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!

Starting to Relax a Bit

This is the only Deck Locker for just general stuff and now it has a couple of buckets, hose, Lots of various sizes of extra line, cleaning material and a siphon hose.

This is the anchor locker but it currently has rode for three anchors, a bridle, and the towing line for the dingy. I plan to modify this into 3 separate compartments to keep the anchor rodes separate and a small storage compartment in the aft end of the locker. For safety reasons this area needs to be very organized in the event you need to quickly deploy your anchor unexpectedly. You do not need a bunch of stuff in your way.

This is the aft pulpit which is another very busy place with the dingy and the dingy davits, man over board pole, 2 throwable safety flotation devices: a horseshoe ring and Lifesling, the BBQ grill, the outboard motor, and the motor lifting hoist, with a couple of jerry cans thrown in the mix, and that is our Kayak on racks on the starboard side. I will revisit all this soon and see how I can better organize all in the name of safety of course.

All the storage spaces aboard are either full or partially full, this is the starboard storage located behind the back of the settee cushion, you can see it is full. Each storage bag is color coded for it's contents. We will re-visit each storage bags contents and make sure it needs to go with us.

I think we are in Phase II of our transition to living on a boat. Up until the moment we brought the boat back from having the tanks installed and getting all the flooring re-installed we were still in a bit of gypsy land. The Admiral returned from a full day of birding and I spent the day getting the saloon floor back in...when she returned she remarked " I forgot how nice the boat is." She and then I began to relax and fade into what is definitely the second part of our transition to living aboard. The boat moved from restrictive to open and living aboard easier than land based accommodations. We are still learning to deal with limited storage space but we are close to solving the assumed problem. We make fewer trips to our 10X10X8 storage. We used to go once or twice a week, now it is about every 2 - 3 weeks. My personal goal is to bring aboard everything that is in storage that we need to go cruising and find a place for it, and remove everything on the boat that is unnecessary for cruising. One of the hardest parts are the clothes. Since we still attend lots of different types of social activities, it is difficult to toss it even though we know 70% of it must go.We donated many boxes to the Salvation Army before we moved to Corpus Christi. Shoes are another problem...you need exercise shoes, boat shoes, foul weather gear, shower slides, dock sandals, beach/water shoes and some dress shoes....and that is just me, The Admiral needs more. I have to have my Wet suit including a Hooka dive pump/regulator and we both need our snorkel gear. My tools including chargeable power tools, Her Stuff (more than tools). Plumbing, electrical, hardware & engine spare parts including extra oil, antifreeze, distilled water. Both of our laptops, printer, Sailing and technical library. Navigation gear and charts. Galley (kitchen) supplies, first aid supplies, cleaning and maintenance chemicals. Towels, toiletry, minimal office supplies. Sewing machine and complete marine sewing kit. Lots of Safety gear, summergable pump, life jackets, jack lines, sea anchor, water activated lights and flare guns, smoke and other safety devices. There is lots of other stuff on this boat like lots of spare batteries, lots of different chargers, two small vacuum cleaners and lots of canvass and eisinglass that are only used either in very hot or very cold weather. Endeavour 42's were originally built for the Florida Charter trade for sailing to and from the Bahamas so deck storage is small. Most cruising boats have huge deck lockers for all the stuff you do not want to store down below. We have three deck lockers, forward is the anchor locker so it contains three large anchors and all the chain, rode, and bridle. Aft there are two lockers in each stern quarter. One is a dedicated Propane locker where there are two large propane containers. So that leaves just one relatively small locker for all the deck stuff. This means all the fenders, jerry cans, dock lines, and miscellaneous gear has to be stored somewhere on the deck. A bit of work has to be done here to have it stowed properly for the times we are sailing on the "outside". 10-12' seas can easily wash off gear not properly lashed down to the deck. As you can see we have prepared a lot to reach our goal of beginning our cruise in November, but we have a bit more to get ready ...we are with in reach however. We have a friend, Kevin Kalderbach who left today for Florida and he is single handing his Cape Dory 31. I spoke to him yesterday and he said in order to leave within the current weather window he had to just concentrate on those things that he needed for the crossing and deal with the other stuff when he gets there. I think that is the way it is for everyone who starts a journey like this. You just can not possible attend to every single detail, there would always be one more thing to do ...you just have to go and deal with it along the way. I think that is the way we all live our lives anyway.

Foot note....I was delayed getting pics for this post so I am posting it 2 weeks after writing it. Kevin has made it to Boloxi after 9 days in the Gulf. He had an appointment to help a friend bring his boat back from St. Martins to the Chesapeake area so He left his Cape Dorey in Boloxi to catch a flight to go help his friend, then when he gets that done he will continue on his voyage to get his boat to the East coast.

Sailing Again

Only two more coats to go...starting to look good......

Finally Sailing Again!

This is Bruce & Tammy's "Elan"...a great boat to go racing on

The Cockpit if Elan has 10 winches, the most I have seen on other boats is 4-5, This one is set up to have a winch for almost every halyard & sheet!

On Thursday March 31 the Admiral woke up and said we needed to go sailing to test out the tanks and make sure they will take the Bay Chop in 15-20 knots. I knew she was right but it would take a bit to get Wand'rin Star ready to sail again, besides stowing all our stuff to go sailing I had to tune the rigging. I grabbed some coffee and started the process. This would be at least the 5th time I had tuned this rig and I wanted to do it to perfection since I knew it was never tuned as well as it should have been since we owned her. To get it done right you have to go over your work 4 to 5 times to make sure the mast is in column and properly tuned. By 1100 hrs I was done and this time I got out my departure checklist to make sure I had all the other ordinary things done to prepare to take a 42' vessel out sailing since it had been over 5 months since we had put the sails out. It was about 78 degrees and partly cloudy, a fine day for a sea trial. It is hard to say in words how good it felt to get Our boat under sail again after this very lengthy project. We saw more dolphins than ever in the bay, a good omen I think...and I pushed the boat to the point that the Admiral was asking to slow her down and lessen the heal. It felt great. It is April 10th now & I am turning my attention to the IRS but we are very close to have all the things back in place below. I have a small bit of trim to complete and a large piece of cabinetry under the galley sink to install. A few more hours of plumbing and wiring and it will all be complete. Lots of small upgrades and improvements were possible during this project and since we were so involved in all the details, future maintenance will be much more accessible and manageable. Due to the Corpus Christi Boat Show we had to temporarily relocate to a slip on Lawrence Street, the good part is we can park the cars right in front of the boat. But since it has been blowing at least 30 mph with gust to 40 and 1 day to 50 for the last 10 days, we haven't sailed since moving to this slip Last Wednesday however I was invited to crew for "Elan" a CS 36 owned by Bruce and Tammy Swart. The event was the Wednesday night MORF races. I was in race heaven on this boat, there were 10 winches just in the cockpit area. I think every halyard and sheet had it's on winch! It was a wet ride as we were among the 5 boats who ventured out in the 20-30 knot winds. We missed our start by approx 50 secs so we were mostly chasing the fleet but it was all out sailing at it's best. A very different sailing experience when you sail with experienced racers. Wow time flies and it is Wednesday again,,,,I have been refinishing the teak on the deck of Wond'rin Star the last couple of days out I get to out and race with Elan today...Can't Wait!

And on the Tenth Day

Here you see the aft fuel tank and the water tank partially installed. The stringer has not been re glassed in, you can see where it was cut out.

Here are the two forward water tanks. It used to be just 1 large tank but it had to be fabricated into tow smaller tanks to fit down the companionway. This is Randy, this guy worked really hard right along with Stash to get this project completed. He is from the Pacific Northwest.

This is Salvador the fiberglass man with his helper/daughter who is learning the trade from her father. He started and finished this job.

On Monday 3.14.2011 we motored Wand'rin Star over to Gatewoods after talking to Chris early that morning. He told us we could bring the boat on over but they probably would not get started till late Tuesday or Wednesday. We certainly wanted to have her there and ready to go the moment they could start on her so we got in high gear and within an hour we departed our slip at CC Marina at 0915 hours and had a nice sail over. While the Admiral took off all of our personal stuff and loaded it in the truck, I took down the Bimini/dodger, loosened the rigging and made other preparations to clear things out of the way so they could have easy access to the task at hand. We were done around 1400 so then we went to look for a place to stay the next 4 days. Fortunately we found a room in Rockport on the bay front that would do just fine, I could drive just 15 minutes and check on the progress of the tank installation and the Admiral had just a short drive to Port A for her birding. Tuesday I drove over to Gatewoods around 1400 hrs and went back to the boat to discover they had not started yet but just then Stash boarded the boat and begin to survey his next job. Stash was the lead man for the tank installation and over the course of the next several days we would work closely together to make sure we were both on the same page since this was a custom job and all the details would be engineered as work progressed. Our preliminary meeting pointed out the need for me to stay in close contact and check with them daily to work out the finer details of the installation. While Stash was the person who also removed two of the tanks, it had been a while and I knew I needed to help refresh his memory where certain wires and hoses lead to or where they should be re-connected.

Wednesday would be a full day for sure, with the help of his assistant Randy, they actually had three of the tanks in the boat by the end of the day. We met again that afternoon to sort out the next steps and agree on a few more details. By Thursday they had all four tanks in and partially plumbed. The tanks were foamed in place and they had to stop to let the foam set up harden. We checked in early Friday since this was the day the fiberglass man was supposed to re-glass the stringer we cut, make a platform for the Water muffler and put some tabbing on one of the water tanks. Unfortunately they lost their really good fiberglass man (never found out what happened to him) and so the hunt was on for Salvador. Salvador was our only hope in all of the Coastal Bend area. Luckily he lives next to Darrell & Debbie the owners of Gatewoods. He is known to do good work but he sometimes has difficulty finishing up a job??? The Admiral & I had to find new lodging since our hotel was booked for the next week due to Spring Break. We found a room over in Portland, it would have to do since it was the closest area available that had rooms. We booked three more nights since it was not clear when the fiberglass work would be completed and the tank installation could resume. Hooray,! on Saturday Salvador was there working on the glass work, I went and shook his hand and talked about the project. It was clear he knew exactly what to do and got right after it. Salvador took 2 1/2 days to complete. He painted his work and so that meant another day of downtime on Monday while the paint dried. Time to find another hotel. We were not at all impressed with our accommodations in Portland so we were lucky to find just the right place in Aransas Pass for another 4 nights. Tuesday Stash and Randy were in full stride as they began to tackle the details of completing the plumbing and wiring. About midday I realized the water tanks were good to go and I could go ahead and fill them with water to check out system and look for any leaks. Much better to do it here before we got the boat back to Corpus. We found 3 small leaks due to loose hose clamps and a leaking valve. Randy quickly fixed those. I checked with them Tuesday afternoon and it was clear they would need some of Wednesday to wire the tank gauges to the panel and fabricate a new pedestal for the primary bilge pump switch and discharge hose. I stayed on the boat after they left for the day and I checked all the connections for any problems. Since a lot of the connections would be under flooring with absolutely no access panels, I wanted to make sure there would be nothing overlooked. Wednesday morning I found they had already fabricated a new bilge pump switch pedestal. This was a very important detail as in the original installation the bilge pump only reached 1/2 down into the bilge area since the whole area around the tanks was filled in with foam. In this installation areas were purposely left open all the way down to the bottom of the bilge to allow for air circulation and a complete clearing of any fluids by the bilge pump. I knew we were at the end of this part of the project and we would soon have our boat back together. The Admiral had birding commitments in Port A on Wednesday so We made plans with Darrel to take the boat back to Corpus on Thursday morning. As Stash and Randy was cleaning up and completing the project I added 20 gallons of diesel to the fuel tank, began to put the Bimini/dodger back on and tighten the rigging for the trip back to Corpus. I had my little shop vac and went down and thoroughly vacuumed all I could. Then I washed every interior surface down to get all the dust out before the Admiral went down below. I scrubbed the decks to get off all the project dust and dirt and she was ready for us to put our truck load of personal stuff back aboard. We slept a little later Thursday Morning than intended but we did manage to get to Gatwoods by 0815 and by 0900 we were saying our goodbyes to the crew at Gatewoods and tossing off the lines. We Stopped at Conn Brown Harbor in Aransas Pass to fill the fuel tank. We had called him earlier to check in to make sure we could buy fuel from him. This is a commercial area with mostly offshore work boats, shrimpers and some tows, very few pleasure boats here. When we arrived there was a shrimper refueling but he was done quickly and it took two attempts but we moored up on the fuel dock. Cecil told me to make sure I did not spill a drop as the General Land Office was giving him a hard time. As I filled the tank Cecil stood by and read off the gallons in increments of 5. I knew we could take on 50 or so gallons but I stopped him at 45 since I did not want to risk dealing with a irate local and he had the best prices in the area and I knew his diesel was clean since he pumped so much of it. (clean diesel is very important, especially if you have brand new tanks!) The tide was coming in so we should be fighting the current all the way down the shrimp boat channel to Port Aransas. We were lucky if we made 5 knots, but as we turned the corner to Corpus at Port A we were making 8 all at 20,000 rpm. Yep, I could have stepped it up a bit but you know time is money and we have more time than money these days. As we motored back I began to mentally plan the installation of the flooring and all the many other projects that I had planned on completing since we had such full access to this part of the boat. I have a sack off parts just waiting to be installed and several more on order. I was biting at the bite to get started right away but I knew the Admiral would need some transition time to get back into the routine of living aboard especially after 10 days of strange hotel living and moving about so much. Friday we mostly decompressed, relaxed and just sorted things out. It was the weekend and lots of our weekender friends were arriving for a fun weekend.

Just a note for other Endeavour owners: The total project came in at $7K, about $2K more than we expected but while you have the boat that dissasembled you have to take advantage and correct/fix/upgrade as much as possible. We feel great about this project since we now know our boat throughly and are reaching the goal of getting her cruise ready by our November departure date. A yard in Kemah completed the same project for a Endeavour 43 owner from start to finish, and the bill was just over $16K so we figured we saved over 50% of the cost by doing as much of the work as possible ourselves.

Great God Almighty, Great Balls of Fire!

This is the fuel tank after I coated it with 5 coats of Interlux 2000E 2 part Epoxy.

Wond'rin Star awaiting her new tanks.

Stash, the lead man for our project at Gatewoods getting ready to install the tanks.

Our favorite Whoopers on Goose Island. They are short timers here and will soon begin migrating back North.
A White Eyed Vireo....

We woke up Monday morning about 0800 and the Admiral was fussing that we woke up to late & I needed to call Gatewoods and see when we could bring the boat in to have the tanks installed, after all they told us it would be the week of the 14th. So I called Chris and he said we could bring it now or tomorrow but they would not get started on it till late Tuesday or Wednesday. We had already taken our truck over there just in case so we jumped into high gear and by 0915 we were departing our slip to Rockport. the forecast was for light winds but a front was supposed to begin passing through around 1400. I ran at 2000 RPM and we were doing about 6.4 knots so I knew we should make good time. As we entered the Shipping Channel I checked the tide and we were running against a incoming tide and we slowed to about 6 knots, as we neared Port A we were making just 4.9-5 knots but I knew as soon as we entered the channel leading to Gatewoods we would be running with the tide and we should make back most of our time, I was right, we turned the corner and our speed immediately picked up to 7.8-8 knots. The trip did take about 30 minutes longer than last time and we arrived in 5 hours at 1416 hours. the winds changed a bit to the east just after we tide up and dark clouds were looming. We still had a bit to do to get our stuff off the boat, the rigging loosened, and the Bimini off in preparation for the tanks to be installed. Just as we got the last of it done it began to rain. I stopped over at Gatwoods this afternoon to check on the progress and to take a couple of more pics. Stash, the lead man on the project had just gone to the boat to start the project. I had a chance to discuss some last minute details and concerns. The Admiral & I were lucky to find a room for the next 4 nights in Rockport since Spring Break is alive and well here and hotel rooms are far and few between. We will split our time between here and Port A staying close to Gatewoods so I can check on the progress. If all Goes well we will take Wand'rin Star back to Corpus with her new tanks full of fuel and water to Corpus on Friday or Saturday. I am sure the rest of March and the first 2 weeks of April will be spent just getting the forward AC unit, the plumbing, wiring, and flooring back to normal. There is another great cruise to Ingelside this weekend but it is one more we will have to miss, hopefully we will make the next one for sure. This morning we went to Goose Island to check on the local Whooping Crane family there. We stopped on the way back to our hotel at a small park in Rockport and sighted a White Eyed Vireo, our first one.