back on the water

Its hard to believe that I haven't made a blog entry since March 2009. But a lot has happened since then including a major change in job responsibilities, 2 months teaching in Spain, our son's graduation, and last but not least, our daughter's wedding. So, I guess that pretty well accounts for the last year.

We actually made one trip to Corpus last August but I didn't blog on it and now I don't have a ghost of a memory of what the trip was like. Last weekend was the first trip since then and it wasn't much of a sailing weekend. The wind blew at 30 mph the whole time and the two hours that we were out - I was seasick. We spent the weekend working on the boat and cleaning up a year's worth of neglect.

This weekend was an entirely different story. We did our first short three day cruise. After driving halfway down on Friday night, we made it into Corpus by noon. Kathy made a quick trip to the grocery store and I got the boat ready. Then, we made an easy 20 mile run to Ingleside Cove. The coolest part of the trip over was having a couple of dolphins chasing along beside the boat. It was clear that they were just playing - like dogs chasing a car.

Note:Click on the pictures once for a larger image and again for the full-size image.

We anchored for the night at Ingleside Cove- our first night at anchor. I checked several times through the night to make sure that the anchor had not broken loose but it was entirely uneventful.

Sunday morning, we took off across Corpus Christi Bay to Mustang Island. The wind was high and we were unsure about where to anchor but it worked out fine. Here is the view across the bay. The distant bumps directly behind the boat are the tallest buildings of Corpus Christi, half hidden below the horizon. That is the 20 miles we will have to go home.

We had a fantastic sunset that evening.

The next morning, the wind was very light but we started for home anyway. Right off the bat we ran aground in a 'spoil' area which is a submerged pile of sand that had been excavated from a cross-bay channel. We struggled for about 10 minutes but were able to free ourselves with the help of the motor. The rest of the way into Corpus was uneventful but slow. It took 5 hrs to go 20 miles. But now we are back in the slip and preparing to head for Lubbock in the morning. It was a highly successful 55-60 mile weekend in a boat - our first cruise!

Its been a long time getting back to Corpus but we had a great time. We have some travel ahead of us for the next couple of months but we hope to be back in August and several times through the fall. Now, we are no longer tied to the marina.

Here is an album with all of the weekend pictures: album