One anecdote from BOOTS 2004
Guess who was so far behind everyone else on the sail to the island that he lost sight of everyone and eventually gave up and turned around and went back to camp. Hint: he sailed a catboat. (Author anonymous, George?)
Stories From Serenity's Logbook
By JB & Myrt, near Grandpappy Point.
In the spring of 1997, JB & Myrt began seriously considering sailing, and by July that year, they bought their first sailboat, a Victoria 18. They live 10 miles from where they launch “Serenity” at Grandpappy Point Marina on Lake Texoma.
Here are a few stories from their logbook:
7/14/98 Our Victoria 18 gets her name..."Serenity".We did our first "official" night sail today. When we launched, a little after 4:00 pm, the temperature was 107 degrees. With the lights now working I was not worried about what time we came in. Let the wind die, we're prepared. The wind was 10 to 15 mph from the south and held up until almost midnight. There was a big full moon and we had a blast! The thing about sailing at night is how quiet it is. There are no PWC's running around and the fishermen are professional in the boat operation. We just ghosted around; looking at the stars, kicking back, and enjoying the serenity of it all.
6/10/99
Sailing today was more of a test of survival skills than sailing (for me anyway). All week the weather forecast had been calling for a chance of isolated thunderstorms, of which none have appeared. We launched "Serenity" around 4:00 pm with full sail and 150 genoa in 10 mph winds. We had been out for about 2 hours when the wind suddenly shifted and started picking up. We had turned and were heading for the ramp but were soon overpowered. All I could do was get on a broad reach and ease the main as far as I dared (to keep from poking a hole in it or tearing a spreader off) and head for shore. The wind kept increasing and the waves kept getting bigger and bigger until "Serenity" was actually surfing. What excitement! What a rush! Too bad I was too teeth clenching, white knuckle scared, puckered-up to enjoy it. Myrt asked me where we were going (remember, she loves to sail on the edge) and I told her somewhere out of the wind. When we got out of the wind; we dropped the sails, tied "Serenity" off, climbed into the cabin and waited out the rain. About an hour later the storm had passed and the sun came back out. We then cast off and headed back to the ramp. We had not gone very far when the wind shifted and rose again. Evidently the storm felt that it had not done enough the first time around so it reversed course and came back for a return engagement. Thinking the situation over, we dropped the main and used the 150 genoa like a spinnaker to get back to the ramp. That night on the news we heard the wind had been blowing 40 to 50 mph with gust to 65. I guess we did okay since "Serenity” did not sink, the rigging is still intact, the sails are not shredded, and we survived to sail another day.
Fall 2000
I LOVE being able to reef the main when the wind comes up. This keeps us from being overpowered and at the mercy of the wind. I think Myrt does too, since I am not so disgusted from fighting the weather helm. This allows us to sail, more comfortably, in higher winds.
March 2001
We bought a Honda (2 hp, 4 stroke) outboard for "Serenity". The trolling motor, for the most part, worked great for getting us to/from the ramp and raising/ lowering the sails. There was a problem with strong winds overpowering it though. It also took quite a while to get back to the ramp when the wind died and we were in the middle of the lake.
Maybe we should stay home next 4th of July
By Walter and Mary Jones, Cedar Mills Marina, Lake Texoma
Last year on the day before the Redneck Rivera cruise we broke our rudder on our Mac 25 in the middle of the Matagorda ship channel and had a hell of an adventure getting back in.
This year we couldn't go to the coast so we decided to just go anchor out and watch the big July 3rd fireworks display put on at Highport Marina which is about 7 miles or so by water from Cedar Mills where we work.
All went well on the sail over there and we found a nice place to anchor behind Treasure Island where we didn't think we would get ran over by one of the hundreds of boats anchored a mile or so away. We had heard that they went wild when the show was over. When it was over lots of them left but, many stayed. We didn't see anyone get run over and we finally got the two teenage boys with us (one ours, one a friend of his) in bed about 2 AM. We thought we had it made and fell to sleep never even listening to the weather weasels. Of course the evening before they called for the standard hot, humid forecast with no mention of rain or the chance thereof.
I woke up about 6 knowing that the wind had changed and looked outside. There wasn't a stink pot in sight. In fact no one was in sight. About that time our little dog started showing signs she was about to pee her pants. The wind had been blowing out of the south all night but, now was out of the east. We had swung around and now were parallel to the island and still in about 5' of water. We draw 3' so we were still floating ok. Stanton took the dog up to the island to pee and just as he was wading out the wind switched to the north and increased big time. We were now on a lee shore in about 4' of water. He got back in the boat and we starting trying to get out of there. We had tried to get a small danforth to set off the stern the night before but, it had never set, so it came up easily. I started the motor and just as I started to power into the wind to help Mary get the rode in, the big waves from the wind hit. About the 3rd roller the stern fell into the trough, the rudder hit bottom and the two bottom pintles popped out. There was a cotter ring in the top one. The rudder was swinging by one pintle; I knew I couldn't get the rudder back on in that shallow water and if I did it would just do it again. I also knew that if our anchor drug or the rode broke we would be in deep doo doo.
I had a 16.5 lb Northhill that I just bought and hadn't got rigged up yet in the lazzerette and tied about 100' of line to it. I had Stanton walk it out and drop it in case something happened to the other anchor. Then we had a pow wow trying to decide if we should just ride it out or try to get out of there. We decided to try to at least get out in deeper water and if possible back to our slip.
With Mary & Stanton pulling on the anchor rodes and our little 6hp Johnston running wide open we slowly moved away from the island. Keeping the motor rpm down when the prop would come completly out of the water was hard but, the connecting rods, pistons and crankshaft all stayed connected to each other and we slowly made progress. Finally got the Northhill rode in and then the main anchor (Danforth). Mary had trouble getting it up, it was dug in so well and the water was so rough. Once she nearly went over the bow. We had lots of waves break over the bow and she was soaking wet.
Steering with only the outboard I kept going until we finally got in 10' of water and were about half a mile from the island. I had Mary drop the anchor again and we started trying to get the rudder back on. With me and the two boys fighting it, we finally got all three pintles lined up at the same time and it was in. It seemed like an hour or two but, was probably 15 minutes or so. The boat was rolling about 30 degrees in each direction, the tiller was beating us about the head and shoulders, the stern rail was in the way and the bottom of the rudder wanted to float, the waves were pushing it from side to side .... Other than that it was easy.
Then it was another session of fight the wind and get the anchor in again. Mary had let out quite a bit of scope and it had held us well but, it seemed like forever before we could get it all back in. At least I had a rudder this time. She is going to be sore in the morning.
We motored back to the marina and although it was rough, it was uneventful, until when about a half mile from the slip when the rain clouds unloaded on us. I think that is the first time I have had my teeth chatter in July in Texas.
We closed the boat up, went to the restaurant and ate a huge breakfast while we sat and watched the waves & rain. I think it got even worse after we got in and the weather forecast later never even mentioned the storm!
We headed back home and less than 10 miles from the lake we had the top down on the Miata on a typical North Texas July 4th.