Coastal Bend Cruising

The 1st three images are out of order because I found them way after I posted this blog & just recently added them..

The 1st pic is of the burning of the Bastille on Ingelside Bay.
Wand'rin Star is the boat on the far right of the photo.

Jenny, the Admiral & I at the Burning of the Bastille!

This is the Women's On board Emergency Procedures Seminar at BYC.

Here is Johnny Huddelston teaching us all about DSC/VHF radios and all their safety features.

Here is Captain Bob Barrow filling in all the gaps. He teaches ASA Coastal Cruising at the local Sailing School so he was a valuable asset to this seminar.

I won 2nd place in the Men's dingy Poker Run..I had 2 pairs & an Ace.

Our DSC/VHF radio...Just push the little red button on the lower right hand side and the Coast Guard shows up to help.

This is our Nauticast -B AIS system. This displays all commercial traffic and anyone/thing else with a AIS transmitter. right on our Garmin display

The Radio and the AIS are wired into our Garmin 3210 Chart plotter through the Industry Standard NEMA connections that allow the 3 devices to share data.

This is the M/V Eclipse at Ingelside Bay

Here is S/V Griffith, a Pacific Seacraft 37 Ingelside.

The Excellent Wind Scoop, already ordered one more for the other hatch!

Well what a fine sunset at Ingelside.

If I was not going cruising I might just have to have one of these for the dock!

Teresa, Neil & Megan on Totom passing us by on the way back to Corpus.

A fine Corpus Sky line in the distance.

The benefit of getting some local cruising in before we depart Corpus Christi for the East Coast is getting in some practical sea trials for all the systems on board. For instance managing the 3 water tanks or learning how long we can run our refrigeration without draining our house batteries to much. Determining just how long to run our generator each day when we are anchored out to keep the batteries charged. Our generator is a 5 KW Seapower unit that runs off the main engine instead of a separate self contained gen-set. This has the benefit of not having to maintain two separate diesel engines but you add running hours to the main engine just to charge batteries and provide other electrical needs like the microwave, TV, or charging cell phones and all the other rechargeable stuff. Two large solar panels are on the wish list and should provide most of the power we are depending on our current charging system. Also using our AIS, DSC/VHF Radio, and learning all the functions on the Radar and Chart plotter. We rarely use our propane stove so the Admiral just today mentioned she needed to start cooking on it to make sure it is all in good order. We either use the grill mounted on the stern rail, a electric skillet, or the microwave for everything. The Admiral prepares all our meals before we leave the dock and shore power behind for our short 2-3 day cruises so we do not need to use the stove but that will soon change.

June Education Seminar

In June I led a Women's On board Emergency Procedures Seminar for the membership of BYC. I had to do a bit of homework to prepare the topics for this course that is also known as a "Skipper Savers Course". Lisa Kelley, the Commodore of BYC requested this topic since we have so many couples who depend heavily on thier skipper to make sure everyone stays safe and returns back to the d0ck. So what would the Admiral do if the skipper was incapacitated and she was suddenly in charge of the helm. Needless to say this was a well attended seminar and I recruited 2 knowledgeable local sailors, Johnny Huddelston and Captain Bob Barrow, to help present the material for the class. In the short 2 hours we merely were able to highlight the important knowledge and skills required to be prepared for such an emergency situation and sent all off to do their own homework and practice to insure that the Admirals can not only properly communicate emergency information to 1st responders but to also take charge of the vessel and bring all home safely. This class pointed out several deficiencies that Lynn & I will have to practice to make sure she feels confident as well. Soon Lynn will assume the helm duties and I will be the dock hand for coming into the dock and leaving the dock. The Admiral is already confident sailing and anchoring at the helm. The summer months offer plenty of low wind conditions to practice docking without risking nerves or banging up the topsides.

July 4th Dingy Poker Runs

A blessing in disguise. I told the Admiral we needed to get the dingy out and prepare her to win the Dingy Poker Run being held on July 4th at BYC. She said she would learn to drive the dingy but she would not participate in a Dingy event on the busy 4th of July with all the nuts motoring about around the Marina. We needed ice for a Dock Party I had put together for H & G docks and it was impossible to go by car since you would never be able to get a parking space so using the dingy was the practical choice. I recruited our slip neighbor Earnie to go along to help, this way the Admiral would at least try to appear calm as she navigated the dingy all the way to the South end of the marina to get the ice. We would make one more trip for ice the following day so the Admiral actually got the feel for it and began to relax a bit. I told her I wanted to take the dingy to BYC for the July 4th activities since I planned on participating in the Men's dingy events. As it turned out only 2 dingy's showed up for the fun so the women needed Lynn to participate. The Admiral jumped in the Dingy with 2 other female contestants and drove through the poker run just fine. I was a Happy Skipper!

AIS/Chart plotter Update

Part of the Women's On board Emergency Procedures Seminar was on the topic of DSC/VHF radios. With one push of a button on these new VHF radios you can summon the coast guard and if they are connected to your chart plotter the coast guard will not only know the exact ID of the boat calling for help but they will also know the exact Lat/Long Coordinates of the vessel. Johnny Huddelston agreed to present this portion of the class. In preparation for his presentation he wanted to practice using the DSC (Digital Select Calling) features on his VHF radio. So I agreed since I could use the practice as well. During our attempts to use the DSC features I realized something was not working as it should. Johnny was sure it was something on his end but as I investigated I realized for some reason my radio was not transmitting the Lat/Long data. I discovered that when The AIS (automatic identification system) transponder was installed and connected to my Garmin Chart plotter that the DSC features on the VHF radio were not reconnected properly. Long Story short, the father of the young man who installed our AIS system helped me identify the two wires that were incorrectly wired to the NEMA connector. Also I called Garmin to get a software update card for the chart plotter and this corrected a couple of other issues like the AIS targets moving sideways and the incorrect date and time on the chart plotter. We also insalled new charts for the entire East coast and the Gulf of Mexico. During this process I was able to sketch out a complete color coded schematic of the entire NEMA Garmin, AIS, and VHF radio. This is a crucial piece for any future problem solving.
All of our electronics are now checked out completely and ready to go. You might like to check out http://www.marinetraffic.com/ This site is very similar to the AIS on a chart plotter. Any Vessel in the world who has their AIS turned on is displayed and you can click on the vessel and see their heading, course, speed, identification and other info.

Cruise to Ingelside Bastille Day

This would be our third time to anchor in Ingelside Bay near the Bahia Marina and our second time to attend one of the Coastal Bends biggest cruisers parties for the Bastille Day Celebration.
We decided to sail over a day early and spend two nights in Ingelside Bay. We had to clean the condo that day so we got a late start and departed CC marina at 16:30. The winds were blowing a bit so we just used 90% of the genoa and had a romping sail in 20-25 knot winds across CC Bay. The Dredge working the CC ship Channel presented a larger navigation hazard than expected as the discharge pipe ran more than a mile south of the shipping channel. We had to tack 3 times in the 4'+ chop and high winds to get around this obstacle. Keeping a sharp look out in these conditions takes all of your attention. We were glad to get into the Ingelside channel behind the barrier islands protecting us from the fetch in the bay. We anchored easily behind two other early arrivals , S/V Griffith and M/V Eclipse, with our new Rocna anchor. We were a bit concerned about being able to sleep through a hot night on the hook but I brought along a wind scoop I bought at a BYC auction. Man these things work great as they scoop up lots of breeze and funnel it all down through the hatch, I actually got cold and had to get up and put on a tshirt. The admiral was covered up with a sheet but the cool air along with the high humidity was strange to me so I opted for no sheet. I have already ordered a second wind scoop so we can force ventilate more of the interior. The Admiral enjoyed her Iphone that evening as WiFi reception was weak. I just enjoyed the evening in the cockpit with a few coldies. Someone posted a 2011 Youtube video of the event so if you click on the title of this blog the link will take you to the video. The dinner is a huge Potluck followed by Larry Joe Taylor and his band with a replica Bastille burning to top off the night. We had a very relaxing sail back across the bay in light winds and I promised the Admiral a easy sail since the trip across on Friday had been a test. So we just used all 130% of the Genoa for a 3-4 knot sail back to Corpus. Our friends Teresa and Neil and their daughter Megan caught up with us on their 36' Erickson "Totom" I got a great shot of Totom with the back drop of the Corpus downtown skyline.

Cruise to Fulton for the Rockport Music Festival

This was the view from our cockpit of Aransas Bay. I took this Sat. early am with the morning Coffee.

We met this couple who proudly gave a tour of their Lord Nelson 35, they have lived aboard since last Nov. and plan to go to the Bahamas this November. They recommended going to hear the Bassist at the Sugar Shack Friday night.

Here are most of the BYC boats and their flag. The big boat up front is Bill & Jan's Merlin, a Macintosh 47.

This is Neil & Teresa arriving at the Fulton Harbor entrance on their new Erickson 38 Totom.

You can see the Gulf ICW from the harbor, here is a Tow & Barge Westbound. This would be a great place to view all sorts of vessels transiting the ICW.

Here is the Sugar Shack where the bassist was reported to be one of the top three in the US. I think he was among the top three in Nueces county.

This was our Fulton dock, turned out to be the best place to be.

Mark Hiler took this photo of us from his Catalina 400 Seaflight as he was closing in on us. We were sailing down the Corpus Christi Ship Channel in 15+ knot winds having a great time trying to stay ahead of him.

This is Johnny & Cynthia on their Valient 40 Concerto. We managed to stay just ahead of them all the way back to Corpus after we raised the sails.

This is Mark & Brenda's Catalina 400 Seaflight just after they passed us. Seaflight is lighter and quicker.

Seaflight took the high Road, I think I will to next time as the tanker took all of our wind allowing Seaflight to get a big lead on the way down the channel.









This was our best cruise so far since coming to Corpus. We had a great motor sail on Starboard tach all the way to Port A and then a downwind run to Fulton with the South winds. It was 10-15 most of the way but we motored sailed all the way since it was to be a 5-6 hour trip and we did not want to take any longer and miss our time at the Fulton Harbor. It was sunny and about 90 degrees but the wind is still cool here and not hot. We had favorable currents in the ship channel and reached 9 knots with the ebbing tide. Our AIS system worked great as two different Tows hailed us by name well in advance and requested that we take them on the "2" which means to pass Starboard to Starboard. We are sold on AIS and if your going to be traveling in the company of commercial shipping then this is just as essential to have on board as a DSC/VHF radio. We were cautious choosing our exit from the ICW and probably went about a mile to far to turn to Fulton but a couple of items on the chart looked best to avoid. On our return trip we followed the more experienced Concerto across Aransas Bay and they took us on a much shorter course. As we approached Fulton we were instructed to call the Aransas Navigation district by phone to find out our slip assignment on our approach to the entrance. The nice woman on the phone informed us our slip had another boat in it and to just enter the harbor and there would be someone there to direct us. Well there is plenty to get ready as you are entering a unfamiliar harbor. Usually they can tell you in advance if you will have a Port or Starboard tie so you can prepare your approach and your mooring lines. Well the admiral took the helm while I prepared lines for both sides of the boat since we did not know which we would moor to. We found our guy and he directed us to a very narrow slip, we probably had a 2 foot clearance on the width and it would be a windward tie so fortunately there were three guys ready to take lines, Lynn did an awesome job of getting the lines to them quickly and we glided into our slip. One of the dockmen asked if I used a bow thruster. "No Sir, don't have one". Without the help it could have gotten ugly quick though since the winds were piping 15-20. This was the best deal since we left the Pacific Northwest, $30 per night! I went to the Dock Formen's office which was a pickup located at the end of the dock and wrote a check for our stay.

Our neighbor Al who lived aboard their Lord Nelson 35 with his Admiral Sue came over and introduced himself. He stayed and talked awhile and convinced us we needed to go to the Sugar Shack around 9pm that night to see one of the top three Bassist in the United States. We talked about boats and I explained that I thought his boat was a Hans Christian, he explained that the guy who built Lord Nelsons had split from Hans Christian to pursue building boats his way. He took us on a tour and the outside looked like a Hans Christian and the inside woodwork just like a Passport. Definitely a go anywhere blue water boat.

Happy Hour on Wave Dancer

Happy hour was reported to be on Wave Dancer Friday evening around 1700. We got there around 1745 and the drinks were well on there way. Everybody was happy, must have been about 7 couples down below in the AC enjoying the appetizers, painkillers and all sorts of libations. The Admiral drank water & I brought along a XX's green..One of my favorite 2 kinds of cerveza. When I finished my Dos XX's Bill asked me if I wanted another beer...I said sure, he gave me a can of Keystone...Johnny laughed and cited that this is what Bill does to discouraged asking for Beer on his boat. I drank it anyway. I think some of those people were on their 3rd painkiller cause they looked as if they were not going to be able to get off the boat. I told them to eat some more of that fresh Ahi tuna!

Hu Dat Seafood Restaurant

Then we walked 2 blocks just passed the Sugar Shack to eat dinner at Hu-Dat, is Asian and have a big Vietnamese menu. We get the Bun Combo, A bowl of vegetables and beef, chicken, and shrimp. The Hu Dat is Fulton is the original Hu Dat restaurant and the Flagship, the best one to go to. Hu and Dat were the owners sons, I heard that Dat played for the cowboys!

Sugar Shack

The Admiral recommended that we go to hear the Bassist at 10 instead of 9am and stay about an hour. When we got there at 10 pm the band was just setting up and we found some seats near the stage. It was not crowded yet but the 20 and 30 somethings were beginning to pour in. The band was a group of 2 Ty on vocals and Lead/rhythm guitar and Joseph on the big stand up Bass and Bass guitar. They were a sort of Bluegrass/country band and certainly entertaining. We thought the bassist was good but probably just ranked as one of the top in Nueces county, can you say Edgar Meyer? Who? But the story here is in the locals who crowd into this bar. See their website at http://sugershacktx.com/ and check out their pics and menu. I think you can get some taste of it there. Definitely worth a visit to fully appreciate the Fulton culture. We left by 11:30 since the locals were getting fueled up & there was a limit to the action we wanted to witness. As we left there was a young woman yelling at some poor dude, she told him he was "worthless" and the rest of this story I will leave to your imagination.

Rockport Music Festival...Saturday

Well we didn't really attend the festival, we did however walk down the sidewalk to a spot that was about 30 yards from the stage and listen to a few songs every now and then during the day/night on Saturday. The link on the title goes to the Rockport music festival site so you can see the line up. the headliners were Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark and Gary P Nunn. Living in Austin for over 30 years we saw these guys several times over the years, They are not exactly young anymore and we knew that hitting those notes after years of alcohol and/or other drug abuse might be tricky. Our thoughts were confirmed by what we heard out on the sidewalk. We went back to the boat that night & listened to their music on the ipod from when they were young and still had a voice. We had some friends Wendy & Randy from H dock drive over and Hang out with us for the evening so we had good company on the sidewalk and on the docks. There was a rumor that the couple who previously owned our E42 would be there and they would come by and say hello..we either missed the connection or they did not make it to the show. It would have been great to see them since they provided us with lots of great information just after we brought the boat to Kemah from Washington. Josh and Barb Wallach are a big part of the Texas Mariners Cruising Association out of the Galveston Bay area so it is always good to meet up with them to see what is going on.

Sunday
Well the concern Sunday was to get up early and depart for Corpus since the winds would be building and for a lot of us getting out of these narrow slips would be a challenge especially for those of us with the wind right on the beam. A small dock crew of BYC folkes began to assemble to organize and help. Totom was first to go, then Bruce from Elan explained we needed to go help Concerto next, in the meantime Wave Dancer departed as we made our way to Concerto. We came back to our dock where a big Port A sailboat was preparing to leave, it looked like a while before he would be ready so I explained my engine was running and I was ready to go now, so I had 4 guys help us off and we needed all four to get it done safely. As I backed out I tried to keep the nose pointed to the wind but no way I would have to turn, go down the fairway and find a way to turn in the narrow area. Fortunately we naturally ended up on the port side of the Fairway and I can turn the boat in it's length as long as I am turning to Starboard so it all worked out perfect and we were on our way back into Aransas Bay with the rest of the BYC Armada. I put the main up before we left the harbor and increased the RPM to catch up with Concerto. I figured by following Concerto I would learn some local knowledge about navigating this bay & I was absolutely correct. Concerto lead us on a much shorter course than the one we came in on. The winds were still out of the South so we would be motor sailing till we got to the turn to the West in Port A. I like to run our Yanmar at least 2000 rpm since it is best to keep a load on a diesel and not run them at low rpms. However Concerto was running slower than I preferred but I thought it best to continue to follow and learn from him so I knocked the rpms down to 1400. There was no tow/barge traffic today which we thought was unusual for this part of the ICW, it was Sunday though. Just as we neared the end of the Lydia Anne channel, Concerto started putting out their headsail, I had noticed he had accelerated ahead a bit as we neared the turn. Well it was not quite yet time to put out the headsail for us so I upped the rpm & closed the Gap. Just before we made our turn I rolled about about 100% of our 130 genoa. The Admiral went down below and set the switches so I could turn off the engine and we were just behind Concerto. I was unaware but Seaflight was coming up from behind. The sails filled and we were off down the Channel. We slowly passed Concerto, the winds were a bit gusty & I had to mind the mainsheet to keep from being overpowered. Seaflight was now just behind us & I hailed him on the VHF and asked him to take a few pics of us since we did not have any of WS under sail. We got a few of him as well. Seaflight then took the Port side of the channel just as a tanker was approaching, we and Cocerto held our course on the Starboard side passing the ship properly in the channel, We both lost our wind for a while while the tanker passed and slowed to just a couple of knots, Seaflight however gained quite a bit as he passed to windward and there was no hope in catching him now. We were soon out into the open bay with nothing to obstruct the winds. I had to sheet out the main a bit more and we romped along around 7 knots on a close reach. As we were nearing Corpus I was thinking that this had been the best sail so far since coming to Corpus. It may have been the friends sailing along with us, getting to know our little ship better and being able to relax more, or just the whole cruise thing. Probably all that together. The Admiral & I now have our arrival routine down and barely have to say a word as we prepare to come through the gap into the Corpus Marina, put the sails away and motor to our slip. We used to look for help on the dock but it is not necessary anymore. It is nice when someone is there to hand a line to but we have it down now.

Get Your Cruise On

Wand'rin Star at the e Pier party....The Longhorn Jamaican Pirate.

At least 15 + sailboats made the trip to E pier.

The Morning after.

A great evening Sail heading back to Corpus at Sundown.

Wand'rin Star in Port a for the Port A Light house cruise.

Pete at the helm headed back to Corpus down the ship channel after the Port A cruise.

This is I think a Green turtle, we saw lots of them on the South Jetty at Port A.

The Admiral almost to the end of the South Jetty.

I like the end of the Jetty best.

Someone left there engine and transom behind on the rocks of the South jetty.

The channel end of the South Jetty.

The Admiral got this Great shot of my favorite bird, the Least Bittern at the Port A Birding Center.

E Pier Party
Bay Yacht Club sponsored a E pier Dock Party in the interest of recruiting a few new members.

Whenever BYC goes on a cruise it is usually attended by an average of 8 -10 boats, mostly sail. But this cruise was a bit different, it was a membership recruiting party and all they had to do was cruise over to E dock ( this dock is reserved for 50'+ yachts). Since most of the docks that would be moored on this dock just happen to choose the Kemah/Galveston Bay area (think Houston $$) e dock is mostly empty. So when BYC wanted to take a lot of their boats over to a dock to hold a membership party the Marina agreed to let them have E dock for 1 night to do their thing on. Well, this happened to be one of the most well attended event of the last 5 years since no one had to cruise more than a couple 100 yards to get to E dock. It was an overwhelming success in terms of participation and partying. We got there 1st! So we had the choice of slips and of course I choose the primo slip so we were in the middle of the fun all day and night. I had a great time helping everyone else getting tied up. Since the winds were blowing hard it is always a challenge to get there even if it is just a couple of hundred yards away.

Evening Cruise

Later in the week the winds abated a bit and I invited a few dock mates for an evening cruise. This is what Spring on Corpus Christi Bay is all about, a nice 15 knot wind and a cool breeze.

Memorial Day Port A Cruise

We had reservations in Port A for a slip for the BYC/Lighthouse cruise. Unfortunately the Admiral had to go up and take care of her parents for a few days. I recruited Pete, a neighbor on the dock to help me get the boat to Port A to participate in the cruise. Pete is a new comer to sailing but he is learning fast. I took on a teacher role and made sure he had as complete a learning experience as possible navigating to and from Port A. Jim Clower and his Harvest Moon Regatta crew showed up in Port A so Pete & I forfeited the Lighthouse event to stay and party with the Crew of Apotheker. A great weekend but the Admiral was sorely missed as this was to be the new beginning of our Texas Cruising life. On Sunday when we left Port A I took a right out of the Port A Marina to head out into the Gulf of Mexico to give Pete a good look at the Gulf. Since it was blowin 20-30 the seas were building to 8-10 at the end of the jetties. I had the foresail ready to deploy if needed, when going out in these conditions you need every alternative ready to go. We motored out about 1/10 mile past the jetties to just get a good taste of the gulf salt. Since I have never had Wand'rin Star out in these conditions I was very interested in seeing how she handled. I was very pleased on how she managed the short wave period especially after being out in it on a 36' Erickson and a 42' Passport. The 66 hp Yanmar was not even impressed. We turned and headed back in, at this point I took the helm from Pete since he seemed to have become disoriented and was not sure how to turn 180 and go back the direction we had come from. As we progressed down the ship channel on a broad reach the winds decreased to about 17 knots. I furled out the head sail and we were moving along at 9 knots with the almost 2 knot current, no need for the mainsail or the iron genny. the winds begin to increase as we approached Corpus Christi Bay and I reefed the headsail increasing as we made our way across the bay and the wind eventually increased to 30 knots. The Gap or entrance to the Corpus Marina is usually plenty wide but today I was glad no other boats were in the area as I wanted all space I could to safely sail through the gap. Just as we got in the breakwater and I went forward to prepare the foredeck a 35 knot wind gust hit and I had to drop to my knees to keep from blowing off. Just shows what a few knots increase in wind can do to your day.

Women's On board Emergency Procedures

was the title of the third education seminar I organized for BYC. The Commodore asked me to prepare a seminar for this topic since we have so many Seniors sailing around the bay area and they want to know what to do if their skipper is suddenly incapacitated and the Admiral is suddenly in charge of the helm. We had great participation and lots of excellent questions. It was obvious that this 1 1/2 hour class would not be enough but it certainly pointed out to all of us that we have more to do, practice and ready ourselves to safely enjoy our favorite pastime. The link on the title goes to the BYC Website with pics of the class. More info on the topics discussed are in the education area of the BYC website.

South Jetty
The Admiral wanted to go out to the South Jetty in Port A to take some pics of the turtles. So we took our binocs and camera and drove down to the beach. Every time we had gone birding near the Jetty I tried to get the Admiral to walk the entire length all the way to the very end. She was never interested since a lot of the walk is a bit like a climb since you have to hike over large Granite blocks. But this time she had a purpose and there were lots of turtles to see along the way. She was also looking to spot a Magnificent Frigate Bird so she was willing to go to the end for the Frigate. I wanted to go to the end to see where I had sailed by on five previous occasions. This day was a calm day, the seas were flat and clear. A great day for spotting sea life and enjoying a long walk out and back. We spent 2 hours on the jetty taking pics and enjoying the turtles, Sheaphead, sandwich terns, but no frigates!

Tomorrow

we get up early and join about 8 other sailboats on a cruise to Fulton, TX for the Rockport Music Festival.

2011 Melges 24 World Championship Corpus Christi

While the Melges racers were here a shrimp boat caught fire and sank very near where our boat slip is in the marina. The boat was lifted out of the water a few days ago and trucked out of here.
Here is a pic of the racers returning from the course to the Marina.

The 2011 Melges Worlds are nearing completion here in Corpus. This is the first time I have been so close to professional sail racing. We went out early in the week on Wand'rin Star to view the a pre regatta race up close, it was a relatively unusual light air day so the racing was certainly interesting but not what all the buzz was about. In fact they cancelled the second race for the day due to dying winds. The course was to far off shore to see from land so if you wanted a up close view, or some days any view at all due to the heavy humidity haze, you had to go out in the bay. I found the You Tube videos by searching for the 2011 Melges worlds and found I could actually get better results just viewing the professionally shot videos who could get some up close action and they have interviews and other neat videos online. The local racing community here in Corpus put their life on hold for a week to volunteer and make sure these guys have a great time so they will come back here and do it again sometime. There are ususally around 100 boats entered in the competition but only about 30 showed up in Corpus due to it "being in the Boonies" as one Melges skipper stated. All the teams from foreign countries have to have their boats shipped in shipping containers and find a flight to Corpus which is just not as easy as going to either the East or West coast. The link on the title of this blog goes to the final results page. The Italians, USA, and a Irish team finished 1,2,3 respectively. I took lots of picture but none of them are really good enough to post (to far away). But you can just go to You tube and search 2011 Melges Worlds and see it all there.

The Admiral Doesn't Blog..but she writes

The Beach on Mustang Island just 3 minutes walk from our rental condo is different every day. Sometimes it is spotless clear sand for miles with calm blue water, most times the water is full of wave action and a brown color from all the sand stirring up and the sea life.

Just the a few days before the seaweed or sargassum weed that comes all the way from the Atlantic ocean was 2 feet deep covering most of the beach.

Fishing with Katie & Greg for morning and afternoon, we caught these tasty Whitings and lots of Gaff tops which we tossed back even some say they are tasty.

Here is the Least Bittern, he is clinging onto the reeds stretching down to catch himself a minnow sized fish.

Here he is hunting low in the reeds for the next tasty morsel. This guy is Funky!

As our tank project begins to fade away we are finding more time to enjoy our second found hobby of Birding. And of course long walks down the beach and fishing with friends. Katie & Greg came to visit for 3 days and it was blowin 30 knots each day so we went fishin.

Birding is a free hobby, unlike sailing. Lot's of Birders carry very expensive binoculars, and/or spotting scopes and/or cameras. The Admiral has a nice pair of birding binoculars, I rely on my marine type of binoculars that we ordinarily keep on the boat & I bought a inexpensive 5 year old camera off Ebay to act as the Admirals camera man for the weekly article that she writes for the Port Aransas South Jetty newspaper. Hanging out with birders is not a bad place to be, everyone is happy, there is nothing controversial except perhaps the identity of a bird. Your always in a nice environment with friendly, smart people who love to share their finds and are curious about what you have seen. We have spotted and become familiar with over 200 species including coastal birds, shore birds, hawks, falcons, and all types of migrating birds large & small. My favorite of them all though is the Least Bittern, it is the smallest of the American Herons. He is elusive and funky. I really have fun spotting and watching this fun bird. I enjoy them all but this guy is worth the hunt and I feel lucky when I spot one. The admiral doesn't blog but she does write, just go to: http://www.portasouthjetty.com and search Lynn Steakley in the archives to see some of her articles and some of my photos.

Phase III Living Small

The broken secondary bilge pump switch is on the left and it's new replacement on the right mounted on a piece of Starboard.

This is the secondary emergancy bilge pump, a 4000 GPM pump

This is the completed installation, secure & tested.

The final panel installed just under the companionway stairs.

Our Memorial Day weekend destination. the Lydia Ann Channel Lighthouse.

Well we have certainly entered a third phase in our retirement and living aboard. Nine months after leaving our home in Austin we both have settled into our new living small sailing home. We no longer feel "temporary", we have found our comfort zone. The tank project is 99% complete, just a few remaining details to finish. I recently replaced the secondary (emergency) bilge pump switch to the 4000 gallon per minute pump. I then put in the final piece teak panel that provided access to this area closing in the bilge area for a very long time. I did however rearrange the screws in the panel so it could be removed without having to crawl under the galley sink. There is a lot that goes on in this area and having easier access is comforting.

We definitely have decreased our footprint dramatically. Water for one is used very sparingly. I added a 3m water filter to our water system so we could safely drink the water from our new tanks but it caused our water pressure to drop. After talking to Randy who lives aboard a few slips down I decided I need to move the filter further down the system just past the pressure tank. Hopefully this will restore the water pressure to it's normal rate. This will be tomorrows project. Fuel is another thing both for the boat & cars, of course a sailboat uses very little diesel, at 2000 rpm, and 6 knots of speed we consume about 1 gallon per hour. We still have 2 vehicles and at some point we will sell my little truck and keep the Admirals car somewhere. One of these vehicles stays parked for week or longer at a time so we have dramatically decreased the need for gasoline. Food on a sailboat is another area where there is very little waste. Since refrigeration is much smaller you make the most of meal planning. All the left overs are usually consumed the next meal. Buying clothes is almost completely out of the question since we both have way more than we need and if we want something different to wear we just stop by our storage and trade out clothes there. I think the only thing that either of us has bought is new tennis shoes to replace the worn out ones. Our need for electricity is certainly decreased. Our home in Austin could easily use up $225 worth per month in the summer months. Here where the electricity rates are a bit higher and the heat much more intense, we used no more than $47 in the summer months to AC the boat. We use LPG for cooking & grilling. We have two 5 gallon tanks and have not needed to refill either tank since we moved here. Of course there are no property taxes on a boat, you just have to purchase your bi-annual registration sticker like you have to do for your car on a annual basis.

Routines are established when you live on a boat, even though it is a comparatively small space, it is much easier to lose something on a boat so everything has it's place and I mean everything. The Admiral & I must agree on the exact storage spot for every thing we have on the boat. If a certain item is not place exactly back to it's proper spot it could be deemed lost forever and you just have to buy a new one.

The winds have been blowing here 25-30 with gust in the 40's for the last 12 weeks so getting the boat out for a sail just is not practical. We did finally have a couple of normal days here, winds 15-20 gusting to 25 so on one of those days we sailed over to Shamrock Island and anchored in Shamrock Cove for the day. The island is a Bird Sanctuary and no humans can step onto the sand there but we got the kayak down and kayaked for an hour or so along it's coast and inlets. I did not take a camera as the winds were a bit of a challenge for kayaking & I knew I would need both hands for the paddle. This is the first time the Admiral & I anchored out on Wand'rin star without several other boats along. We will return to this special place for a longer stay but it has to be with North East or East winds to be comfortable in this cove. The prevailing South East or South winds could make it not fun here. We were able to go out on a three hour Bay sail a couple of days later and enjoy 15-20 knot winds with no gust. Even though we have a big heavy boat, the sails are huge so even with winds like this you have to reef the sails a bit. So we used 80% of the main and about 70% of the Genoa.

We will go with the BYC cruise to Lydia Ann Light House the 27th-29th. So we made reservations in the Port Aransas Marina for 2 nights. Some are planning to anchor out in Lydia Ann channel and dingy over to the light house for dinner but one of the BYC members is providing a power boat to ferry those staying in Port A to the Light house for the event. The Major problem with planning on an anchorage this far out is knowing the wind direction and weather forecast is impossible here. Way more often than not the weather is not going to cooperate with a planned date. So if you want to be sure to have the best chance of going you just have to get into a marina. Also there are plans in the works to sail to Fulton for a Jazz Festival there. Here we may accompany the Huddelston's and follow them there to an anchorage that he says is completely protected. The cruising begins!