Tales of the Bare Boaters

Last Updated May 2008

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.