Updated 1/15/2006

The Holiday Party was held at Charles and Pat's home again. Dave and Diane as the co-hosts. Turnout was very good, with 32 attendees. New officers were inaugurated: Commodore Dave, Vice Commodore Sheila, Secretary Marty, and Treasurer Shirley. Marty won the blooper award for no lights in the Lydia Ann channel. Phyllis was honored with the Stough Award. We did the gift exchange, with a singing reindeer and lighthouse salt and pepper shakers being the highlights. It was a wonderful wrap-up for the 2005 sailing season. Now we're ready for more fun in 2006! Photos.

Turkey Cruise! Sunday, November 13. We gobbled up recent history records for # boats and people at the November Turkey Cruise. We had 11 boats, 23 adults, and 2 children, and 11 boats at the Turkey Cruise. It was a sunny, clear, and warm Sunday afternoon in Barry's Cove. Lake was getting low at 665.5. Gary and Paulette were the hosts with great turkey sandwich makings. The rest of us brought pumpkin * desserts. It was a great "last cruise" of  the year!
The boats: Brand new C34 Island Time nee Serendippity held the lone anchor, C30, C27 Sweet Sue, C25 LadyBug, C25 Whisper, C25 Summer Song, C250 Flying Cloud, C22 Double Happiness, C22 Siddartha, C22 - The Rose, and a pontoon boat!

November Meeting: We elected officers: Commodore Dave, Vice Commodore Sheila, Secretary Marty with backup Clay, and Treasurer Shirley. Many thanks to our out-going officers!

Corpus Christi to Rockport Cruise, Oct 22-23: Seven fleet members sailed First Beneteau 35s5 named "Pirate's Smile" from the Corpus Christi Sailing Center and to the Key Largo Marina Rockport, and back again. Cruise organizer Gary reported the following (edited): What a Fantastic Cruise.  It was the reason I bought a Catalina in 1979, to be able to do something like this.  We had Perfect Weather for this time of year. Saturday morning we pushed off at 9 am, as planned, with a brisk northerly wind in our face. We wore our jackets. On the racing-style boat Beneteau, we made great headway toward Ingleside. The day warmed up to 83, but with the wind chill factor, we all left our jackets on up to Port Aransas. When we reached the Lydia Ann Channel, we tacked to go north towards Rockport. The wind seemed to go more northerly, which meant that when we got up the InterCoaastal Waterway (ICW), there was a dog leg to the East. We went past Rockport to Key Allegro arrived in the marina at 5 pm.

Key Allegro Marina was a wonderful place to be. They have gone to a great effort to make it look like Florida (before the huricanes), with palm trees, and upscale condos, each with its own dock. The restaurant was very enjoyable and with the live music, it was a night to remember with good friends, warm temperatures, colorful sunset, and music from Jimmy Buffet to the 60's.

In the morning we pushed off at 10:30 raised our spinnaker and took off for the ICW. We really had a beautiful relaxing run with the shute up all the way back to Corpus at 4:30. We were going between 5 & 6 knots, and had a most fantastic run with the dolphins, the most we have ever seen. It was an ideal sailing weekend all around!

Oktoberfest! Ach du lieber. Die war eine gute cruise! On Saturday, October 15, 6 fleet boats with 15 sailors sailed or motored to Arkansas Bend, and dropped anchored. Later on, a Catalina 38 joined the group. After a nice swim, we had 3 types of wurst, sauerkraut, German potato salad, seasonal beverages, and a boat-load of german-themed desserts. It was a beautiful October day to be out on the lake! Thanks to Dave and Diane for hosting the event.

October Meeting: "Fred and the Zen of Boat Maintenance." Fred has talked with our fleet before and is always entertaining. (He's also a pretty good boat-fixer-upper.) He started by describing a walk down some of the AYC docks, and noting common points of failure and repair.

September Breakfast Cruise, Sept 10 and 11: It hadn't rained a drop for a month, but somehow our annual Breakfast Cruise attracted the clouds and thunder and became one of the rainiest ever. It didn't dampen the spirits of several of our fleet members, but then again, they had spent the night on their boats and dreamed of pancakes and bacon. Six boats and 10 people arrived on Saturday and enjoyed an evening of music and comarderie. In the rainy morning, 4 land yachts arrived with 7 people and a Hobie 16. We had apple cake in the parking lot while the shore group set up canopies so they could cook in the rain. Many thanks to our intrepid cooks.

September Meeting: Our guest speaker was Stan, Public Affairs Director of LCRA.  He gave an excellent program and some very interesting information as to where on the shoreline is public domain to where we can anchor, swim, etc without violating private property.

Ladies' Cruise: On Sunday, August 14, Nine ladies of Fleet 69 boarded Sheila's Catalina 250 and set sail sans men from Dodd Street Docks. Winds were brisk from the south. We sailed downwind into Sandy Creek, then gybed and sailed upwind to Barry's Cove. There we had snacks and swam until the the storm clouds drew close and the wind quickly increased to near 30 (according to the AYC Website.) We hauled anchor and motored back to the docks. We all had a great time and plan to make it an annual event! Photos: August Ladies' Cruise

Saturday, August 13: Greek Feast Land Cruise: On Saturday, August 13, with outdoor temperatures soaring to 100, the fleet gathered in the air conditioned comfort of Charles and Pat's home to have a Greek Feast. Paulette was chief cook and did an outstanding job. Twenty-seven people attended. Opa! Photos: August Greek Land Cruise

July Cruise: Sunday, July 17, "Red, White, and Blue Cruise" . Our hosts cruise were Shirley and Carol. They had chosen
the theme "Red, White, and Blue" to commemorate the 4th of July month. The plan was to meet at Barry's Cove, next to Starne's Island (http://members.aol.com/CatFleet69/map.gif) at 5:00 PM or earlier, to avoid the hottest part of the day.

We were blessed by the sailing gods and we had a cool afternoon (low 90's).Too much of a good thing led to lower temps, lower barometers, and lower light as dark clouds moved in around 4 PM. We decided to meet at AYC. Dave and Diane had gone to Barry's cove, found no one there, and joined us at AYC.

We were met by several others and the hosts. We proceeded to break into ship's stores including  a RWB (red,white,and blue) warm multi-bean salad, RWB Blue Crab salad, RWB small baked potatoes, RWB cake with Mexican Vanilla whip cream, and
RWB cheesecake with raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. There were also Red cherries!

The theme was a success, and the recipes were fantastic. It was great to have the time and space to enjoy the food and desserts without having to huddle under a small bimini afloat. Photos.

June 11 Cruise: "Wine (Whine)for the Wind " or "Do you want some cheese to go with that Whine?" (As those who just returned from Greece are Whining about the fact they are no longer there .. - and those of us who did not go are Whining because we did not go :-) Barry's Cove. Hosts: lightly hosted by Marty and Sue, but was really kind of self hosted - pack your own - Chilled Wine, Cheese, Crackers Grapes, Sodas, Sandwich - what ever floats your boat. Photos.

June Meeting: Jeff and Robin Picard, new owners or managers of "Sea Lake Yacht Sales" talked to our fleet about their new business on Lake Travis, which sells the larger Catalina Yachts. The Sailboat Shop sells the smaller Catalina boats and there is an overlap between the 2 businesses. There is also work afoot to promote sailing on Lake Travis, and they are working with the Hunter and Beneteau dealers. Let's show those power boaters who the real boaters are!

Greek Isles: May 28 - June 4. Fleet 69 participated in a Moorings flotilla cruise that originated in Athens, Greece, sailed through the Cyclades Islands, and ended at the island of Syros.  We had 2 boats and 12 people from Fleet 69. Twelve boats were in the flotilla plus the captain's boat. We have lots of stories which will be elaborated later. In short, it was wonderful and everything went very well. It was dream trip of a lifetime. Photos Link: May - June: Greek Cyclades Island Cruise.
Some informative links: http://www.moorings.com and http://web.inter.nl.net/users/SAILING_Greece/.
That latter link has good information for all sailors, including an online short course on Navigation!
Athens Tour information:
Harry's: http://www.harrys-athens-greece-guide.com/
Matt's: http://www.greektravel.com/

Turnback Canyon Regatta - Memorial Day weekend. At least 3 fleet members particpated. Winds were light, then pleasant on Saturday. The usual thunderstorms, three of them, rolled thru during the night. Winds were light coming back on Sunday and the race was thankfully shortened to Arkansas Bend. A good time was had by all, from the sailing to the comraderie.

Caribbean Cruise on Hurst Creek - May 14
Some sailed and some drove to the Caribbean Cruise, which was held in Hurst Creek, next to the marina and Aunt Tillie's restaurant, in the shade. Our hosts Pam and Mark cooked the seasoned fajitas and provided mango and watermelon salsa. Others brought dessert, so everyone had a sweet time. About fifteen were in attendance and it was a great day to be out at the lake.

Corpus Christi Coastal Cruise - April 30 and May 1
Gary, Paulette, Marty, Dave, and 2 guests sailed the Morgan 46 Souvenir. Photos. It was a windy Saturday with winds in the 30's. The jib had a quirky furling mechanism and shortly after it was partially unfurled, the wind caught the sail, pulled it out, furling line became a rat's nest, sail tore, main was in poor condition and not suitable for such winds, so the boat motored to Port A. The crew enjoyed delicious seafood dinners at Virginia's. Sunday was much better and produced windy but excellent sailing weather for the sail back to CC.

April Fools' Cruise - April 16
The foolish part was to meet so near Devil's Cove on a beautiful spring day with light air. Power boats were there in full force, zipping in and out of the cove, and creating a lot of chop. Fortunately, the wind picked up and we were able to escape from that area and enjoy some very pleasant sailing. Mark and Pam were the first to arrive on C25 "Whisper". Then Gary, Paulette, and Cheryl bobbed in on C30 "Somewhere N Time." A short while later, we saw that familiar trimaran with the blue Hobie sails moving quickly towards us. Did they catch a great breeze? Not really, they had a great motor. Lane was on his home-built boat constructed from a day-sailor and a Hobie Cat. Pictures are here. He was there with Dave and I think Elizabeth and Alicia. Later on, C22 "JJ" was sighted sailing in a nice breeze with the "Mixed Knots" Sue, Shirley, and Sherry. It was a wonderful day to be out sailing!

April Meeting: Bruce Buckner, Vice Commander of the Coast Guard Auxilliary Reserve.
Bruce talked to us about exciting and enjoyable trips he had sailing from Figi Islands to Austrailia, and continuing on to India and Turkey where the 3 of them were stranded between India and Turkey with the prop became loose from the drive shaft and they hailed a passing by freighter who in turned radioed the Indian Navy, who in turn sent their Indian Navy Destroyer out 18 hours later to recue them by helping out with their repairs.  They were in a storm for 6 days straight, but he said he would not take a million dollars for such a wonderful experience. They got to see dolphins, whales and other sealife frolicking in their native habitat.

He also talked about the importance of safety and constant vigilence. Contact his organization if you would like to have your boat safety-inspected. This was an excellent program and we hope Bruce will come back again!

The O'Catalina Fleet 69 St Patrick's Cruise - March 12.
Dave's Report: Keith and Sue were our hosts for a wonderful St. Patrick's Day celebration on a beautiful, sunny day. Five boats and sixteen people were in attendance in the north cove of Arkansas Bend. There was plenty of corned beef sandwiches and fixings to make any Irishman proud. There was quite alot of the wearin' o' the Green, with a formal green top hat worn by a few (at about 2 floppy-feet tall!). We had some samplings of Guinness stout, but luckily not dyed green.
Sue had a great "Irish Trivia" game, and we discovered some surprising Irish experts in our group!
Photos
The weather was fantastic for sailing, with a strong, steady southerly breeze at about 17knots with gusts even higher. The sailing was great even with reefed sails or mainsaill only. The cove was well protected from waves and some of the wind. Gary's C30 was,
as usual, our anchor for the festivities with a strong danforth set into the bottom, with all boats rafting together and swinging with the breezes that rushed through the trees.

It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 80's and plenty of wind to sail our boats to Arkansas Bend. The water was a little higher than normal but it didn't poseany problems.

March Program: "A first mate's guide to flotilla cruising in Greece and other foreign waters," was a special, entertaining, and informative presentation topic by the Commodore's wife.

February Valentine's Cruise: Catalina Chocolate and Cherries Cruise.
In spite of the 40% rain predictions, four boats and seventeen sailors ventured out on Saturday afternoon to convene in Barry's Cove for the Catalina Chocolate and Cherries Cruise to commemorate both Valentine's and Presidents Day.
There was light mist in the air with occasional sprinkles, the winds were light or non-existent, and the temperatures were comfortable in the 60's. We either honed our light-air sailing skills or gave our rarely-used motors some exercise.

We feasted on chocolate coffee, hot chocolate with whipped cream, chocolate martinis (which were strong enough to clean a boat!), chocolate cream cake, brownie bites, strawberry shortcake cups with whipped cream and candies, chocolate-dipped cherries and peanuts, Port and Starboard Chocolate Cherry Brownies (the cherries were red and green), and Ben and Jerry's cherries and chocolate ice cream.  To cleanse our pallets, we had melon and a submarine sandwich.

We voted on the best tasting appropriate to the theme. It was a close race, but in the end, the winners were Clay and Norma's chocolate-dipped cherries and peanuts!  The winds totally disappeared, so we all motored or got towed back to our marinas. Photos here.

February Meeting: Since our Commodore and his wife were in Hawaii celebrating 25 years, our VC successfully ran the meeting.
We discussed future programs involving Weather personalities, speakers from LCRA, and others. Folks volunteered to follow-up on their respective leads. Check out the Cruising Calendar.There are still opening for hosts this year so sign up and have fun!  Gary suggested a trailerable sailboat cruise perhaps in ~April/May to Palacious in Matagorda Bay. Interested folks should contact Gary or our VC.

The program was an educational and fun-filled game of Sailing Jeopardy, created by our Clever Commodore and displayed on a laptop computer. There were categories like Lake Travis, VHF, Regs, Catalina, and Terms. Questions ranged from easy to hard to just plain tricky. Everyone took home a prize. Some questions, such as the max width of Lake Travis, are still being researched!

January Cruise: Saturday, January 15. There were 5 boats  present. Robert & Sheila’s with Marty on their C250, Mark & Pam on their C25, Dave and Diane on their 25, Bob and Karen on their C22, and Gary on his C30 with Guests Lane and his friend Alicia.
It was a beautiful sunny day with the temp in the 50’s which allowed many to be in short sleeve or long sleeve shirts.  We had 3 hooks out which held us all quite well with light to mild winds 4 to 7.  Marty, Robert, and Sheila out did themselves with hot chocolate and coffee, plus a vast  array of Baileys, Kailua, Peppermint Schnapps, Light and Dark Rum, Vanilla Vodka plus many more to \warm  your soul, not to mention the Tamales which delicious and much appreciated.  The winds picked up  and we all put up our sails and had a exhilarating time with 10 mph winds on the way back to our marinas. Photos.

January 2005 Meeting: On January 13 we had a good turnout of 24 people at Mr Gatti's. New Commodore Mark led a well organized meeting with the usual business and lively discussions on the fun things we want to do in 2005. Marty received the Stough Award from last year's winner, Bob. Then Dave presented a multimedia show on “Preparing and Sailing out of Port Aransas.” Last Thanksgiving time he sailed his refurbished 26' sailboat, which is similar to the C22 and C25 in handling, out of Port A in attempt to get to Corpus or the shoreline east of Corpus. He made 2 attempts over 2 days and each time encountered heavy "on the nose" winds. After they decided it was best to drive to Thanksgiving dinner, the sun came out and it would have been a good day for sailing. Photos.

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News from 2002
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