Port Aransas

We've been having a blast on our vacation with Jim and Nancy. We stayed in Port Aransas through Tuesday and explored the town. One of the interesting and historical places there is the Tarpon Inn. When an angler catches a large Tarpon they put the information on one of the scales and it gets nailed to the wall. The inn has been there for 133 years (if I have my facts right, and that is not always the case). And had some famous anglers over the years.

Tarpon at Tarpon Inn

Front Porch at Tarpon Inn
Franklin D. Roosevelt - 77 lbs - May 8, 1937

Wall of Scales at Tarpon Inn

Port Aransas has beautiful water. You can actually see into the water, unlike home in Clear Lake. We saw many dolphins swimming in the marina and one of the other really cool things we saw at the City Marina in Port A were some Sea Turtles. We were so excited to see them right there swimming around the boats.

We left Port Aranas on Tuesday and had a quick motor over to spend the day in Rockport

Lydia Ann Lighthouse in the Lydia Ann Channel on the way to Rockport

A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in. ~Robert Orben

Harvest Moon Regatta

Here we are in Port Aransas - we've completed the Harvest Moon Regatta. We crewed on a 51' Endeavor named Topaz owned by Jim and Nancy Brown. There were 129 boats that finished the race this year. That number is down from previous years, thanks to Ike. It was a fabulous sail with a beam reach and following seas (a sailors dream sail). The weather was perfect, just overcast which kept us from seeing the stars and the full moon. I admit that I was a little nervous when I had to be on watch and the night was so dark that I was worried about not seeing one of the many unlit platforms out there in the gulf. We made it to Port Aransas in record time for Topaz.

The real excitement started when we rounded the buoy to the Port Aransas channel. We realized right away that there was a very strong out going current and the winds were light and right on the nose. We managed to make it up the channel with a few exciting tacks. We called the race committee on the radio to let them know that we were approaching the finish line. They informed us that we were almost there and needed to keep sailing. We soon realized that the current had us drifting backwards - away from the finish line! We were going to need to tack again and try to get across the line. Between the current working against us and the light winds right on our nose, we tacked back and forth for about an hour and a half and never made it as close to the finish line as the first attempt. Thanks to the wonderful work of our skipper and his crew, we managed to tack many times and avoid the jetties, the buoys and the many boats that were beginning to stack up in the channel. After a while we realized that the more boats that were trying to tack around us, the more dangerous the situation was with us being in a 51' boat. We were tacking the boat within 25 feet of the jetties. It was quite exciting. Finally Jim asked us if we were opposed to withdrawing from the race and motoring in. We all agreed that it would be the smart thing to do.

After crossing the finish line and catching our breath, we looked back and laughed at the invisible line just before the finish line with about 40 boats struggling to get across. I think there was a period of several hours where not one boat crossed the finish line. Finally the current slacked and boats started to make it in. By then we had already had showers and a cold beer! I heard that a few boats did hit the jetties. It was really crazy out there!

Jim

Nancy

Troy

Deana

Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien

A Day at Farmer's Market

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons. ~Ruth Ann Schabacker

Photo Project

Here are a few samples from the project that I did for the photography class that I took. I think I did pretty well and I am happy with the results. The only critique from the instructor was that I need to take some vertical shots and not have all horizontal shots in my projects. Let me know what you think (see comment link below this post). The first one is my favorite. This Snowy Egret was eating fish from the swimming pool of our marina because Ike flooded the pool! At one time we had quite a pond with crabs, fish and even shrimp.

Deana Jones, N.N.G.P.

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. ~Ansel Adams

Post Ike Report

Not much to say these days. We've been living at the house and staying at the boat on weekends but it's really been a pain because the house is practically empty. At least we have the basics - bed, refrigerator, oven, washer and dryer, but that's about it. We're moving back to the boat permanently this weekend. There is no power to our pier so we will need to use the generator but at least everything will be in one place and I can begin to feel like our life is a little more organized.

One bit of good news. We thought we would not be able to sail in the Harvest Moon Regatta this year. We had been invited to crew with our friends Jim and Nancy Brown on their Endeavor 50 named s/v Topaz. We were really looking forward to this event. It's a sailboat race in the Gulf of Mexico from Galveston to Port Aransas (150 miles). Unfortunately Topaz suffered some damage from Ike. The good news is - she's been repaired and is back in the water and ready to sail! We will get to do the regatta after all. Troy and I are both really excited to participate. The race will start in Galveston on October 16th.

Also, I don't remember if I mentioned but Troy and I are both running for officers of TMCA (Texas Mariners Cruising Association) check out the web site at www.tmca.nu . Troy is running for Cruise Captain and I am running for Secretary. I am running unopposed so I'm pretty sure I will be the TMCA Secretary for 2009. Troy's office is opposed and he has to make a campaign speech at the general meeting on October 10th. If he is elected he will have a difficult job ahead of him since most of the destinations that we cruise to have been destroyed by Ike.

My photography class is wrapping up on Monday and I have a project due. I plan on posting it to the blog as soon as I have presented it to the class and instructor. It's been difficult to concentrate on photography while dealing with Ike's aftermath, so I hope I do well on the final project.

Happiness is inward, and not outward; and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are. ~ Henry Van Dyke

IKE! (Yikes)

I don't even know where to begin this blog entry. Ike really dealt us a terrible blow here in the Houston/Galveston area with a direct hit. Troy and I feel so fortunate because Storyville came through with just a few scratches. She's a tough boat and we are thrilled that she is OK. Troy's shop and man cave (as designated by Darryl) didn't fare so well. Almost all of his big saws and woodworking tools are gone. Here is a link to some of the pictures that we have taken over the last week: http://imageevent.com/deanaj/hurricaneike?n=0

We are staying at our house in Spring right now. Thank goodness we haven't put it on market yet. We had several of our friends from our Marina and/or the Kemah area come and wait out the storm with us: Steve and Colleen, Jim and Kitty, Philip and Annette, Patrick, Duffy, Rick. We all watched the weather sites obsessively and worried about our boats. I couldn't have imagined spending the time with anyone else. We were "all in the same boat"!!! Thankfully, every one's boat made it through just fine. That is amazing considering how many boats in the Kemah and Clear Lake area are sunk or in a parking lot!

We are hoping to get back down to our boat as soon as possible, but for now the house is more comfortable with water and electricity. We did lose the tops of some trees in our yard and, unfortunately, Patricks 40' travel trailer parked in our driveway took a hit and was totalled. Everyone was so helpful in getting all the debris cleared from our yard.

We are starting to hear awful stories of friends who have lost their homes. Our friends Jimbo and Ernestine that own Channel Marker 17 at Double Bayou lost both their home and business as did most of our friends in the Oak Island Area. We are just so sad about all the losses suffered by everyone and hopefully in the coming months we can do what we can to help out others.

Hurricane Central

What Happens When Sailors Worry About Their Boats

Patrick and Troy

Jim, Philip, Annette, Kitty, Patrick, Rick, Steve

Trees Down in Back Yard

Patrick's Trailer

Cleanup Begins


The first rule of hurricane coverage is that every broadcast must begin with palm trees bending in the wind. ~Carl Hiaasen

Moody Gardens

We had a great time at Moody Gardens over the Labor Day weekend. We were planning on staying until Monday, but with Hurricane Gustav barrelling into the Gulf we decided that it would be smart to get back to our home base on Sunday in case we needed to prepare the boat the possibly evacuate. Fortunately that didn't happen. We did enjoy getting out on the water. I got to get some great dolphin pictures as they swam along with us for about 20 minutes in the ship channel.

Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much...the wheel, New York, wars and so on...while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man...for precisely the same reason. ~Douglas Adams