Coast Trip

With the Aggie Yacht Club, Galveston, Texas, April 6-7, 2019.

“To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go”

Joshua Slocum

Friday morning at 1 a.m. my eyes popped open and my mind started up. “I must check the weather,” I thought. Friday was forecasted to be 72 degrees with winds 10-15 mph for Galveston, Texas. Saturday was predicted to have 50% thunderstorms and winds gusting up to 20 mph. I started stressing, and I wished I could join everyone for the perfect weather day on Friday. My Aggie Yacht Club would be heading to Galveston that Friday afternoon for their annual coast trip, while I would be working.  I had missed last year’s coast trip, so I was super excited to partake in this year’s. I planned to tow Guppy from Bryan, Texas to Jamaica Beach in Galveston early Saturday morning.

After another restless night, I packed up early and hit the road.  I arrived in Galveston 3 hours later around 11:00 a.m., towing Guppy through the traffic infested highways of Houston and foggy, gloomy weather. When I arrived at the pink beach house, the club was there to greet me and the sun was too!  It turns out, the weather forecast is only a prediction and not a reality. We were blessed with sun and a steady 10-15 mph wind.

Jacob and John assisted me with setting Guppy up and launching her at a small private Jamaica Beach boat ramp.  This is Guppy’s first time back in salt water since the wild Texas 200 experience.  Jacob helped me navigate the canals and I tried out the new (to me) electric motor that my dad let me borrow after the noisy little cruise n carry died.  As I started her so simply and quietly, I immediately fell in love. I realize that there is no such thing as a perfect motor, but this one was reliable, powerful enough, and super quiet: a dream come true to me.

We motored a smooth 20 minutes to the beach house where the AYC was and tied Guppy to the dock directly in front of the house. While some of the club members headed to the beach, Jacob, John, and I had an itch to get out sailing on the bay. West Bay is beautiful, not crowded at all (we were the only sailboat out there at the time), and very shallow. I was concerned about reefs and low tide readings, but Jacob and his father reassured me that the tide was 2 feet higher at this time than the charts show. With Guppy’s foot and half keel, we were in no danger of grounding. We sailed out into the bay through the channel markers with the wind at our backs and with Jacob at the tiller. I climbed to the bow and fixed a kink in the jib sail. It was so nice up there, I decided to stay put.  A salty, fresh breeze on my face and Guppy playfully splashing in the bay made me breath a deep sigh of happiness. This was my happy place: no place I’d rather be. Jacob sailed wing on wing and downwind for almost an hour. The winds kept increasing and land was getting farther and farther away. As I climbed back into the cockpit, I had to hold tight onto the handrails and stay low as we had picked up quite a bit of speed.

I then took over for the fun part: beating windward back to the house. The winds had obviously increased and now on this point of sail (close-hauled) made for a thrilling sail. We were in no rush, enjoyed the sail, and tacked back within two hours. As we arrived back at the beach house we were greeted by our club who had just made a beautiful lunch of pulled pork sliders.

Then decisions ensued: should we paddle board, kayak, sail more, or swim? Molly piped up and said she wanted to take out Guppy. I couldn’t resist another spin. This time it would be a girls-only trip, and it was Molly’s official first time sailing on Gup. Rob and Daniel followed us down the canal on their paddle boards. As we passed the neighbors, we had many admirers on how cute Guppy was. She seems to make everyone smile. The winds were kind to us out in the bay, and we enjoyed a leisurely hour sail. Molly seemed pleased that we did not die.

We motored back through the canals as the sun set, tied Guppy up at the dock, and headed in. Jacob stated that a storm was coming pretty early in the morning and that we should get Guppy all packed up before it got too dark. As I got her back on the trailer and we were taking down her mast, I realized that this trip was completely without incident. No drama and just smooth sailing. What a lucky duck I am! We all chatted, ate dinner and then climbed into our tents (or hammocks) for an early bedtime. I laid in my tent, listening to the crickets and the wind, thinking of the day’s fun. It was a great trip.