Now I Remember Why We Wanted This Boat!

If you read my previous post you know that we spent the week rebuilding the generator in order to have power for a two night anchor out.  We worked right up until the Saturday of Memorial weekend on that infernal hunk of metal.  After a very frustrating morning it was clear that this was not going to happen and the decision was made to bail out on the Bay Yacht Club cruise with our friends.  It was a huge bummer.

   

As I headed down the dock headed to the car to run errands I ran into our friends on Sea YawlLater.  Rusty and Linda have docked their boat here for several months, but they are not currently living on the boat and hadn't been down in about 6 weeks.  I spent a few minutes catching up and filling them in on all of the fun we had had all week with the Generator.  They took pity on us and lent us their portable Honda 2000 generator.   Now we could anchor out for the weekend!

  

After a quick run to the store and to fill the propane tanks we were off….to the fuel dock and pump out.    The weather had been building all day so by 2:00 when we threw off the lines it was blowing about 25 knots.  It was a tough beat into 3 to 5 foot waves the entire way across the bay and up the Port Aransas ship channel.  When we made the turn in Port A to the Lydia Ann channel we were finally able to unfurl the jib and sail for 8 miles of the 28 mile trip.

Everyone Is In Place, Here We Come!

We arrived at the anchorage just as happy hour was getting into full swing.  By 7:30 we were showered, dressed and ready to go.  We had a great time hanging out with friends.  Eight other boats had made the trip, so it was quite the gathering.

 

Saturday morning was spent exploring Mud Island.  It’s very cool with its little ponds and pink Spoonbills.  Ziggy had a great time running through the water and plopping himself down to cool off. 

On our way back to the boat we made the rounds to say good morning.  We were invited over for lunch and a float.  What a great way to spend a couple of hours.  The water was a bit chilly for some, only 85 degrees, but incredibly relaxing in the new noodle chairs.

For dinner our group gathered on the beach.  A couple of years ago the club built a new picnic table to go with the shelter that 

the Rockport YC had built.  Everyone brought their own meat to grill and a side dish.  One boat brought the grill.  It was a lot of fun and we were joined by former YC members on S/V DosLibras.  It was great to see Tammy and Bruce.  We all set off before the sun set to settle in for the night.

Most boats departed for various points on Monday, but we decided to hang for another day.  We still had fuel for the Honda and were really enjoying being away.  One boat, S/V Kerry Ann, stayed on with us and joined us for lunch.  Unfortunately it was just too rough to get in the water since the wind had yet to lie down.

Tuesday we had a pretty quick downwind run back home.   With a little help from the incoming tide were hitting 10+ knots in the ship channel.  The ride across the bay was a little bumpy and I had to be on my toes with the waves, but we Averaged 8.8 knots.  Mark shot a couple of videos of the fun.  We were back in our slip by 1:00 and despite the less than ideal conditions, can’t wait to do it again!