Mouth Of Colorado To Matagorda Island
March 20-21
In preparation for a longer trip I made this quick trip this past Friday-Saturday in my Hobie TI. My plan was to sail from MOC to POC and then back across the bay and ICW then on to Army Hole. That plan changed. I left MOC at 6:20am Friday in very dense fog with a light SE wind. Sailed out the jetty then got a fix on POC jetty. Shortly after rounding the jetty I heard my first shrimp boat that also leaving the jetty. About sunrise still dense fog I could hear another out front of me then another. I was making about 3kt and was slowly working offshore. I finally decided to make an angle toward the beach to get out of the shrimp boat parade. I am certain I have little to zero radar signature.
The fog cleared up a bit by 11am and I made the POC jetty by noon. The current was ripping out of there pretty good so no chance of me getting in there with little wind. I decided to sail on down the beach past the pass and then on past the light house about 3 miles. Beached and set up camp then took off on a hike on the road back to Army Hole. I found several sea beans and some nice shells and only one set of foot prints, mine. Got back made supper and went to bed, long day of mostly peddling.
I got up about 5am made coffee then sat and watched the only visible light, the phosphorescence in the surf I got packed up and launched at 7am in the fog. There was a light NE wind so my tacking day was getting started. I knew there was rain moving in also. I originally planned on making only about 15 miles back up the beach an make second nights camp on the east side of POC jetty. I stopped in the lee of the west jetty and ate lunch and met a couple of locals wondering who beached. He told me I picked a crappy day for a sail as the rain was getting cranked up. Once I cleared the fast current and chop of the jetty and started my tacking up the beach with pouring rain the wind took favor on me and came around out of the north from some storm outflow. That got be cranked up to 7kt straight up the beach but straight into heavy chop. I was thinking I will be back to MOC in about 3 hrs. The boat was blasting threw the chop and I was getting dose of salt wash with my rain wash. Well that did not last but about an hour then it was back to tacking in the heavy rain then the wind quit and it was back to pedaling in the rain. At least there was no lightning. Finally about 3:30 the rain turned to mist still zero wind. I made MOC at 8pm. Loaded up and drove home last night. Total trip distance was 89.2 miles in 20hrs of moving time. I wished I had been sailing on down the coast I could have made double time and been in Corpus pronto.
I did troll for a bit on Friday but no hits. Saw a couple of small bulls in the surf just around the pass and some jacks. I am sure the kings are not far behind. You can sure tell the Texas rivers are running as there were plenty of logs floating.
I may make another trip from MOC to Freeport or back to POC next month some time in case anyone wants to join.
Lessons learned and Issues:
Everything goes in a dry bag, zip locks are worthless. While the boat did not take on but about a gallon or less it did manage to find the TP. I knew this but ran out of dry bags.
I am having trouble with my Standard Horizon HX851 radio/gps. When it gets wet the volume is near non-existent and the menu seems to get stuck on one page. I will be calling them on this.
For my extended trip I need to be careful of spring tides. Many locations along the TX coast have very little beach and high tide is at the dunes. This would certainly not be a place to land and attempt camp. Pick your spot well before dark.
I did not replace the AKA clip from my trip last year as I could not repeat it and thought maybe I just bumped it to release it. Well, that was not the case, it failed again as I was launching in the fog Sat AM. I recovered then it started again and again. I fixed it with some paracord that I keep on deck to hold it in. That did the trick for the rest of the trip. I will be replacing it for sure now. Also, likely I will make me a set of four pre-cut ready to clip on cords as insurance for any future failure.
Keep working to get the overall pack weight down . I found several items that I just will not use. I had enough water for about 3.5 days so not a problem there.
Keep the days food in a dry bag strapped in on deck. This makes it simple to reach and refuel the engine. Apples and oranges are great but do pack a lot of weight, but worth it.
As learned from the last trip. If it is on deck and you want to keep it make sure it is tied down. The wash of plowing through waves at 7kts will take what it want to visit Davy Jones.
Keep the boat moving if you want to make a destination. The short breaks on the beach add up. This will be important for my extended trip.
Make hay while the sun shines, meaning when the wind is in your favor make the most of it, day or night. Have camp ready to go so that you can launch within 30 minutes of getting up.
SYOTW,
Earl