Tag Archives: #Galveston Bay

Rum Race #7

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I’ve been busy. You would think things would slow down around here since I’ve been laid off, but nooooo… I’m just as busy as ever!

Saturday I went out with Capt Vic on the Bat Boat (she’s a C&C 38). We were a little late getting underway due to some trouble with the battery (it was dead). We made it to the starting line right on time (actually about 2 minutes early).

It was a gorgeous day, there were lots of boats out sailing. Capt Vic said about 60 were in the race with us. A few different classes of boats. I’m not really sure what they all were, I’ve really only started learning about racing sailboats.

These races are set up through the Galveston Bay Cruising Association. They have all sorts of races, regattas, cruises, etc. I don’t know much at all about how they run these races, just that we were one of the bigger, heavier, slower boats. Not using spinnikers.

The sun was out and the wind was about 10-15 kts for the first part of the race. It slowed waaaay down after we made the turn to head back towards Kemah. We took down the jib and put up the ‘gennaker‘ (the bat sail) and it actually helped a lot in the lighter winds.

We did lose some time, mostly because we were not used to setting that sail and it took us a while to get it working properly. Once we got it set, we had a nice, leisurely sail back towards Kemah. We were doing pretty good in the race til then, but we fell behind while we were messing around with the gennaker. 🙁

We made it to the finish line right before sunset and got to watch the sun go down and the full moon rise over the bay. The sunset was nice, but the moon was absolutely stunning! I wish I could have taken some better pictures, but I was on the wheel at the time and couldn’t concentrate on the camera, I had to pay attention to the traffic in the channel.

It was getting dark by the time we got to the dock. We fought off the mosquitos while folding up the sails up the dock. Once we got everything secured, we could try out the ‘dark and stormies’ we had been hearing about all day. D. came up with some mosquito spray and we had our 1st rewarding rum drinks out in the parking lot.

Not too bad. 😉

We slowly made our way over to the clubhouse for the afterparty. The Rum Races are sponsored by Cruzan Rum and so we had to head up there for the end of the race announcements. We had to see who won (even if we knew we didn’t), we could still enjoy the rewards. Free rum and snacks to go with it. 🙂

It was fun to hang out for a while and talk over the race with the other sailors. Everyone was friendly and in good spirits. The free rum helps with that. 😉

Some of us decided to go out for a more hearty snack from there and we met up at Sam’s Boat for nachos, sliders, chicken wings and more good stuff. 🙂

I made it home about 3 am. Days like that really make me appreciate the life of a sailor. 🙂

Rum Racing

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Hey, I got back home last weekend and ready to go out sailing again. Luckily, Capt Vic has had a standing invitation to join him for the Rum Races in Galveston Bay. I’m going out tomorrow! 🙂

Hopefully, the weather will be co-operative and we will have a little wind. I always love to go sailing. Not too much beats a day out on the water IMHO. Here’s a picture from the last time I went out racing with Capt Vic.

 

Weather Worked Out

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Just got home from a day out on the bay. We lucked out and had a great day out sailing. The weather co-operated and we didn’t get rained on. Only a couple of small sprinkles. 🙂

I’ll write more later (and post photos). I’m beat!

Gorgeous!

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After the last couple of days, I was glad to wake up to some sunshine! I’m heading back out on Galveston Bay for another Icicle Race today. The weather report shows sunny and cool. Just the way I like it. 🙂

8am 9am 10am 11pm 12pm 1pm 2pm
Forecast
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Mostly Sunny
Temp (°F) 40° 43° 48° 51° 55° 57° 60° 60°
RealFeel® 38° 43° 49° 54° 57° 59° 60° 58°
Humidity 86% 78% 68% 59% 50% 44% 40% 39%

Icicle Races

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I went to the Sail La Vie meetup last week hoping to sign up to go sailing on Saturday. I haven’t had the time to go out for quite a while and was really looking forward to taking a leisurely cruise around the bay.

I was really disappointed when I found out that they didn’t have enough people signed up to charter a boat for the group. Luckily, one of the members had a boat entered in the upcoming Icicle Race and offered a spot onboard to me and the 2 others who had been looking to go out on Saturday.

I had never been in a race and was a little apprehensive about it all. I wasn’t really enthused about the idea of rushing around, tweaking the sails for every tiny little advantage we could get out of the boat. I’m MUCH more into just relaxing and enjoying a day on the water. Listening to the soft sound of the waves passing by and the calls of the seagulls following for scraps as we drink some wine and dispose of our uneaten chips. 🙂

I think we must have got lucky. The wind was very light to start, only about 4-6 kts and then for a while it dropped off to nothing. The whole fleet was becalmed. I’ve never been in that situation, a couple of dozen boats all drifting together, so close you could reach across to share a beer.

The wind picked up a little bit just as we were coming up to the first mark. We slid around on the inside of a big bunch of boats and managed to skip ahead of the crowd. It was pretty exciting there for a few minutes. 😉

The crowd thinned out as we made for the next mark, but as we closed in on it, the boats bunched up again. Everyone was trying to cut it as close as possible. We heard a loud bang and CRUNCH ahead of us and watched as a couple of boats tried to get their fenders in place, but it was too late. I’m not sure how much damage was done, but ANY work done on a boat is expensive!

We made that turn on the inside of another big bunch of boats and then made for the finish line. The wind was shifting so we had to tack a few times. It was a challenge to try and figure out how far to go on a tack before coming back to the course for the finish line. I think we made some time up with good estimates on that part of the race too.

As we were coming in to the finish line (between markers 1-2 to Kemah), we were cut off by another boat. They cut right in front of our bow and I don’t know how we managed not to have a collision. I don’t know what they were thinking on that boat, but as we were yelling at them, they called back to us that WE were supposed to stay out of their way. Huh????

Overtaking vessel is ALWAYS the give way vessel!

After that last shot of adrenaline, we took in the jib and headed back in to the marina. We made it home in one piece, without any damage, and I think we did pretty damn good! Capt Vic said we did better then ever before (in this race) and I know we still had a pretty big bunch of boats still out there behind us when we hit the finish line. 🙂

Silhouette: While Sailing

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Heres another one to illustrate the Weekly Photo Challenge from the Daily Post. This week the subject is “silhouette”.

I took the photo a while ago when I was out sailing Galveston Bay with the Sail-La-Vie meetup group. We were coming in to Kemah after a great day out in the bay and everyone was relaxed and just chillin’ out.

I really liked how this photo turned out. 🙂

Sail La Vie

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I went out sailing this Saturday with the Sail La Vie meetup group (FINALLY!!). It’s been way too long since I’ve been out sailing. I always have a good time with them and this trip was no exception.

My only issue with them is that they are up in the Houston area. They usually sail out of Kemah and it is so far away, I have to get up around 0800 (on a WEEKEND) to get everything done and drive all the way up there. 🙁

I did my usual morning rush around to get out of the house before I’m too late to make the departure time. They don’t leave until noon, but they ask people to be there by 1130 to get settled and then go over the safety briefing.

I had to stop for some snacks. I got some honey BBQ chicken, cheese (smoked gouda and muenster), and some surprisingly good store made brownies. And beer (of course).

Everybody always brings so much good food, we never wind up eating it all. This time we had a full boat and we still had plenty of food, beer, wine, etc. People brought brie cheese and crackers to start with, sandwiches, calzones, chips, olives, etc.

We took the Paradise out for this trip. She’s a (1994) Hunter 42. There were 10 of us and I think she can take 12.

When we left the dock it was pretty dreary. We got out past our marina and the fog really started moving in. It was only about 1/2 to 3/4 mile visibility for a while. Some people were concerned about heading out into that. We passed quite a few boats already returning to their docks.

We continued on out, figuring that we could just go check it out and see if the fog would burn off as it warmed up. It did. Once we got out on the bay, the visibility got better. It turned into a BEAUTIFUL day for sailing. 🙂

The fog did come back for a bit later on and we got out the foghorn (hold your ears!!). Anyone who wanted to practice got plenty of time on the helm.

We did a few tacks around the bay, going nowhere in particular. We got up close to Bayport and took a look at one of the cruise ships at the dock. We talked for a while about setting up a cruise for the Sail La Vie club which I would love to be able to go on! 🙂

We headed back to our marina in time for the sunset. The Kemah Boardwalk was full of people and the docks at “Outriggers” were packed with boats.

We got everything secured at the dock by about 1830, then hung around “Paradise” for a while to BS and eat/drink the rest of our supplies while we tried to decide if we wanted to continue on.

There was some talk earlier about heading over to the Kemah Crawfish Festival, but I think most of us weren’t really up for that. We called to get a table at the ‘Swamp Shack” but they had a 1-2 hour wait and we weren’t sure if they reserved one for us or not (and nobody wanted to take a chance on possibly having to wait around so long).

A couple of people had to get on home since it was getting dark. I figured I had better just go on home too. I still had to drive over an hour to get home. I’m not too thrilled about driving at night anymore.

It’s a good thing I didn’t stay later. The fog came back on the drive home and it’s not one of my favorite things to deal with (65 mph speed limit on a 2 lane highway in thick fog).

I made it home OK and wishing I didn’t live so far from all the action! I’m already ready to go sailing again but I’m heading back to work soon and still don’t have any kind of regular schedule.

I just have to hope I’ll be home long enough next time to take another cruise with Sail La Vie (or at least make it to one of their great parties!). 😉

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These photos are a combo of this Saturdays sail and the last one I was on (Jan 26, 2013).