Overnight sail to Redfish Island

      We might not have fulfilled our dream to sail to Florida and beyond, but by golly, I'm going to get some worthwhile adventures out of this darn boat.  I spent six full months of my life and gobs of money upgrading it, and one way or another we're gonna have some fun aboard! 

me and my boat

     Now, Galveston Bay is not exactly a big sailing destination.  Nobody comes here to do bareboat charters or that sort of thing.  Yeah, there are a lot of boats here, but that's largely because of people who live in America's heartland, own a boat, and need a saltwater place to moor it.  Geographically, the Texas coast is the logical solution.  But our sailing waters are just this big, muddy, shallow bay with a flat, marshy shoreline and nothing really picturesque anywhere.  So we sailors can't be picky.

      Which brings us to Redfish Island.  About nine miles southeast of Kemah, it's actually a man-made island, composed of rocks, gravel, oyster shells, and dredging spoil from the nearby Houston Ship Channel.  It only rises maybe four feet above sea level at its highest point.  But the Corp of Engineers was nice enough to make it into a "C" shape, with the "back" facing the southeasterly trade winds so you have a somewhat-protected little cove on the inside.  It's about a half-mile long from end to end.  I've been told that, in the warm months, it's quite the boaters hangout. 

chilling on the foredeck

      And so, our son Jeremy and his kids Philip and Olivia joined us on a weekend excursion out to Redfish.  The weather forecast called for warm temps and sunny skies, and get this:  the wind on Saturday was westerly, clocking around to easterly on Sunday.  That means we'd be sailing downwind BOTH ways.  How often does THAT happen?

      As an extra bonus:  the moon would be full.

Olivia is ready!

      We loaded up Dragonfly and left our marina slip at mid-morning for the two-and-a-half hour trip.  This time, we TOWED the dinghy.  On this trip, I planned to mount the motor and actually USE the dinghy for its intended purpose:  going ashore.

      The wind lived up to full expectations:  10 to 15 knots straight off the stern.  But sailing dead downwind is actually tougher than in it sounds.  Setting up the symmetrical spinnaker required a crew much more skilled than what I had.  (Some day I'll deploy the thing.)  Alternatively, I could have whipped out the whisker pole.  But we were in no hurry at all - so I chose to simply sail a broad reach with gybing tacks.

Philip prepping mainsail

       

      When we got within a mile of Redfish Island, one could easily pick it out from the otherwise featureless horizon because there were already lots of other boats there.  Way cool!  We picked a spot, and I sent Jeremy forward to drop the anchor.  My good ole' reliable 35 pound CQR anchor bit right into the seabed on the first attempt.

what kids do when there's water

      Once anchored, it was impossible to keep the kids out of the water.  So we let them burn off some energy swimming around.  They said the water was nice.

       Time to take the dinghy ashore, so I loaded up the kids and we went to check out the island.  There, we met another family of boaters with kids the same age as our grandkids.  They all burned off some more energy skimming stones.  I saw that some vegetation was taking hold at a few spots - some sort of cactus-like plant that grows in dry, rocky soil.  Who knows, maybe someday Redfish Island with blossom into a tropical oasis!

large vessel in nearby ship channel

      Buzzing around the cove in the dinghy, I also recognized the boat "Dehra", owned by my buddy Tom.  He was the one who sailed back from Lake Charles with me a couple of weeks ago.  He was there at Redfish with his girlfriend.  He had anchored MUCH closer to shore than I did.  Well, when you have a working depth sensor (which I don't), you can do that sort of thing.

sunset on the beach

      After supper, we all loaded up the dinghy, went back ashore, and had a bonfire.  The full moon lit up everything beautifully.  I could get used to this.    

      During the night, the wind and waves really piped up.  The anchor held just fine, and the rocking was actually kinda relaxing.  But the wind made all sorts of dreadful noises as it rattled the rigging. 

Joan the Galley Queen

     Sunday morning, we started the day with a man-sized breakfast of pancakes and bacon.  The return trip was pretty much a repeat of the previous day:  10 to 15 knot wind off the stern, broad reaches with gybing tacks, and towing the dinghy the whole way.  The biggest challenge was getting the anchor up.  I sent Jeremy forward to raise it, and he struggled with that beast.  When it came up, it was caked with mud.  Once he finally had it secured, he and everything up on the foredeck was covered with gooey mud. 

Philip cranking the winch

      Many items on my list of things-to-do-on-my-boat got checked off over the weekend.  Dragonfly performed well, all things considered.  Something is not working properly with the sewage holding tank, so I gotta work on that this week.  Hopefully, more adventures await.  Stay tuned! 

Snow had fun, too.

Jeremy at the helm, with Olivia helping