Sailing Where I First Learned to Sail

Jul. 24,25, 2009

After nearly 40 years I returned to sail Offatts Bayou. Galveston is where a friend of mine taught me to sail after I got out of the Navy. Herold Moore told me about his sailing experiences and pointed out the various "philosophies" involved in picking out a sailboat. I bought a brand new Venture Cat and learned to sail at places like Galveston beaches, Offatts Bayou and the Ship Channel. The boat never caught on but for me it was a perfect beginner's boat. I could beach it. I could roller-reef the jib and it would just fit in my garage. Whenever I had the boat on the beach it started an instant party.

Sailing Somerville
Gregg, Noel, Randy, Danny and I made it to Somerville lake to sail and camp one night. Ron was there with his Catalina 22. Bill and Joe sailed the Catalina 25. The air was cool and Saturday morning we had a very nice breeze. Sailing past the dam was perfect in every way. The wind speed and direction were just what Dim Sum, my boat, wanted. She was sailing with a bone in her teeth. (Look it up, landlubbers.) As the day went on the wind slowed. Then the wind got a little iffy. Then the wind went away. The wind, by the way, is the reason sailors have the reputation they do when it comes to using colorful language. The wind is Neptune's answer to "Murphy's Law". Of course sailors talk like that- it's because of that @#%&# wind. At any rate, the wind went away by the end of the day. We motored back. It was much better than watching Saturday cartoons. I'd give the weekend a 10. Of course, I give any weekend I'm on the boat a 10.

Cooking on a Small Sailboat
You can look at cooking on a small boat in several different ways. It could be considered a challenge. Or it could be thought of as a useless exercise. When things go badly you might see it as being similar to cooking in a dumpster, only just slightly cleaner. At any rate, like most things, if you don't really have to do it, it's fun.
I use a Swedish army surplus alcohol stove. It nests together to about the size of a GI canteen. I rigged a gimbals attachment for it so it won't spill the soup if I move to the other side of the boat. The gimbals only work for port and starboard motion. If the boat is pitching for and aft I won't be cooking anyway. Two drawbacks I see: it doesn't have a control for the flame and food sticks easily to the aluminum pans. I cooked on it this weekend and now I'm going to have to chisel out the "charred remains" with a file or ax. But it was fun.

Olio- The Clips That Didn't Make the Big Time
Here's a collection of clips that I stuck together. They were all taken at Somerville lake on the 8th or 9th of Nov. 08. There's a good picture of Danny, the security, therapy and hunting dog. And there are instructions on how to give your outboard an enema. Don't worry. The graphics aren't too graphic.

Cap'n on shore leave.

This is just a little example of what happens when you wear the uniform. Easy ladies, there's plenty for everyone.