Feburary 2011 BYC and Birding

Our tanks have arrived, tomorrow I go to Gatewoods and etch them with a acid wash and then sand the surface to prepare then to be sprayed with a 2 part epoxy.

I am happy to be at the helm of the Gallagers new Erickson 38, Neil is trimming the sails in light winds and we are about to pass the lead boat. The Erickison is fast!

The Menu & Invite

The spread....

Gotta love a Long Billed Curlew.

This is George and Mary the birding guides at Padre Island National Seashore Wildlife Refuge.

Serendipity...A Great Kiscadee!

This Family of three live this time of year near the Goose Island Sate Park.

The Oyster Catcher looks much cooler up close!

Well,

all of our tanks have arrived at Gatewoods. I went & took a few pics today of them and they told me I could save some money by doing the acid etching and spraying on the two part resin myself. So I will show up tomorrow morning and go to work. We might be able to take the boat over Monday to have them installed. The following are the things we have been doing to stay out of jail while waiting for the tanks:

Saturday Jan. 22 Port A Cruise

While we could have motored over to join the cruise we just feel it better not to take Wand'rin Star out when so many things are not installed properly. So since we were still staying in the Port A condo we joined our friends from BYC at the Port A marina and enjoyed the incredible sunny January day just hanging out, going to J's for dinner and back aboard Chris & Cathy's Morgan 41 for the evening conversation. We got a great invitation to sail back to Port A with Neil and Teresa Gallager aboard their new baby a Erickson 38. The winds were light and just as we passed the fleet as we were entering Corpus Christi Bay the winds died completely and a bit of rain began to fall. We motored the next couple of hours to the CC Marina but we stayed dry since they had a full enclosure for the cockpit which they put up for the first time. It was kind of like putting a jig saw puzzle together but the 4 brains managed. Since Teresa is the Chairperson for the BYC dinners we had a chance to discuss the first Dinner that we planned to host at BYC. These are fundraisers for the club so there are lots of logistics to get it all right and be sure to make the membership happy, well fed and fun + make the club a few dollars to boot. See the Port A Cruise pics at http://www.bayyachtclub.org/apps/photos/album?albumid=10840291

Sat. January 29th The Steakley Dinner at BYC

After consulting with old and new the Admiral put together a plan. We shopped on Thursday, fixed it all up on Friday, and even though we had about 15 last minute RSPV's we successfully hosted our first BYC dinner for 60 guests. It is a pretty amazing juggling act managing several chiefs, but the Admiral just put on her gifted & talented hat and made it look pretty easy. We had just started a Non-Inflammatory diet that our daughter Lia sold us on and so we could not even eat most of the food we had prepared. This particular diet has been especially effective at keeping me out of jail since you have to go cold turkey on the Alcohol. The Admiral brought our 1/3 protein; 2/3's vegetable food and we secretly ate that. A couple of days ago I saw an old friend that I have not seen in a couple of years, 189, so the diet is here to stay for a while. See the Pics at http://www.bayyachtclub.org/apps/photos/album?albumid=10882457

When there is no one to go sailing with then the best thing to do is go Birding

Padre Island National Seashore We have been here twice now. Each time is great since you seem to really be out in the birds' wilderness enviornment and not just in a park or somewhere on the edge of town. We are getting pretty good at spotting and identifying several species of raptors. This trip we began to sort out all the shore birds, Is it a Willet, a Godwit, a Yellow Legs, or a Dowitcher, of course it is not a Long Billed Curlew!

We drove to Fulton and checked into a hotel for 3 days of non stop birding:

Day 1 Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Another great wilderness area. I really like all the Alligators here but unfortunately our trusty camera died on this trip. Our find for this trip though was the Great Kiscadee http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-great-kiscadee.html. We were told it is very uncommon for the area http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/aransas/wildlifesee.html

Day 1 & 2 & 3 Goose Island State Park, we went on a 0800 Shore bird tour where are finding ourselves much more independent in identifying all the more common species in the Coastal Bend area. Near here we found a field where we could just drive up and see a family of 3 Whoopers. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/goose_island/#act

Day 3 Tommy Moore's Skimmer Boat and the Whooping Crane tour in Aransas Bay, Mesquite Bay and the ICW. We saw about 30 Whooping Cranes. My favorite on this tour other than the Whoopers were the Oyster Catchers. See his site at: http://www.whoopingcranetours.com/

The admiral and I can pretty much spot and identify just over 100 species that are either residents of the Coastal Bend or Migrating through. We keep a copy of "The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America" http://www.amazon.com/Sibley-Field-Guide-Eastern-America/dp/067945120X with us always to confirm and discuss our sightings. As spring approaches a lot of the birds are changing colors so we will be tested again to correctly identify our sightings.

Boat Projects still continue but they are just small maintenance or upgrades. I do get to check these off the list however and it all contributes to getting this boat cruise ready. The main project is routing the water that drains from the frig to a pump and out through the sink drain instead of just allowing it to drain into the bilge.

And last but not least we are just in the begining stages of learning how to Tweet...again another requirement by our daughter Lia... ....find us there.