Part One - Part Two - Part Three

Thursday morning we got up to about 15 knot winds, maybe a little more. NOAA weather radio said we should expect gusts in the afternoon of about 28. We were going to be sailing through a series of oyster reefs today and some of the channels can be twisty and narrow. We decided to sail with a reefed main so we wouldn’t move as fast going through tight areas. My Day Sailer made it through the area last year despite having problems with my GPS, this year I had a new GPS so that wouldn’t be a problem. Going through this area requires everyone to keep a sharp lookout for markers, and for reefs sticking barely above or just below the water. Formations do change and aren’t always noted on charts.

Since last year, I modified my waypoints in the GPS based on data collected as we passed through the area last year. Since I was more familiar with the area, I stayed at the helm until we got through the most difficult reefs. Since we were under only the mainsail, we lowered the centerboard a little less than half way down, leaving the rudder blade running the deepest. When the rudder blade bumped bottom, the auto release cleat for the rudder downhaul line, allowed the blade to pop up. We sailed with the rudder blade partially up after that to reduce draft. I could feel the increased pressure on the rudder, but the replacement tiller was solid. The shorter length of the replacement tiller was noticeable however.

The first reef we came to was Cape Carlos Dugout. As we came to this reef we needed to turn a little to port to follow the channel, while looking for the poles that roughly marked the channel. We then needed to make a turn back to starboard at the right time. I followed the GPS while Mark and Michael kept a sharp lookout. We made our course corrections and sailed through the first reef without a problem and into Carlos Bay. Our next reef was Cedar Dugout. It was similar to the last one, except a little more twisty. We found our channel and made it through. We were now in Mesquite Bay with a little deeper water and we put the rudder blade all the way back down. We kept the centerboard where it was. We had to go through a minor reef called Belden Dugout which wasn’t a problem.

The next reef was Ayers Dugout. Ayers Dugout has a history of problems for boats on the Texas 200. In 2009 a boat was lost there and there was damage to others. It is the reef I wanted to be the most careful with. In 2013, we saw the opening to the dugout and headed straight for it. When we were just about there we saw a reef just on the surface and had to tack to starboard to avoid it. Then we sailed east to get around the reef before turning back to port to get to the opening of the dugout. This year I was better prepared for Ayers Dugout. From my tracks the previous year I re-charted my route to the opening of the dugout. From Belden Dugout we sailed an easterly course until I knew we could get around the reef and into the opening for Ayers. A few boats that were catching up to us were sailing the same route. One or two passed us and we followed them into the channel for the dugout. Along the east shore of the dugout the Duck fleet was beached along with several other boats. The boats just ahead of us beached, we decided to just sail on past and enter Ayers Bay which then goes into San Antonio Bay after passing through some shallow areas with some small reefs.

The wind seemed to be a little stronger in San Antonio Bay than it had been before Ayers Dugout so we decided to take it easy and not put up the jib, although we thought about it. Mark relieved me at the helm. We could see behind us that the boats that beached were leaving Ayers Dugout. Some of the faster boats caught up to us and passed us. Several were sailing further out in the bay than we were.

We encountered a large shrimper fishing fleet. As we approached one boat we had to decide if we were going to try to get around their front to avoid the nets or go off course and give their stern a wide berth to avoid their nets. We decided to go astern.

We continued on, going past oil platforms that were out in the bay heading for South Pass which would lead us into Espiritu Santo Bay. South Pass is a channel through a series of small islands. The water around the series of islands is only a foot or two deep. The pass is four to six feet deep down the center. Since I had the fun of navigating through the previous channels and reefs, Mark wanted to navigate through South Pass since he plans to sail his Santana 21 next year. We bumped bottom near the beginning of the channel, but moved more into the center and went through easily.

Once through South Pass, we were now in Espiritu Santo Bay on the final stretch to camp 4 at Army Hole. We could see three boats to our east that had sailed closer to the shore of the barrier island (Matagorda Island). We recognized two of the boats and knew they were more familiar with the area than we were. We were still sailing under the reefed main, but were thinking about putting up the jib. The boats to our east that were parallel to our course were definitely getting ahead of us. Behind us in the distance we saw another boat come through South Pass. The boat behind us was gaining on us and we recognized it as Sean Mulligan on the Paradox “Scout”.

We watched as he gained on us and eventually passed us. When he passed us we decided it was definitely time to raise the jib and stop taking it easy. With the jib up, our speed increased dramatically. Soon we were alongside the Paradox. We asked how he was doing. He answered “I’m ready to get out of this coffin”. It had been a long day. We soon left him far behind us as we headed for Army Hole.

As we approached Army Hole the wind was coming straight at us from the docks. We decided to power up the propane motor and power in to the docks. We started the motor and turned into the wind to bring down the sails. We then headed for the docks. The opening was a hard turn to starboard, so we made a circle in the small harbor area so we could get a straight run through the opening for the open slip. Mark was at the helm. We approached the dock a little fast; I forgot to tell him that reverse was accomplished by turning the motor head 180 degrees. Fortunately, there were sailors on the dock to catch us and of course we had Michael’s great leaping ability to move about the boat and catch the dock. There were about a dozen of the larger boats tied up at the docks. Many of the smaller boats were beached across the way.

Michael got the bow and stern lines cleated off and we got the fenders in place. Mark and Michael went ashore to look around. Army Hole is an old Army Air Corps bomber training base from WWII that was closed in 1946. Texas Parks & Wildlife maintains it, but there are no facilities other than the docks, picnic tables, and fire pits. Army Hole is only accessible by water. After a short while Michael came back to the boat to get his camera. He and a few others were going to walk down to the lighthouse to the north; about a three mile walk each way. I decided to crawl into the cabin and get out of the wind to make a phone call. I made my call and the next thing I knew it was over an hour later, I had fallen sound asleep. Mark getting into the boat to get his stove and some sausage to cook for dinner woke me.

While I had been asleep, Mark told me that the Coast Guard brought a boat in under tow. They were curious as to what was going on and were taken over to let them see the Duck fleet. Mark said they were in awe at these little boats sailing so far. They stayed for a while looking at the variety of boats in the fleet.

Several people had gathered at one of the covered picnic tables and several grills were cooking up several types of meat and other things. I decided to go on up to socialize with the group. I got up on the dock okay and made it down to steps at the end of the dock. The steps were tall going up with no rail to hold on to. I tripped and fell trying to get up the tall step at the end of the dock. Several people came over to help me get up; it was embarrassing to say the least. I then headed over to the table where I was offered something to eat.

There was a group at the table and another group around a nearby fire pit. Mark was playing someone’s guitar and singing. He sings and plays well. Myself, I’m tone deaf and don’t attempt such things (for the good of others). I talked with some of those at the table for a while including the guys from the Day Sailer. I didn’t recognize them at first as they looked different in their very relaxed mode.

When I started to get tired, I headed back for the boat. I was careful negotiating the step, I didn’t want to fall in the water; I knew alligators have been spotted in this area in the past. No falls, I got down to the boat and crawled in the cabin.

Mark and Michael stayed longer than I did. I don’t know what time they came back to the boat. Their gear was already in the cockpit for the night. Sometime early in the morning I awoke to Mark and Michael frantically trying to set up their tarp over the cockpit. Mark told me that Michael had noticed a storm moving in around 2:00 to 2:30am. He tried to be quiet so as not to disturb anyone, but he alerted Mark. Mark told him this is one of those things you want to alert people camping about. They got the tarp up before the storm hit. Wait a minute; we never have storms on the Texas 200. The storm didn’t care; when it hit, it hit hard. Strong winds; lightning and thunder and of course rain. Here we were, in a boat with an aluminum lightning rod sticking up in the air. Oh, wait a minute; we were also surrounded by several other aluminum lightning rods to make us a bigger target. I told myself, “don’t worry, I’m safe, after all I have this aluminum mast compression post less than a foot away from me, I don’t need to worry”. I don’t remember how long the storm lasted, it wasn’t too long before it passed over us and things became quiet again. Mark and Michael got a little wet, but not drenched. I was able to find a few minor leaks in the cabin top where hardware was attached so that I could enjoy water dripping on me also.

Friday morning the skies were clear of the storm with a light wind. The forecast was for light winds out of the southeast; becoming very light in the mid afternoon and then picking up again. It was a good prediction for our final days’ sail to Magnolia Beach less than 25 miles away.

We had a choice of two routes we could take. I had charts and GPS waypoints for both. One route was to go through Saluria Bayou and out into Matagorda Bay, then turn to the northwest and on to the finish. The other route, which was suppose to be the shortest was to follow the channel from Army Hole to the ICW and go through Port O’Conner, past the jetties and out into Matagorda Bay, then make our turn to the northwest and on to Magnolia Beach. At the gathering the previous evening, the subject of routes to take came up. When Saluria Bayou was mentioned there was talk of the approach to it. I realized my planned route might get us grounded. Having never sailed this route; I was unfamiliar with how best to approach the bayou. I talked with Mark and Michael in the morning telling them I was uncertain about the Saluria Bayou route. We decided to take the faster, more direct ICW route rather than taking a chance of running aground. The Duck fleet had also decided to take the ICW route as had many other boats. A few who were familiar with Saluria Bayou were going to go that route.

We used the motor to get away from the docks and got out into the bay where we turned into the wind to raise the sails. We then headed up the channel towards Port O’Conner. We offered the helm to Michael to let him get some experience navigating a channel using the maps, compass, and GPS while holding the boat on course. We sailed across the bay at a descent speed for about three quarters of the way when the wind started to drop off. One by one we started seeing the boats with motors around us start motoring. Soon we decided to motor also. Before we got to the ICW we thought the wind was starting to come back up and we tried to sail again. Still, not enough wind, we started the motor again.

We continued to motor through the cut from the bay into the ICW where we made our turn to starboard and headed up the ICW towards Port O’Conner. We could see most of the fleet ahead of us including all the yellow sails of the Duck fleet. As we motored up the channel we felt the wind start to freshen. We shut the motor off only to find we had a head wind coming straight down the channel. Also, the tide was coming in so we had a small current against us as well. Ahead of us we could see boats tacking in the ICW trying to sail up the channel. The wind was coming out of the north to northeast; this isn’t supposed to happen on the Texas 200; it never has before.

We tried tacking for a while, making about a dozen tacks in the narrow channel. The channel also has a lot of boat traffic including commercial vessels running up and down its’ length. Boats tacking back and forth does not make a safe passage especially when some of the traffic don’t know (or care about) right of way rules. We were making very little progress, although better than some of the boats in the fleet. Some of the small boats were walking their boats along the shoreline. After we had done about a dozen tacks, we decided we should motor again as a safety measure. Several other boats were motoring and some of the bigger boats had boats without motors under tow. We started up the motor and continued on up the channel. We passed boats that were still tacking since they didn’t have a motor. For several sailors; it was tack or walk their boats up the channel. Ahead of us up the channel, we could see the Day Sailer tacking; they appeared to making the best forward progress.

We continued on for a way past the Day Sailer until the propane cylinder ran out of fuel. We then tried to sail again. Our tacks this time were getting worse results than our previous attempt. We decided to put a new propane cylinder in the motor. Michael got one out of the cockpit hatch and proceeded to change it. The most entertaining thing was watching power boats go off course while they stared at us putting a propane cylinder in a motor. Propane outboards not being that common seemed to surprise them. The swap out went fairly quick and smoothly. We now started the motor again. With a new cylinder, I told Mark and Michael we needed to go back and offer the Day Sailer a tow. Having sailed my Day Sailer for many years, I couldn’t leave a Day Sailer behind.

We turned around and headed back down the channel. We got alongside the Day Sailer and asked them if they wanted a tow. Noel Nicholls’ in his Cortez 16 “BlueByU” had already offered them a tow, but had some bad gas in the motor and had to pull off at a gas dock to get fresh gas. We told them we could get them now and Noel might take a while to get his motor fixed. He could then help someone else (which he did).

We got a tow line ready while the Day Sailer made another tack. We match their course and threw them the tow line which they wrapped around their bow cleat, holding the end of the line in case we had to let them loose. We headed back up the channel. According to my GPS logs, the motor was still pushing us along at two miles per hour. While we were motoring, we realized that we may have put the cylinder in that had been running the stove all week. We were hoping we were wrong.

As we neared the end of the channel, a dredge barge was coming from the other direction straight in front of us causing us to go to starboard to avoid them. We were close to the rock jetty when the cylinder ran out of fuel; yup we had grabbed a partial cylinder. We released our tow and the boat headed toward the rocks, the Day Sailer was able to release and tack away from us. Michael quickly jumped over the side to keep the boat off the rocks. Mark grabbed another cylinder out of the storage locker and put it in the motor. The bulk of the Duck fleet was here also, half on the west side of the jetty trying to walk their boats to the end and open water, the other half on the east side doing the same thing trying to get to open water. Any boats that were between the jetties were tacking in an attempt to get to open water.

Michael kept us off the rocks, Mark got the motor started, and I was tending to the centerboard. The motor was going again and we pulled Michael back on board as the water was deeper here. We headed for open water, then turned to port heading west, shut down the motor and got back under sail. Something had jammed on the motor mount and we were unable to raise the motor out of the water. We hadn’t used the tilt all week, as I had never looked in the manual where the unlocking lever was. Both Mark and Michael each tried to figure it out how to un-jam the mount, but with no luck. So, we just resigned ourselves to having some drag on the stern.

A few Ducks had made it to open water already. We soon passed them. We could see more boats finally getting past the jetties and into open water. We watched the Day Sailer get past the jetties and soon they were closing on us. They were sailing further out from shore than we were. They were making good speed and soon passed us. We could have gone a little faster if my whisker pole was not damaged.

I think the longest part of the trip is the last day’s sail to the end, even though it is the shortest leg of any day. The beach was finally in sight. The day seemed a little hotter than the previous days. From the jetties to the finish was not a stressful sail. As we got near the beach we saw other boats making their turns to port and head for the beach. We turned and looked for a spot to beach. We were waved off our first spot and those on the beach pointed for us to beach a couple hundred feet farther to the west (original spot was reserved for the Ducks). We sailed right up to the beach and actually hit it rather hard. We set the anchor on shore and got the sails down and secured. We also found what was jammed on the motor mount and fixed it.

I got a ride from Hamilton Cowie, of the Day Sailer to my Jeep and trailer. Mark and Michael headed up to get a cold beer from the coolers waiting for the finishing boats. Shiner Brewery is an event sponsor and provided an assortment of beer. There were also water and soft drinks iced down.

When I got the Jeep and trailer back to the beach; I found Michael and asked him and Mark to motor the boat over to where I would have the trailer on the beach to retrieve the boat. Soon after the trailer was in position, the boat was motoring up. The water was fairly deep along the shore, but it was a good place to retrieve the boat. Several other boats were retrieving boats off the beach; others used the ramp further down the beach. With the boat on the trailer; we began to de-rig. We got the mast down without difficulty and unloaded what we needed for the motel room we were going to get for the night.

Once the boat was secure and ready for trailering, we headed over to the shrimp boil. By now most of the boats had made it in. A few that got stuck the longest in Port O’Conner were still on their final run to the beach. The shrimp dinners for the late finishers were set aside waiting their arrival. One by one they made it in.

As in the past, the shrimp dinner at the end of the event was very good. There was a lot of talking going on about the week’s sail. There were a lot of comments about Port O’Conner and some comments from those who had wisely chosen to not go through Port O’Conner. It had been a very good week.

Before leaving I found Chuck Pierce, one of the Texas 200 organizers and the man who organized the Duck cancer fundraiser, to see about adding some names to his boat. The boats sailing the fundraiser had names written on their boats of cancer survivors on one side and on the other side, those who passed away from cancer. I added a few names to his boat. On the side for those who passed away was one of my dad’s brothers and on the survivor side I added my mother’s name and a friend of hers. I also added the name of a friend of mine. I know there were many others I could have added. Chuck’s little boat was getting pretty full of names, but there was still room.

After saying a farewell to many of those we sailed with during the week, we headed for Port Lavaca about 20 minutes away to find a motel for the night. We really needed hot showers and a good night’s sleep.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the motel and talked to a few of the other sailors that were at the same motel. A group of the “Duckers” headed back to Magnolia Beach for the Puddle Duck Racer World Championship races being held there that weekend. The Ducks were holding their races there because of the Ducks that participated in the Texas 200. We headed for home.

It was an uneventful trip back to my house in Dripping Springs. As soon as we got to the house we parked the trailer and unloaded all the gear that Mark and Michael had brought so they could get it loaded and drive home to Plano, Texas; about four hours away. The 2014 Texas 200 was finished.

For information on the Texas 200 which is held the second week of June each year the website is www.texas200.com. Most discussion these days is done on Facebook. Group name is the “Texas 200 Sailing Club”. There are many pictures loaded on the Facebook group page.

John Alesch

1973 O’Day Mariner “Ancient Mariner”; Sail Number 2607
1976 O’Day Day Sailer II “Ranger”; Sail Number 8075

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