WalMarts best lead acid batteries is mighty acceptable to me.  They still reach and stay at over 13 volts, but won’t hold the load like they used to.  When they were new they (and the big inverter) would hold up the 16K btu Air Conditioner.  Now the batteries do good to play music all day without a charge before bed time.  It’s amazing how much better you enjoy a boat if she’s all shinny!  Our goal is to get everything and anything we want to do complete on the boat soon. 

This weekend we made a local trip and stayed Saturday night at Engleside…. it was fun to have folks over on the boat until all hours and have the boat in her best dress.  Linda and Erin spent all day yesterday deep cleaning so SYL is ready for South Texas!