Tales of the Bare Boaters

Last Updated May 2010- Get ready for the June fireworks on Galveston Bay @ Kema

Christa's Island-2010

If you missed this past weekend at Gene & Jacque's, here's a little synopsis. (Gene, please edit as you see fit and if you want, post to the website).

Well, now that the weather is warming up the GCNYC social schedule is heating up too. For our first outing of 2010 we decided to visit "Christa's Beach" and see what changes have occured since we were last there. The channel from the river to the Gulf of Mexico had silted in over the years and last year the government decided to dredge it out and open it back up to the Gulf. A couple of our members live on the river just a few miles up from the outlet to the gulf. We all showed up at their house about midday. One couple chose to ride their bicycles down from their house, a trip of about 40-50 miles I believe. We've got some pretty active folks in our group! Any way after settling in, getting some snacks, drinks, and chatting awhile, we went down to the boat ramp to put my little boat in the water. We had enough people that we had to make two trips to shuttle every one over to Christa's Beach. For those that haven't been there yet, Christa's Beach is named after our river couple's daughter. It's a little barrier island with two rivers, Intracoastal water way and the Gulf surrounding it. The only access to it is via boat (shallow draft prefered). When we arrived, we found it occupied by several boatloads of local folks. We said hi to every one and moved off around to the Gulf side beach to explore and see if we could find a good place. Some of us spied an old sea bouy washed ashore yards inland. So I and some others decided to go check it out and the rest decided to stay along the beach. We checked out the bouy but had to bug out due to the skeeters in the dunes. As we turned to head back to the beach, lo and behold we saw the natives had gone natural and were spashing in the surf! So we jogged back to join them. The water was a little cool but not bad at all. The sky was cloudy and the wind was blowing pretty well so we headed back to the beach to hang out, dry off and enjoy the natural surroundings. We saw boats in the near distance and some folks wade fishing but no one bothered us. We saw some of the local folks down the beach a good ways but they didn't approach and the vibe was cool. Eventually we decided to head back. Two of our ladies had decided to stay back at the house and ready dinner for us and keep an eye on ol' Bob (the dog). Thanks Ladies! We were hungry! We fell to it, eating on the deck talking, joking and getting full. Another of our ladies had prepared a wonderful flan for dessert. I had never had flan before and now I'm hooked! Afterwards, as the sun sank to the horizon we imbibed adult beverages on the deck, soaked in the hot tub, listened to music and just enjoyed each others friendship. Those of us who decided to stay the night got to sleep fairly early but we had to catch Betty White on "Saturday Night Live" (She was a riot) before we crashed. Amazing how a day in the outdoors can make you sleep so well. Wish you were all there but see ya next time.

Kevin

Congrats to Lonnie, Madeline, Kevin, Mariann and Caleb

2008 Christmas Boat Parade

Story by Madeline

Hello Fellow Boaters

I just wanted to let you know on Saturday we particiapted in the 47th annual Clear Lake Area Boat Parade. This was our 2nd year to participate. We started decorating our boat the week before the parade but the snow and ice and wind of that week undecorated almost everything we did. Lonnie spent all day Friday fixing what Mother Nature had done to our decorated boat. With alot of help from Kevin, Marianne and my Step-Brother Caleb (thank goodness for tall people) we were able to finish up our boat in time for the parade. This parade is a really cool experience because it is actually two parades in one. Nassau Bay has their parade on the same day. We headed over to Nassau Bay and the fireworks that indicate the beginning of the parade. We then made our way among 41 boats and what I would guess was 100,000+ specatators (on land and on water) to the Kemah Boardwalk. We had a wonderful time. The weather was good despite the wind. Sunday morning was the awards ceremony. We went with little expectations because due to Ike sailboats were lumped into one catagory 23' and larger (our boat is 23'5" the smallest sailboat in the parade) We listened to 3rd place and 2nd place announced with no mention of us so we figured we did not even place--- that was ok we did not do it for the award. When 1st place was announced we were all amazed to hear Boat name--Ceilidh Captained by Lonnie Williams and crew had taken the 1st place award in Clear Lake. We were even more amazed when it was announced (no groups this time Sailboat and Power were put together) the winner of the Nassau Bay Boat parade was Ceilidh---captained by Lonnie Williams. Our boat WON twice!!! This is addictive.... We are already dreaming up next years theme and light display!

Madeline

This is the story of the Redfish Rendevous
by Kevin Bjork

For those of you who are not familiar with Redfish Island, it is a little spit of rocks and dirt in the Bay in a shape of a checkmark. It's situated alongside of the ship channel roughly halfway between Kemah and Galveston.

This little Island was once a grassy little hump of land and sail boaters and fishermen used it for years as a good place to anchor, rest, and overnight. I remember seeing all the crazy naked sail boaters anchored in the lee of this island as far back as the 1970's when I first started fishing on the bay. Little did I realize that one day I would be one of them.

Anyway, hurricane Alicia washed Redfish Island away and it became just a shallow place in the bay. When the Ship Channel was dredged recently, Redfish Island was rebuilt with rocks and dredge spoil and some other islands and marshes were built in the bay also.

For the last few years, a local Musician named Kelly McGuire and his band has been playing a concert at Redfish on the Labor Day weekend. They take the Stargazer dinner cruise ship out and anchor it and boats from all over congregate and listen to the concert.
There had to be at least 200 boats of all shapes and sizes out there this weekend. The intrepid GCNYCers had to have a presence there of course. Gary and Juli headed out on Lazy Daze first with Marianne, John, Becky, and I on For-Play and Lonnie and Madeline in Ceilidh (Kay Lay) heading out together about 40 minutes later.

It was perfect sailing weather and we made good time. Lazy Daze was already anchored in the lee of the island and Juli was floating behind the boat reading her book and enjoying a coldy by the time the rest of us got there. We rafted up and started enjoying the water, eating and drinking and observing all the boats coming in and anchoring.

As all sailors do, we enjoyed watching the antics of the other boaters trying to set their anchors and maneuver into positions. We were feeling pretty good about our skills and were floating around in the water just waiting for Kelly to arrive.

Lots of boats were starting to show up and Gary and Juli decided to take their dingy and go visit some of the other boats they knew. What happened next is told from my perspective only and I'm sure every one would tell the story a little different. I noticed the wind shifted and soon I realized our little raftup was now drifting down wind and current, I quickly got out of the water and into my boat where John, Becky and Marianne had realized we were moving about the same time I had. We hollered to Lonnie and Madeline that we were dragging anchor and we needed to get in gear!

We hauled all our floats and lines in and I started my engine to try and stop the drift long enough to let the anchor dig in again. Unfortunately there was still a rope and float that I missed from Cielidh that had gotten under my boat and Lazy Daze. Naturally it found its way into my prop stalling the engine.

About this time Gary and Juli arrived after noticing the dragging raftup and they Promptly wrapped the prop too. During all this Cielidh managed to get partially free but not before having an encounter with Lazy Daze's bowsprit, which punched a hole in Cielidh's portside window.

Meanwhile, were all still drifting down onto the next row of boats. I jumped overboard and untangled my prop and then swam to Lazy Daze to see if I could help Gary untangle his prop. I got a little of it but Gary finished cutting away the line. I swam back to For-Play and by the time I got there we had to fend off the next row of boats. I still find it amazing that we didn't get tangled in other's lines. A great job of fending off by John, Becky, and Marianne. I'm sure Lazy Daze and Cielidh were doing the same thing.

Once free of that row of boats we cranked engines and got space away from the crowd and took stock. Other than the hole punched in Cielidhs window there was no other damage and we all successfully re-anchored in separate positions, just in time for the concert to begin.

Kelley played for about an hour and it was all a lot of fun people watching, swimming and watching the dolphins frolic. At least we weren't the only ones to drag anchor as we saw several boats drag as the wind kicked up from a passing thunderstorm out in the eastern part of the bay.

After the music was over we joined up with Cielidh for the cruise back to Kemah. I believe Gary and Juli stayed out for a while longer before they came back in. We got the impression that Lonnie and Madeline were a little down due to the damage to their boat so John, Becky, Marianne and I strafed them with four moons in passing. Lonnie returned the salute with a moon of his own! LOL.

As Gary says, the difference between disaster and adventure is ATTITUDE and I think we learned a little from this adventure. (use more than one anchor!).

Marianne and I are already looking forward to the next cruise.

See Ya
Kevin & Marianne

July Fireworks Cruise on Galveston Bay

If you weren't with us this weekend, you missed out on a good time. We had 4 boats and 17 folks out on the water to watch fire works at Kemah. This was the last weekend for the Friday night fire works this summer and the weather was just about perfect. Lonnie, Madeline and Kalena had a sailing itch to scratch and were out in the bay when Marianne and I arrived at the boat ramp about 5:15. We went out to meet them and follow them in to Seabrook Ship Yard. We docked near a Gazebo/Picnic table and soon Richard a Lisa showed up with their boat and rafted along side Lonnie and Madeline. Pretty quickly we had a picnic spread out, and man was it good. Lots of variety to choose from and good company to go with it.

As the sun sank towards the horizon we began to gather every thing up, and soon we were on our way out to the bay riding the falling tide. Juli led the way out on Lazy Daze and as we cruised by the Kemah Board walk we heard a familiar voice calling to us fron the walkway. John was hailing us and waving. Sorry you couldn't come with us John, there was plenty of room for you and Mary and more if needed. Anyway, we made our way out into the bay and found a great spot to anchor about 1800 yards up wind of the fireworks barge. We decided to anchor separately instead of raft up because of the leftover chop from the day.

As the sun set, and darkness enveloped us, the fun began! First, Juli had an encounter with a sea monster! Then a mermaid visited our boat! Becky sighted a giant cabbage head and Madeline spotted the ugliest dolphin in the bay. All before the fireworks started! The fire works were great and we had an awesome spot to watch them from. After the fireworks died down, we got a visit from a merman but he had to jump back in and swim for it as we were pulling up anchor to head back in. As we fell into line to come back to Kemah, it was quite a sight to see so many boat lights twinkling on the water around, ahead and behind us. Kemah boardwalk is quite a sight from the water at night, as all the rides are lit up, as well as the restaurants and boardwalk itself. All in all, it was a very fun and enjoyable evening.

Kevin Bjork

Cruise Report

Gary & I headed out early (a little before 7:00am) Saturday morning for Galveston. We had reservations for a slip at the Moody Gardens marina w/ the "other boat club". As usual when we head to Galveston, wind was on the nose blowing at about 17 knots w/ an incoming tide. Yuck! After trying to tack in East Bay and winding up back at the same high range marker time after time, we finally just sucked it up and headed up the ship channel at about 3 knots.

Got into our slip about 2:30pm, got hooked up and went to the swim up bar at the Moody Garden pool for something cold and frothy. Came back and enjoyed a luau dinner w/ our other friends at the marina and headed to bed early.

On Sunday, Kelly, Tommy & Little Cade joined us for the day. Hung out at the Moody Gardens beach and pool, went out to dinner, drank at the docks and went to bed.

On Monday, headed back to Clear Lake around 9:00am. This was the trip that makes boating worthwhile. This time on a broad reach w/ an incoming tide once we hit the ship channel . Shot back to Clear Lake often times seeing 7 or 7.5 knots on the GPS. It was an awesome sail back!

Heard Lonnie, Madeline, Kevin & Marianne paid a visit to our empty slip on their outing Sunday as they were marina hopping. Sorry we missed you but we were out using our boat. Our motto is " use it or sell it" so we have been trying live up to that this year.

All in all it was a wonderful, much needed Memorial Day weekend.

See ya on the water,
Juli

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Cruisin' to Gulf Haven in Rockport

Not On the Water, but Two-Wheel Cruisin', by Kevin

Well, there were six of us intrepid GCNYC'ers and we headed south on the bikes from Gene and Jacque's house on the river. We took the scenic route and had a great ride down to Rockport. We stopped and rested our backsides along the way and the ladies stayed in the saddle for the whole trip down. We arrived at Gulf Haven after eating a leisurely lunch in Fulton about 2 in the afternoon.

We met Delbert, the owner, and he signed us in with some help from Bob. Gulf Haven is a 6 acre camp ground with some nice fresh facilities including a new pool and hot tub, and we stayed in some little cabin rooms right next to the pool. While there, we met several interesting folks. Charles and Diana (from Louisiana, not from England), some folks from Ohio as well as some local folks. We swam and every one got along well and got to know each other.

The six of us ("The Wild Bunch") decided since we were in Rockport, we needed to have some seafood for dinner. We wondered if all six of us could fit into John and Mary's Honda Accord for the ride to the restaurant and were some what successful. We had to pry Jacque out of the back seat and I think John, who rode in the back with the ladies, enjoyed the ride. The food at Crab 'N was pretty good. By the time we returned it was time to hit the hot tub while the band was setting up for the dance.

The band was a 2 piece group that was really pretty good. They got naked and played some decent oldie rock tunes that got the small crowd dancing. One of the band member's lady friend got up and had her first night of nekkid dancing and really enjoyed herself. The one we think had the most fun was Delbert, the owner. Much to our amazement, this guy was bustin' some moves. Most of our group retired fairy early but we were the first ones up next morning making coffee, swimming, and playing horse shoes untill we noticed the weather deteriorating. So we packed up the bikes and headed out dodging rainstorms all the way back to Gene and Jacque's where we got dumped on right as we pulled onto their street. Naturally it stopped as the garage door opened up. Oh well, at least Gene's bike got baptized. He says it'll take him two days to get it all polished up like he likes it.
LOL! We had a great time and a great trip with a little adventure along the way.

See Ya!
Kevin and Marianne

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Hill Country Nudists Boat trip on Lake Travis- September '07
by Gene

I believe it was four years ago that Steve and Jane contacted us with information about a party boat trip on Lake Travis that was being put on by the Hill Country Nudists. We were eager to join them and have been going ever since, with the exception of one year that we were down in the Valley.

If you're not familiar with this excursion, you're missing out on a lot. The people at HCN do a grand job of organizing this cruise that is very well attended. Each year there are well over a hundred people that make the hour long boat ride from Highland Lakes Marina over to Hippie Hollow where the boat anchors for about 5 or 6 hours while we all eat, drink, swim, hike around, and just have a good time. They provide all the hot dogs, hamburgers, soft drinks and cookies you want as part of the package, which sells for a most reasonable $35 per person if purchased in advance. The boat is a big, double deck barge with twin 115 horse power Hondas on it that worked their butts off to push it along at maybe 5 knots. (tops) There is a slide and a diving platform from the top deck to the water about 12 feet below. The boat has a nice sound system and there is a good mix of music which simply makes for one big happy party.

Each year our club seems to have better attendance than any other club in the region. This year we had Richard, John, Becky, Gary T., Gary G., juli, Steve, Jane, Diane, Revere, Gene, Jacque, Kevin and Marianne. That's fourteen people! Eleven of us all stayed together at a bed and breakfast in Austin. It was a house off of Riverside Drive that accommodates as many as 10, but we had the whole thing taken up along with some floor space that one couple used to put an air mattress down. It was located among bamboo and dense trees, making it nice and private, so nudity in and out of the house to the hot tub was not a problem.

The timing of HCN's Lake Travis boat trip has not always been as good as it was this year. In the past, they have scheduled it later in the year and they sometimes have cooler weather as a result. Last year they had a problem with a thunder storm that passed over, creating some concern but not causing any real difficulty. I was told by one of the organizers that they will try to do it again next year in early September because this one worked out so well.

Put it on your calendar, it's an event you don't want to miss.

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Bottom Sounding Sierver's Cut
by Juli

I enjoyed Kevin's article about his sailing expedition w/ Lonnie and Madeline and appreciate the fact that he takes the time to commit it to writing so.... I will give you a brief synopsis of the Graham boat trip, also last Saturday.

Gary & I headed out w/ the Boston Whaler to Texas City Dike last Saturday with the specific purpose of sounding out the depths @ Sievers Cut. For those not familiar w/ the cut, it is a short-cut into the intercoastal thru East Bay east of Port Bolivar. The reason being that we are planning on taking Lazy Daze to Steve's Landing this weekend and wanted to cut approximately 2 hours off of the trip.

I had pulled out the handy dandy Garmin GPS and put in the waypoints to Sievers Cut the night before. Me and that Garmin go round and round but I usually win. We've had it over a year and I'm just now getting familiar w/ it. Anyway.....we get over into East Bay and I turn on the GPS and it won't acquire any satellites. In spite of the fact that the old GPS that cost 1/3 of this one was acquiring every satellite in the constellation. After having a 1-sided shouting match w/ the GPS and threatening to throw it overboard, I finally punched enough buttons to somehow fix the problem.

With Gary at the wheel watching the depth on the fishfinder and me watching the GPS to keep him in the invisible channel, we sounded out depths as shallow as 4' 9". Kinda shallow for a sailboat whose draft is about 4 1/2 feet. We crossed thru at 1:10 pm which I think was about half way between low and high tide.

On into the intercoastal and up to Steve's Landing to put in a waypoint there. Next... back down the intercoastal to Port Bolivar, over to Galveston Yacht Basin and then back to Texas City Dike.

The problem w/ that Boston Whaler is that I can't drink beer and ride due to an overabundance of foam shooting forth and the potential of cracking a tooth on the beer bottle. Now I know why sailing is the way to go!

What a day......it was nice to finally see some sunshine.

See ya on the water,
Juli

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We're treated to another of Kevin's boating adventures. - Thanks Kevin!

Sailing the Hunter to Redfish Island
By Kevin

This weekend Lonnie, Madeline, Kalena and Dixie took their Hunter 23.5 out for the first sail of the year. The boat had been in need of some maintainance and they had the mast down to git 'er done. Marianne and I trailered our Sunbird down fully intending to go sailing along with them. When we got to the marina Lonnie and crew were raising the mast so Marianne and I did what we could to help out. By the time every thing was ready to go with the boat, it was time to eat lunch. We walked on down to the marina restaurant and chowed down refilling the tanks. The weather still looked promising so we figured we'd go ahead and launch the boat. We decided to all go on the Hunter as it would have taken me another 20 minutes or so to rig the Sunbird. We headed east out of the marina into the bay, turned into the wind and raised the main. We were sailing! No motor, just the motion of the boat and the sound of the waves against the hull. We sailed out to Redfish Island and back under main alone so Marianne could get back into sailing without much heeling and Madeline trimmed the sail. Lonnie and Kalena took turns steering and Dixie and I just went along for the ride. Too soon it was time to head back in. At the dock Lonnie did a little tuning on the engine, we made sure the rig was in tune, Loaded her back on the trailer and pulled out. We then made a bee line to the marina bar for some libations, lie telling and Lone Star hyrogliphics reading. All while being seranaded by the local kareoke artists! We dodged the rainstorms, got redneck sunburns, and all in all had a great little shake down cruise. Wish you coulda been there.

See Ya!
Kevin and Marianne

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This is Kevin's story from May 2007

Cedar Creek
by Kevin

We decided to cruise Cedar Bayou and we met at the Roseland Park dock about 11 am. Gary and Juli had a new Boston Whaler 15' they wanted to test out and Marianne and I were taking our 19' bow rider out for it's first run of the year.

We took off slowly up the Bayou to warm the engines and get every thing in the boats situated and put `em on plane until we got to the Hiway 146 bridge. The Bayou narrows past this point and becomes scenic with some nice houses along the banks and some stretches that seem pretty wild. We idled along through here and saw some interesting wild life especially birds. Cranes, herons, hawks, and terns to name a few. Lots of fish jumping, snakes swimming and plenty of winding turns watching for logs in the water.

The old tree my friends and I had tied a rope to for swinging out and swimming way back in high school was washed way and I could see many changes along the bayou with lots of new development. Still it was quite pleasant just putting along.

Eventually I decided to turn back when the bayou got pretty narrow with lots of fallen trees. The ride back was just as interesting as we got to see every thing from a different angle. Once back in the wide part of the bayou we opened the boats up to see what they would do. Gary and Juli were throwing a big rooster tail and slowed down to find a log jammed between their motor and hull! Once they got rid of that stowaway Juli opened the throttle a jetted away blowing her hat off and only keeping it because of the string she had on it. Gary's hat seemed glued to his head though. We ended up running all the way out to the mouth of Cedar Bayou and into the bay.

The Bay was smooth as glass this afternoon so we cut across to Thompson's Fish Camp for a beer and a snickers bar. We sat and chatted under the shade of the bait house for awhile till we finished our cool ones. We then hopped back in the boats and idled along the bayshore while I tried to remember just where the old grass islands were. They are now submerged but you could tell where they were by seeing the gulls standing up in the water.

We went back into the bayou by way of the HL&P cut and just as we entered the bayou we were flagged down by the Game Wardens. They were in their big bad Boston Whaler with the two humongous out boards on the back. They were friendly and courteous and wanted to see that we had our life jackets on board and our boat registrations. Gary and Juli didn't have theirs with them so there was a tense moment until they called it in and found out they were legit. We waved bye bye to the boys with the guns and badges and headed back to the dock at Roseland. All in all a little less than 4 hours out on the water on a beautiful day. Not a bad little shake down cruise.

See Ya!
Kevin and Marianne.