You've Seen Those Giant Rain Clouds Over The Bay...

You know... how you're driving along Ocean Drive and you see the black sheets out there and think..."somewhere it's really pouring".  We left the dock to compete in this BYC Saturday Series Race #7 with a cloud packed sky.  We had Sunshine for the first time in days.  It was beautiful but there were signs of rain everywhere, beginning with these determined little mushrooms growing on top of a piling.

Bruce put me behind the wheel, Mark as Main Sheet Trimmer, Brenda and Bruce would work the winches with Matt and Brett on the foredeck.  Brittney was at home studying.  Our start was at 12:39... the last boat to start today.  We watched all of the others go then made a perfectly timed start ourselves.  We followed the pack out to the High Range Marker then off towards #71.  The sun was shining but we could see two ominous looking black cloud banks with sheets of rain beneath them.  It looked like we might get wet...

After rounding the wellhead we turned our attention to finding the next mark.  We were still moving up in the pack and had passed one boat that found a discrepancy in the map's coordinates the hard way.  We watched as boats disappeared behind the curtains of rain up ahead, but not before we saw how they heeled in the gusty storm winds.  They always say, " if you think you should reef, it's too late"... we reefed the main just in time.

We had been making 6 kts on Port tack with only low 5 kt ranges on Starboard tack.  We were now only making 3 to 4 as I was the helmsman and was disinclined to let the boat heel very much.  So I pinched and, with Mark's help trimming and easing the main sheet in the gusts, we eked in the direction we had last seen the boats ahead.  The crew sat the rail and enjoyed the downpour.  

 I saw some 24 kt winds but nothing more.   We had our biggest head sail and it was hanked onto the deck so that we couldn't roll it to reef.  Water was pouring out of the mainsail like a waterfall.  We rode it out to the next marker, #4, which we found by watching other boats round it.  We really must get that one in our GPS...

Once we rounded the mark and headed for CC, the young foredeck was up there getting things set, but we found there was a snafu.  Bruce went up and helped them get it right and we set our sails wing on wing for the last leg in brilliant sunshine.  It was as if nothing had happened... no rain, no winds... nothing!  It was hot!  The only proof of the rains we had was our wet clothes and spotty sunglasses.  We finished the course creeping inexorably up through the fleet to claim a Third Place finish.  We all had a story to tell and our foredeck had a bit more experience.  There were certainly moments out there today when we were all thinking, "what are we doing?!"  But in the end it was a fun day with hints of the coming fall weather.  Thanks to our intrepid crew for making it another good one for Bruce and I.

A Boatload For the Wednesday Night Race!

I wasn't sure I would be off in time to make it to this week's Wednesday night race. Bruce was not too happy about it as it was the first of the new Pursuit races with spinnaker division. The boat was full when I arrived. Brittney invited two friends from College, Marci and Krystal, and an old friend from San Antonio, Jeremy.

Bret began distracting me with some far fetched story until Bruce ordered me below to change so we could head to the start line. When I came back up, I was so happily surprised to find ROBERT! Standing in the cockpit!

It's been several weeks since we've seen him and Kathy and I was so happy he was out with us for a sail. We've missed him dearly.

So off we went to join the other 10 boats out on this lovely evening. We had a boat load tonight! It was certainly perfect weather to take newbies out on the boat so as not to scare them off.

Brittney took her guests out on the rail and gave them all instructions on how to stay alive and out of the way. Once we got going on course, they were already well versed in what happens on a tack so I relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

We had plenty of muscle in the cockpit with Clay, Jon and a first timer on our boat, Nick. It looked like they had it well in hand so I rode the rail with the kids.

I'm not sure what's going on here, but I got it on digital. I knew from the beginning that Clay and Brett would hit it off... I just had no idea how well.....

The race course was out to #71, then over to #19 and home. We did OK on the first leg. Made some time on a few boats... After rounding #71, we had planned to put up our spinnaker but upon review, it looked like the boats in front of us were having a hard time carrying the big sails.

We were doing over 6 knots and closer to 7 with just the main and jib with no drama, so we decided to hold what we had and put up the kite after rounding #19 for the last leg before home. Clay took the guys under his wing and got the foredeck going... after a bit of a snafu... But HEY, we've never practiced this before.

It wasn't too long before the chute was flying high and beautiful towards the sun setting on our city. Somehow I got pressed into actual service. Clay's Krystal wasn't with us and trimming the sheet has become her job, but fell to me in her absence. I enjoy doing it and I think I do an OK job of it, but it sure is hard on the neck. And the spinnaker knows if you look away for a second!

We enjoyed our short run and none more than Bruce behind the wheel. He was like a little boy surfing those waves. I was very glad of the opportunity to fly the chute for our prospective new crew members so that we could show them how much fun it could be. All too soon it was time to bring it down. Brittney rounded up her crew for the take down. There was a bit of drama with a reluctant halyard, but it came down without going into the Bay.

We finished it off with only Pazuzu still out behind us. We had made good speed, but the other boats were faster tonight. All this did to our crew was to light a fire under them and we finished the race with talk of "practice" and "we'll show 'em next time".

We had a grand time, laughter reigned supreme and nobody got hurt! I call that a success! Sure we've got room for improvement but that only gives us a goal! Later, after everyone had left the boat. Bruce told me that he had more fun tonight than he's had in a long time. And that's a pretty high bar to top. Thanks to our crew members new and old for making our day!

Second Annual Hiler/Swart Shrimp Boil at BYC

This is our second year to do the Shrimp Boil with the Hilers... Actually, it was more like they did the work and I watched! Brenda and I did the shopping early in the day and then hung out at the Club until time to prepare the 2 lbs of onion, 1 lb of lemon, 20 lbs of sausage, 14 lbs of new potatoes, 9 bags of seasoning and 25 lbs of shrimp for boiling.

Bruce and I drove to Port Aransas to visit the Polly Anna for shrimp. These babies were swimming in the Gulf last night!

Mark got the three boiling pots going earlier this year than last. It takes a long time to get that water going. First he did the onions, potatoes and corn, followed by the sausage. There was so much food, that even with 3 pots, it had to be done in stages to get it all cooked just right.

The last to go into the pot were the spice bags and the shrimp. It took the better part of an hour to get everything boiled and we were ready to ring the dinner bell at just after 7pm.

Brenda and I had the easy job of keeping everything warm in foil in the kitchen while our men sweated over the cauldrons on the sunny side porch.

We lined up our servers with some final instructions and rang the bell. We had around 50 RSVPs and ended up feeding just about that many people.

It's not so hard to cook for a crowd when you know how many to expect and BYC has really responded to the request for RSVPs this year.

We bought 30 lbs of shrimp last year and had a BUNCH leftover. This year we hit it just right. We had 25 lbs and about 10 fewer to feed, but ended up with about 25 shrimps uneaten after everyone came back for seconds and some even for thirds.

Everyone was very complementary and we were happy that it was done! We can relax for another year... After the cleanup, like in many homes... the folks gathered in the kitchen to chit chat.

We moved it out onto the front porch upstairs where we could recline in the Adirondack chairs and enjoy the cool (almost) fall breezes off of the Bay. We've had such a good time with these people over the last year. It looks like the next year is going to be even better. There are some great ideas floating around about fun things to do to shake things up a bit.

We said our goodbyes at around 11 pm and Brenda suggested we meet back at the Club in the morning to make a breakfast out of the leftovers. Bruce volunteered to make his Cheesy Potatoes.

We had 15 or so come back to try Brenda's new specialty... Cazuela (Casserole in Spanish) with the shrimp bits.

She threw in some onion, mushroom and tomato... sauteed them up, then cracked a couple of eggs and pierced the yolks, then covered them all with white Mexican cheese and sizzled it all together in the skillet.

Brittney was paying close attention and swears she has it down. This is a recipe that Brenda found at a small place on Isla Mujeres this summer. We will definitely be having it again!

We ended our weekend with a relaxing sail with the Watsons. We spent about 3 hours zig-zagging out in the bay before going back to the slip. Bruce and I spent some pleasant alone time back up on the BYC deck in the breeze as we watched sailboats come and go until dark. It was nice to have time to just do nothing for a change.