Return to Salt!

If you recall, I purchased Ama Mama in Southern California and sailed her on San Francisco Bay for a couple of years before moving inland to Austin, TX and Lake Travis. I had been thinking about taking her down to the coast for several years so we could both get salty again. So, over Christmas holiday 2012, I hatched a plan to have my parents come down from St. Louis and join us for a week of sailing on the coast. We rented a condo in Key Allegro, Rockport, TX where we could have the boat 20 feet from the back door.

The canals were perfect for a little kayaking.

As we were coming into Rockport, someone noticed that there was a bright, yellow trimaran rolling into town, and they let one of the local trimaran owners know that I was headed to the Rockport Beach Park to launch. Bill Coxwell, a local businessman (C Cushions) and F-31 trimaran (Bird of Prey) owner, came over an introduced himself and offered to help me get the mast up on Ama Mama. It's so refreshing when you meet a genuinely friendly and helpful person like Bill. As Bill and I chatted, I told him that I was interested in taking Ama Mama to the Bahamas for my 50th birthday adventure. Bill had been to the Bahamas many times and was actually doing a presentation of his trip to the Bahamas in 2011 over at the Rockport Yacht Club later that week. It was great to meet Bill, and I took him up on his offer to come over to the club for his presentation. I'm glad I took the time as I met some great people and learned a lot about the Bahamas.

On day 2 of the trip, we hired a guide to do some Red Drum fishing. Based on the weather conditions that day, the guide decided we would be going out on his air-boat. That was a blast and we caught some great fish!

Alex with his Grandpa!

A couple of days we just headed out into the bay to check out the dolphins. See extended video footage on YouTube of our dolphin viewing excursions. 

In the evenings, we all sat around a the living room coffee table and worked on a puzzle. I forgot how fun it is to work together with family and actually finish the puzzle! What a bunch of crazy cats!