Mid Bay Island

Welcome to 2014.  "Congrats on living another year!" a friend told me when I saw him after the new year holiday break.  We hadn't been able to get out to the boat much in November or December and the time we did have available was usually crummy weather.  Galveston and Trinity Bays are quite shallow, averaging maybe 10ft of depth.  This sort of shallow water sailing is enough to make sailors from the northeast or the pacific northwest break out in hives but for us, it's all we've got.  In fact, if I see double digits on the depth transducer it might as well be the Marianas Trench.  When we have a winter front blow through it is usually followed by a strong north wind for a couple of days.  This causes water to essentially be blown out of the bay and can reduce our already shallow depths to staggeringly low numbers.  So unless you operate an air boat it's not always good seamanship to be out and about for recreation.

What Galveston Bay boaters consider deep water.

But 2014 started nice enough.  The stars aligned a couple of weekends ago and we had only a mild front that pushed through, promising a steady north wind and 70 degree temps, but not so much as to make depth a problem.  The plan was to do what we always do, try to take over the world... sorry, wrong blog.  The plan was to sail the day, interrupted by anchoring somewhere for lunch.

Jessica, the two girls and I piled into Word Play and set out.  Watching the depth, going out the channel from the Marina, it was shallower than I've ever seen but we had a good 11" of water under the keel.  Plenty!  I passed a Sheriff on the way out, cruising in his boat going the other way, and sweated a bit.  I should say at this point that I still don't have registration stickers on my boat.  I only just got my USCG documentation, 9 months after submittal!  The whole time I'm thinking to myself "act causal, act casual!" but I'm sure, in reality, looking like I'm smuggling a boatload of mattresses with their tags cut off or something.  Fortunately he was driving and talking on a cell phone so there's a good chance he wasn't even aware he was on the planet earth.

Once we got out into the bay we were greeted by a shock.  Being the first weekend day in a while promising good temps, good wind and sunshine, I believe all boats in the Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Oklahoma area decided to launch.  You could have walked across the bay.  It was a hand full but my only real nailbiter was when a little racer with a small crew decided to cross my stern, tack back 180 degrees, taking right of way, and shooting across my bow.  So technically he had right of way after he tacked but it was clear that a) we were not in a regatta, b) I am not a race boat, c) I was single handing d) he had the rest of the bay and didn't need to use the water molecules directly in front of me.  It was exceptionally poor decision making on their part to risk collision like that and caused me to have to crash gybe to avoid a hit.  So after some vigorous yelling in which I opined on their collective intelligence and genetic lineage, I decided that we were going to Trinity Bay.  I don't know if everyone knows something I don't but Trinity Bay is always empty of pleasure craft.

Oh, so that's why no one is ever over here...

We took the North Boaters Cut across the ship channel which takes you disconcertingly close to the spoil bank / island (called Mid Bay Island by some) being created in the northern part of the bay.  This is a really interesting feature  having been built a decade ago both as a repository for dredging material and as a marsh habitat for wildlife. Since the ship channel passes right by the island, the perimeter wall was designed so that ship wakes would provide the energy needed for water circulation in the marshes, located in the interior.  The upland areas were seeded with prairie plants to see how they would grow on dredged material.  Most recently, due to the need to find space for dredged material, I believe the whole structure is slated for conversion to an upland (i.e. above water) feature.   The whole thing is around 600 acres I think; so not insignificant.
 

North Boaters Cut is the red line above the island.  We came from Kemah way over on the left side of the screen.

Since we had a wind from the north we tried a new anchorage.  We went around the side of this man made island and anchored in the shelter of its south end.  This turned out to be a fine spot to have lunch, and the sand on the island warmed the north wind that blew across the top and made for a very nice stop.  My only complaint is that the wakes from the ship channel traffic would occasionally reach here and roll us a little.  So maybe not a good place to spend the night but a fine day stop.

I worried about subsidence from the island so I gave it a wide berth.

On the way back Jessica took the helm and, as always, turned things into a competition on who could hit the highest top speed.  I myself, being above that sort of foolishness, took the helm and proceeded to whip our little Jeanneau 379 up to 8.5 knots, heeling over about 25 degrees and eliciting a constant stream of yelling and vitriol from the kids down below.  I win.