Bastille Day Weekend 2010 BYC Cruise

I've got a big week ahead of me next week and I was indecisive about going on this year's BYC cruise to the Bastille Day celebration at Bahia Marina. I decided that I would regret it if we didn't take the boat when it came time for that long drive home instead of a short dinghy ride to the boat waiting out in the anchorage at IOB. Bruce enjoyed the sail over... I enjoyed the NAP over!

We didn't leave the slip until noon. The winds were just coming up enough to make a delightful trip across the Bay. We arrived at the anchorage with 12 boats already there. We dropped anchor at about 3pm. The day was warm and beautiful.

We tidied up the boat from the trip over and joined friends over at Merlin for a float off the stern. Before long, many of the people from the other BYC boats anchored out had gravitated over to join us.

This is truly one of the pleasures of being in the BYC that we wouldn't miss for the world. Those lazy hours floating in the water dangling off a trailing float line telling stories with good friends. The world can't reach us. No crowds... another of those "wonder what the poor people are doing" moments.

We all scattered back to our respective galleys at about 5:30 to prepare our offerings for the Bastille Day Pot Luck scheduled for 7pm. I had made some bread pudding since it had gone over well the last time I brought it out here. There really was a LOT of food. I love pot lucks because you get to try other peoples favorites.

This year was much more fun because Bruce and I actually had a "place". We found other BYC people who had gathered over to one side of the dance floor area and had some tables bunched up. They welcomed us and sat us right down. In the early days, Bruce and I just sat around the fringes at these things. No more...

We got our plates loaded up and sat down to enjoy. Bruce had a fan in Cathy's dog Mona. She was doing some heavy begging before Cathy came looking for her and took her back to their table to leave those still dining in peace. She's a cute little scruffy thing. One of the things I always love about being in the islands is that you can eat dinner with animals at your feet. Bahia has that same "Island Feel".

The real draw to this event is the annual show put on by Larry Joe Taylor. We have a couple of his CDs and it really puts us in the "Island" mode. I love being able to sing along with the band.

The sun went down and it got really very nice out there. Bruce was making good use of the keg. I've been trying not to imbibe so much due to the extra pounds I've been unable to shake lately. I enjoyed the party thoroughly anyway! I even got my husband out onto the dance floor a few times. Once I even let him LEAD! But it didn't work out so I took over again. He's really a very good sport.

Just about the time Bruce was beginning to nod and the only thing keeping him awake was the mosquitoes chowing down on his legs... the Bastille began to blow! Every year Steve gets out there and puts on a fireworks extravaganza to signify the burning of the Bastille. It was another great show and we made it just to the end before we fled back to the boat to avoid the need for a blood transfusion. Many others dinghied back out to the anchorage with us.

I had feared a sleepless night with mosquitoes eating us alive. Not so. The screens in the new ports work marvelously and I didn't have but one tiny little pest that I quickly smacked. We slept well and awoke to another beautiful morning in the cove. We piddled around for a couple of hours. Bruce did some fishing to no avail while I lounged in the sun with my Kindle. All too soon, it was time to head for home so that I could get ready for my trip on Monday evening for work. I was very glad we took the boat over to Bahia.

Rain(bowed) Out!

I got caught on the phone at work and raced down to the boat to make it in time to get to the start line tonight and it looked ominous. Bruce was rushing to get things ready. I told him to leave the bimini on... it looked like we might need it. Steve and Jacque arrived and we looked at the weather report... looked at the sky... other boats were backing out.

We made the call to hang out on the BYC deck and watch the storm. Now I'm not complaining that we ditched the race and it didn't even rain, but it would have been nice to go out... in hind sight.

The forecast I heard this morning called for light winds, so I invited my friend Mimi out to sail with us. We had already cancelled on her once so this was a "rain check". Foiled again! She seemed content to move our little party to the porch and we spent a pleasant hour or so waiting for our non-weather event to materialize.

What DID materialize however, was a pretty nice rainbow! It's the second I've seen in as many weeks. Must be livin' right. We broke up our little get together and headed home. As I was driving... it looked like we were going to go under the rainbow that stretched from the middle of the bay, all the way out to what looked like it would be ending at our house. I wondered if I would find a pot of gold in the living room when we got home. You just never know...

4th of July 2010

Once again, back out to the Tall Ships Venue to catch a tour on the ships we missed the previous day. Our plan was to volunteer for another couple of hours then tour the remaining ships. But when we got there, things weren't yet in full swing and there really was no need for our services. So we went ahead and boarded the Esmeralda from Chile.

It was Sunday so of course they had just finished their Worship Services at the bow with a fresh breeze blowing off the Ship Channel and the decks covered by shade.

We were harder to impress by this time but found this to be interesting. You know we've gotta get in the "feet" pictures.

Next we boarded the US Eagle. We were a little disappointed but not surprised by the typical increased restrictions aboard our native ship. The other ships allowed people to touch almost everything within reach above decks. The US ship, not so much.

Most things were roped off with Cadets standing watch to make sure that no one got out of line. They were pleasant enough when engaged but there was an overall feeling of "hands off". We did find some things to play with however, so we went away happy enough.

We decided against touring the final ship and the smallest of the four. Time was getting on and we had some things to do in preparation for our evening sail aboard Adagio. We were to leave the dock no later than 7:30 pm in order to make it across the Bay in time to see the fireworks at NAS Ingleside. We had trouble finding parking so we left the dock and picked up Bruce, Mark and Laura and Johnny on the other T-head where parking wasn't so scarce.

We pulled the big 46 ft. Irwin alongside the dock where our would-be passengers grabbed their gear and jumped aboard. Bruce was the last to make the leap and I thought he wouldn't make it, but he did... and we were off for a bouncing ride across the Bay.

It was a beautiful evening and the boat was loaded with 20 people all in high spirits. We made a few tacks as we tried to get to our destination by 9:30 when the fireworks would begin.

After talking to Mark for a while, he asked where we were going. He had misunderstood the plan to be a short sail to watch the CC fireworks display. Once he was told that we were going to Ingleside, it all made better sense... He laughingly said that he just thought we were all "hard core" sailors.

It was a wet ride for those of us on the high side rail. Somebody had to do it... might as well be us.

Laura seemed to be enjoying herself and Mark did a marvelous job of jumping right in and introducing himself to our BYC friends. He had them all laughing before long.

Our fearless hostess, Aleta took the helm for a while so that Dean could make sure we had the sails trimmed out just right in order to get the most from them. We ended up starting the motor anyway. We were running out of time!

We neared our destination and had some traffic to contend with as night fell. We could see the fireworks further up the channel in Port A or Aransas Pass and our hostess was frantic to get us in position to see the Ingleside display. We were just sailing up on the Tall Ship venue when the sky lit up! We made it in perfect time. A cheer went up for our host.

My pictures of the fireworks weren't good but I salvaged a few that were at least interesting. We watched in awe as the display went on. We passed very near and suddenly there was a tanker silently ghosting between us and the Tall Ships. It had not shown up on the AIS for some reason and we passed it within 20 ft.

It was crazy! Then it was gone, and we continued to enjoy the pyrotechnics until the end.

We turned our nose towards home and made speedy time back across the Bay to CC. The crew was all in gear as we were on the lookout for obstacles in the Bay. We made use of the star and planet apps on the iPhones. It was a beautiful night. All too soon, the stars faded as we neared the city and pulled into the dock 45 minutes ahead of the anticipated arrival time. We said our good-byes to host and hostess, and were in bed by midnight. What a wonderful fun filled 4th!