1 - See if Alex has what it takes to do several long day sails back to back and let him decide if he's up for the Bahamas trip or not.
2 - Last chance offshore shakedown before the Bahamas trip in June
3 - A distant 3rd objective was to see if we could catch any fish.
The plan was to leave after work on Wednesday and head to South Padre Island where we would sail out of the local marina on Thursday and Friday and head back home on Saturday. Here's how that plan went down.
SATURDAY - I got my first boat work day of the year in, and got the 100W solar panel installed finally! Also, I created a NEMA 0183 bus and connected my Lowrance GPS Chart-plotter to the Standard Horizon DSC VHF as well as the Autohelm ST 1000+ autopilot. Some long overdue projects completed!
SUNDAY - after the Austin Yacht Club Race (which was one of my best ever - came in first single handing), I dropped the mast and prepped Ama Mama for some road miles.
MONDAY - Alex and I went through our checklists and prepped our gear for the trip.
TUESDAY - I brought Ama Mama home from Lake Travis, and Alex and I loaded her up with gear for the trip.
WEDNESDAY - we hit the road around 415pm which was about when I expected, and headed South. It rained on and off along the way, and we eventually decided to stop short of South Padre Island and get a hotel for the evening in Harlingen.
THURSDAY - we arose at 6am and got on the road quickly. Within the hour we were at the marina and started setting up Ama Mama to head offshore. The set-up was slower that usual, but I really wasn't in a hurry. By the time we got evey thing ready to go, it was almost noon. It was still a little foggy, but we headed out to see how far we could sail offshore before calling it a day and turning around to head back. The wind was light from the Southeast as we headed out the jetties. Once we cleared the jetties, I turned on the auto-pilot ( which Alex chose to call "Shifty"), let out three fishing lines, and relaxed back into my Sport-a-Seat for some well deserved rest.
As you can see from the photo above, Alex was so excited by the sail that he took a nap! I put up the cockpit cover as a bit of shade for him, and he slept for over an hour and we slowly sailed on a starboard, close-reach tack offshore.
At about 230pm, Alex woke up, we discussed the slow moving situation, and decided to turn around to make sure we had enough wind to make it back. We had only made it about 7 miles offshore - not a great day of sailing, but relaxing anyway. Any day on the water, is better than most!
The wind finally faded, and we had to fire up the outboard or drift all night. The picture below gives you and idea of the conditions. Notice the new 100W solar panel that I mounted and wired up on Saturday. It worked great and kept the whole system charged up even with the little bit of fog cover that we had throughout the day!
While I knew that South Padre Island might be a little crazy with all of the Spring Breakers in town, I thought it would be relatively quite at the South end of the island in the marina away ffom the main hotels. How wrong I was. It turned out that the local water park across the street from the marina hosted a Rave Party every night with extremely loud techno-beat music playing until 2 or 3am! Alex and I agreed that it wouldn't have been so bad if the music was music we actually liked. The other bad part was that we mostly heard the base beats instead of the full spectrum of sound. Even though it was about a mile away, the low frequency base was so powerful, that it shook the boat and sent ripples into the surrounding water! Oh well, we eventually fell asleep from exhaustion anyway.
FRIDAY - Ah - a quite morning as all the party people sleep the morning away. We had breakfast, and headed out again around 930am in a deep fog. While Ama Mama doesn't have a radar, I felt we could hug the shore line as we made our way out the jetties and then relax under sail while listening for boat engines that might be approaching. Visibility was only about 200 feet at most, but that was enough to see the shoreline and make adjustments as needed. We sounded our air horn as prescribed for a boat under power (one long sound every two minutes), and we slowly made our way out of the marina. One small fishing boat passed us at a speed I felt was too high for the conditions, but he did see us and turned to avoid us. As we approach the end of the jetties, there were already three charter fishing boats on station desperately trying to find fish for their clients. Once past these vessels, we set sail again on a starboard, close reach and headed offshore.
The sail was pretty much the same as yesterday, and as the sun burned off the fog, the wind died. So, we headed back looking forward to an evening of techno-beat music - NOT! We got back around 3pm, and Alex wanted to swing by the Turtle Rescue Center. So, we headed that way only to be told they were closing - "Come back tomorrow at 10am," they said. So, we found a place for early dinner, grabbed some gelato, and then picked up a bag of popcorn for movie night on the boat.
Since, it was difficult to sleep with the Rave Party in the background, we ended up watching two movies on our old MacBook before calling it an evening. The background music was so loud, I had to practically hold the MacBook up to my ear to hear the movie soundtrack from the tiny MacBook speakers. Oh well, it was good to spend some time with Alex.
SATURDAY - we again arose to welcomed silence with two objectives - get Ama Mama ready to roll down the road, and revisit the Turtle Rescue Center. I was able to get Ama Mama mostly ready to roll before it was time to head back to the Turtle Rescue Center for the morning turtle feeding. At some point along the journey, Alex turned into a turtle!
I don't remember exactly when, but at some point in the weekend, Alex told me what I knew was probably coming - he doesn't want to sail to the Bahamas and back with me. While I would love it if he did come, and I considered not giving him an option just because I know it will be an awesome experience for an 11 year old, I also respect his decision that he made for him self, and I know that there will be other grand sailing adventure opportunities with him in the future. Trip objective number 1 accomplished!
As far as trip objective number 2, the 100W solar panel did its trick, and the AIS system worked as expected. So, I feel that Ama Mama is ready to go! Trip objective number 2 accomplished!
Objective number 3, NOT ACCOMPLISHED! The water was just too cold still this early in the year, and the fish were farther offshore. We talked to a local guide, and he said that from Labor Day to Memorial Day, the fish can be caught as close as 2 miles offshore! So, we'll be back when the weather and fishing are hot!
