I finally had a trip with some fantastic weather. I managed to get away from work a bit early and arrived at MOC by 5pm and was loaded and set sail by 5:50. I wanted to get to the beach in front of the rig back to the east about 7miles. As soon as I rounded the jetty I could tell it would be a quick trip. That nice 10mph south wind had me on a reach and the boat was moving 6-8knots. I beached by 6:50 and got my hammock set up. Yea, that is right I did some pvc engineering and managed to rig a hammock on my Hobie TI, actually rather simple. Then made some dinner and enjoyed the moonrise and sunset. I crawled in my hammock just a bit after sunset and just at dark a coyote came walking up to within 75ft of me by the grass and I could make out is silhouette against the western sky. Quite a healthy looking fella. As soon as he got directly downwind he figured out it was not something he wanted a part of. Other than a few 4x4 trucks coming down the beach that night it was peaceful.
I got on the water the next morning by 5:45 then off to the rig. Very light south wind made it a slow sail but rather a peddle. I picked up a slimy gaftop just outside the breakers. At the rig there was a lot of bait and some sharks chasing with one nice 5' blacktip thrashing a bit. The water color was a nasty green (sort of) the water had a smell to it. I think all the fresh water is putting a damper on the king activity near the river mouths. After poking around the area until 8:30 and looking at that current ripping to the east I decided to pull the trigger and head to Sargent. The wind was off and on but decent enough. I landed at Sargent beach at 12:30 got cleaned up and thought I would go to the Bar and Grill I visited some years past just on the other side of the ICW swing bridge. Well, obviously I have not been to Sargent in a while. It was long since boarded up, I guess I got to get out more. So back to the boat for some lunch and decide what to do with the rest of the day. I knew that current was going to whip my A$$ going back to MOC but there were also 3 rigs 5-7 miles out off of Sargent that I had not visited. With a light S wind I decided to start back to MOC. I left the beach at 1:30 and by 2pm the wind had stiffened up a bit and I could make long tacks up the beach then tack back offshore but making 3.5 knots against what I estimate to be a 2-2.5 knot current. By 4pm the wind is now steady and starting to clock more to the SE. GPS says 8:30pm to MOC so I decide to keep going and by 5pm the wind is solid SE and I am moving 7 knots straight up the beach with GPS showing MOC now by 7pm. Just to be sure on the current I turned and went back toward Sargent for a couple of minutes and boat was moving at a clean 9 knots. I made MOC at 6:58 and was loaded on the trailer, driving to Matagorda for some dinner by 7:50. I logged 60.5 miles in 25hrs.
The boat performed well. I think I finally corrected my starboard rear aka from slipping out. What I found noteworthy for this time of year was the absolute lack of sargassum. I did not see any on the beach and none in water. Last year at this time there were 2-3' berms of it along the beaches and offshore it would jam your rudder, daggerboard, and mirage drive, constantly.
Picture of hammock setup at sunset.
SYOTW,
Earl