All Catalina Fleet 69 Lake Travis, Austin, Texas  2003 NEWS

Saturday, December 13 - Holiday Party: We had our Christmas Party at Gary and Paulette's beautiful house this past Saturday. About 20 people were able to make it. We had a huge Christmas tree decorated beautifully in the living room where we socialized until it was time to eat. Lots of great food and desserts were available including wine and punch. It was wonderful!
Afterwards the "old" officers received gifts and new officers were installed. Bob was chosen to receive the Stough Award. Andersons were voted most deserving of the Blooper award for the Dog Days August cruise no-show. And the gift exchange was hilarious with the most sought after gift (colorful plates in the shape of fish) causing the greatest commotion.
May everyone have a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year! Here are the pictures!

Congratulations to our new officers!
Commodore: Marty
Vice Commodore: Robert
Secretary: Annette
Treasurer: Shirley

Chairpeople:
Social: Carol
Historian: Cheryl, Clay
Phones: Lane

Awards:
Stough Award: Bob
Blooper: Andersons for the Dog Gone Cruise!
 

Saturday, November 15 - Turkey Cruise - We had five brave souls meet at Smokey J's for a buddy cruise. We climbed onto  C250, Flying Cloud, and had a very nice sail. Some drizzle, mostly dry, and we tacked S upwind to about Windy Point. Then the wind changed out of the N so we tacked back about halfway till we turned the engine on and were off the lake about 5pm

November Meeting: We had our November meeting at a new location, Mr. Gatti's on Far West Blvd. The food was cheap and fast. The rooms were OK but might get crowded if we get a lot of people. We'll plan on having our January meeting there again and then open up the option of locating another meeting site. We have a new slate of officers elected. Check your email for names.

Galveston Bay Cruise Charter -October 11 - 12. We chartered a Morgan/Catalina 45 from At the Helm in Kemah and sailed it to Moody Gardens in Galveston and back. Captain plus crew numbered 13. The winds were fairly light. We traveled 78 miles. On the water 16 hours. We would not recommened mast roller furling mainsails. The boat had a center cockpit which was great for giving us lots of on-deck space and a lovely stateroom in the stern below. It was a beautiful boat. We saw dolphins, herons, and pelicans. On Friday night we ate at Willie G's in Kemah andon Saturday we ate on the Strand at Fisherman's Wharf. We met up with the Defendersofthecoast.com sailors, a group of people that appear to be pirates but are a sailor of the coast support organiation. A good time was had by all the entire weekend. Thanks again to Gary for organizing. See the photos pages for the memories, as they can describe more than words can tell. Pictures are here and here.

Oktoberfest Cruise - Oct 18:  We had a very nice Oktober cruise on October the 18th. The weather was perfect and sailing on the lake was a delight. We started gathering around 4pm in Barry's cove and immediately the pressure was on for the brats and saurkraut. We were eating by 6 pm and had cookies and plenty of German beer to soothe our way into the night. Some wind shifting was dealt with appropriately and others spent the night. Now that the power boats are off the lake and the weather's cooled the lake belongs to. Pictures are here.

OCTOBER MEETING: Besides pizza, conversation, and the fleet meeting, we enjoyed a short film  "Sail to Glory" which was an reenactment of the first America's Cup race, US vs Britain around the Isle of Wight in 1851 It starred a replica of America and several other fine old schooners. Excellent footage of sailing these grand old boats is from the film. It is hosted by Robert Stack with music by Doc Severinson. Famous line: "Madame, there is no second place."

SEPTEMBER FAMOUS BREAKFAST CRUISE: Sunday, September 14. Several boats came on Saturday night and enjoyed a pleasant quiet night in Arkansas Bend.  One of our members brought her guitar and the group was entertained with live music!
Bright and early in the morning, somewhere around 8 am, the cooks started cooking the pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, etc. It was a feast. Fleet members brought coffee and toppings such as blueberries and pecans.
At lake level 668.8, tieing up to shore at Arkansas Bend was about the best it can ever be. We also had nice fairly level ground to set up on and for a couple of land yachts, they could even drive (down the boat ramp and around the point) right to the cruise site. Turnout was lower than expected (3 boats and 4 cars and 12 people), we think due to the weather, but the company was as charming, amusing, and entertaining as usual! Many thanks to Clay and Joe for all the work they put into this and we'll look forward to next year!

The thunder and lightning started around 8:45 and around 9:30 the sprinkles started and we quickly broke camp. The JJ Boat had an interesting experience:
What excitement we had on the sail home from the breakfast cruise! "At first it was just a nice rain and no wind so we motored
along quite happily. But when we got under the high wires about even with Devil's Canyon we put our life jackets on.  Because the motor quit, we had the main up and were running in moderate wind. Then this big rain front came behind us over the northwest hills and caught us by surprise. We reached up towards that new north shore marina in the driving rain as the main tore half way across from the leach along the lower batten pocket and main seam. It gusted up to 35 mph we learned later.

I think we never were overpowered or lost control, but the main sail was now flapping uselessly. I started the motor again and the crew got the main down and partly wrapped with the bungee cords. She got inside the cabin and held onto the main sail while I steered into the wind and stinging rain towards the north shore marina. Even though the motor quit once more, we got inside the
breakwater and the calmer lee of the marina docks. We had to tie off from the stern because all their docks are covered for big power boats and block a mast. It stopped blowing and just rained. The marina staff were friendly and quite amused by a couple of wet duck sailors! After hanging around for two hours and changing to dry clothes, the rain finally quit so we motored back to Keller's without any further problems. We dropped the torn main sail off at the Bartlett Sails' drop box and hope its not too expensive to repair."

September 2003 Meeting. Following the meeting, Bob played parts of a film called "The Lost Sailors." It was about modern-day sailors in Central America, Brazil, and Sri Lanka who still build their own sailboats and use them to earn a living and feed their families day to day. The stories of how their lives and survival were so closely interlocked with the sea.

AUGUST DOG DAYS CRUISE: Saturday, August 16. Five boats and 12 sailors rafted up between 6 and 7 pm in Barry's Cove and enjoyed a good long soak in the water and snacks on the boat. Our hosts (with the dogs and hotdogs) had spent all afternoon in the 95 degree heat and by 6 pm, decided it was better for all to find some air conditioning.  One boat spent the night and in the cooler morning, our hosts rejoined the cruise. Photos are avaialable from the fleet photo page.

August 2003 Meeting. Many thanks to Steffan for his unique and very interesting program on Panama!. He started out by telling us about the working part of his trip, the study of the earth's crust through seismic soundings by the UT Institute for Geophysics (UTIG). Then he told us about his sailing trip and adventures in the San Blas Islands, off the Caribbean coast of Panama. It was facinating to learn about the culture and lifestyles of the natives and to see untouched natural beauty of that part of our world.

JULY "B" CRUISE: Saturday, July 19. This cruise included Boats, Burgers, Buns, Bags of Chips, Brewed Beverages, and Bathing Suits. We enjoyed a sail up to Arkansas Bend where we set anchor in the North Cove. Boats found the C-25 with the Burgee and the gas grill hanging off the back at around 2:00pm.  We had an afternoon cookout and swim. Hosts provided burgers, buns, trimmings (pickle spears, mustard ketchup, onions, lettuce) and bags of chips. Vegetarians were warned. Others brought the beverage of their choice, bathing suits and special fixings, side dishes and desserts. A good time was had by all. : - )

July 2003 Meeting. We had a good meeting covering a lot of topics. We acquired a new member, Mark, who is the new owner of a Catalina 22 and wants to learn about sailing and boat ownership from other members.  Books and videos were exchanged in our new library program.  Gary's boat has new curtains and Robert and Sheila are now proud owners of Hal & Elaine's C250. Marty recommends that you don't buy the big rechargeable flood lights. They only last about 15 minutes. The "Nightlife" lasts between 10-16 hrs.

JUNE CRUISE: Summer Solstice Cruise. Saturday, June 21.
Barry's Cove was very busy when the first Catalinas arrived around 6 pm. Lake level is 677', the cove was filled with nearly 20 other (mostly power) boats and it appeared our best space was near the shore, so we dropped anchors off our sterns and tie our bows to the shore. The shoreline was full of rocks and dirts (and now private) so we spent the evening on our boats. First order of business was to jump in and cool off. It was a noodle flotilla. There were 6  boats and 16 people and one dog. Dinner was  a feast of salads as we all crowded onto the C30. Then we played Sail Swim or Draw, a nautical terms version of pictionary. Each person had a chance to pull a word from a hat and draw it on the board. If guessed, the drawer gets a point and the guesser gets a point.Prizes were awarded to the top 5 winners. We then sat under the stars and picked out the constellations and traded sailing stories. Then it was up at dawn (well, some of us), and we had a beautiful peaceful early morning sail back to the marina. Perfect condition with flat water and nice breeze, and not too hot.

June 2003 Meeting
Marty visited the LCRA and returned with a boatload of handouts and an interesting video about floods that have occurred in the Highland Lake chain including Travis (of course). We also discussed the logistics of a fleet book and video swap. Members may supply a list of their sailing books/videos that can be loaned to othe fleet members.
Phyllis told us about an educational and promotional project in the Galveston Bay area, called the Scow Schooner project (www.scowschooner.org) in which they are promoting the historical and estuarial aspects of Galveston Bay.

The Impromptu Cruise, aka the Dog Days of Summer PreView cruise: May 24 - 25. With the holiday weekend and some fleet members' desire to enjoy cooler nights on the boats, we initiated an impromptu cruise via email. Four boats, 7 people, and 2 dogs met in Barry's Cove for an evening of appetizers and chicken. The cove was not crowded, as the only other boat in the cove was a Catalina 28 from the Ukraine, whom we hope reads this web page and decides to come join the group! We had a lot of fun. The evening started out nice and cool, and then the traditional Memorial Day weekend thunderstorm hit around 4:30 am. Winds peaked around 29 mph (46 km / hr) and there was a good inch or more of rain. Our anchors (we had 2 for the 4 boats) held while we swung around 180 degrees. It lasted about an hour or more and then was gone, leaving us time to catch those extra winks. The morning hours were pleasant as we ate breakfast and once again enjoyed the comraderie of Fleet 69!

Turnback Canyon Regatta: May 17-18. Click here for a map. Click here (AYC) for results (eventually) and photos.
About 7 fleet boats and 11 skippers sailed in the Regatta. A couple more came to the evening dinner. About 83 boats participated in all. The winds were light and variable on Saturday with occasional moments of good air. It took one Catalina 25 about 5 hours to get to the anchorage at Lago Vista. There was a slight overcast so it wasn't quite as hot as it could have been. It was great fun to sail the distance of about 18.5 miles up the lake. In the evening we enjoyed BBQ and live music. The overnight was wonderful with a full moon and inconsistent with TBC tradition, there was no overnight thunderstorm and anchor drill. The sail back on Sunday was lighter and more variable, and some bright sailors recognized that and turned on the motor at the start. Others persisted for 6 - 7 hours, some finishing and some not. Overall it was yet another good TBC Regatta and it was fun to see such a good fleet turnout. Let's have even more next year!

May 8 Meeting: Boat Hull Jobs. We had Paul Coburn from Commanders Point Marina and the Boat Yard speak to us about bottom jobs.  A bottom job is really preventive maintenance and the longer it is ignored the more it will cost to do later. In general, boats in Travis are better off with a hard paint. In addition, copper is un-necessary. Bottom paint will not prevent blisters though a barrier coat can slow moisture penetration. Work done should be scheduled ahead of time (1 month) and usually takes about 1-2 weeks. Figure to pay $50/ft plus 2 gals of paint and about $50 in misc supplies.

April 27 Cruise
They egged us on with this one!  Our "Eggstra Eggstraordinary Eggcellent Eggciting Cruise" fed eggreat many eggs to the good eggs...oops, crew members.  We yoked up just around the corner at the south point of Barry's cove.  With eggood anchor to hold our bows into the occasional boat wakes, the waves didn't eggravate, nor turn us over easy.  The youngest and warmest-blooded sailors swam, with pool floats and with fenders tied to floating lines.  They stayed mostly sunny side up, but no egg noodles were in evidence.  Aboard, we had Vietnamese seasoned, fried, boiled eggs - unique and eggsellent!  Eggreat quiche disappeared quickly, while we feasted on deviled eggs and spinach salad with eggs.  A plate of "fiddle head" ferns added to eggourmet collection.  Then, chocolate almond eggs for dessert.  Eggreat time was had by all, including singles, couples, and a young family.  Let's do it eggain!

April 10 Meeting
We discussed the who, what, where, and how of Boat Bottom Jobs.
In May we will take nominations for Vice Commodore. In June we will vote.

March 2003 Travis Cruise: Because of the prediction of rain, etc, we decided to take it easy and meet for lunch at
at the Iguana Grill. About 16 of us enjoyed the afternoon on the patio, where we shared more stories and photos.

March 2003 Meeting: We mourned the loss of our Commodore, Vince Elkanaha Bland. Vince was a unique person who loved the sport and spirit of sailing on his boat Wind Dancer or any boat, and he touched all of our lives with his humor and wisdom. He will be greatly missed.
At the meeting we also shared pictures of our recent trip to the British Virgin Islands (BVIs).

March BVI Cruise:British Virgin Islands (BVI)

February Cruise: Cherries and Chocolate!
Fleet 69 and Chocoholics Anonymous!. How would we describe the February Cruise - WOW !!!
For the few of you who missed the February - Cherries and Chocolate Cruise – let's that again… WOW !!!
Great sailing winds, the high temp registered at 68 degrees and our hosts really turned it on for this one. These were delights to die for: (provided you are a registered chocoholic). There was the terrific Tennessee Trifle, the Cherry and Chocolate Black Forest and then the most delicious chocolate brownie / cake creation I ever had the pleasure to devour.  Add to that a side of chocolate and/or vanilla ice cream and you are on your way to heaven on a silken magic carpet make of Chocolate and Cherries. Now, if you needed some help getting your magic carpet off the ground, the hosts had you covered, a Chocolate Martini.  It was spectacular.  What a day.  It was a great sailing day.  We were able to watch Gary and crew round the ‘D’ mark while we were boarding passengers at Dodd St. and then we enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of stories and high powered deserts. Thanks very much to our hosts!

February  2003 Meeting: AYC Racing 101
Bob made a wonderful presentation on decoding the codes and flags displayed in AYC racing events. He described the possible race routes, W & T, as well as the horn timings before the starts.Flags and their meanings were explained too.

Congratulations to Gary for passing his Coastal Navigation Course. It is not an easy class. Gary also wants to know if there is interest in individuals earning their Coast Guard captain's license. We can perhaps coordinate activities to work towards a common goal. There is a sailboat instructor's certification that some of our group will attend in Kemah, from Mar 29th to Apr 1st (dates provided at meeting). If interested, contact Gary. Also visit http://www.ussailing.org/training/keelboat/ for a description.

We need to see who's interested in a spring cruise. Kemah to Galveston or Corpus Christi to Port Aransas are possibilities. Normally this is done in April so we need to reserve soon.

January 2003 Hot Toddy Cruise:
We had a nice get together at Barry's Cove. Sue and Marty provided all the hot beverages with the appropriate mixers. Included were some very nice appetizers designed to go with the drinks. We had 5 boats total rafted up by 3pm and lots of conversing and libating. It was cool getting colder as time passed. By sundown it was COLD and we were out of there. Thanks Marty and Sue. By the way, they are the newly created Social Directors for this year.

January 2003 Meeting: Annual Launch
At the first meeting of the year, Commodore Vince led an open forum meeting designed to prompt everyone for ideas of what this year's schedule of events could/should be. There was no lack of ideas and energy evident that night! Some of the ideas are below and we will then rely on our newly elected officers, along with our volunteers, to "make it so".From the Social Director...There are still openings in this year's cruise schedule. See the new calendar here and Contact Marty to sign up for one of the "un-hosted" cruises!  All cruises are generally scheduled for the 3rd Saturday of every month, unless there is some other event that precludes it,  to make it easy to remember. Old schedule was the weekend of the full moon. There is an interest to get more overnighter's or night sails.Ideas for cruises and races (Gary & Vince)    Harvestmoon Regatta    Race to Veracruz / back?    C-22's to the coast for coastal cruise    cruise to Port Aransas from CC and back...    San Juan Islands cruise    Summer sailing course    others?Ideas for monthly meeting topics    AYC race setup procedures and methodology... weather issues, course setup, start sequences, etc...    How to use a GPS for racing or cruising..    Other uses for a sailboat ... fishing, camping, others?    How and why to become a licensed captain...Ideas for new things to do...    Man Over Board Exercises (MOB) .. learn techniques and practice on the lake, races?    Technical Ladder ... work your way up the ladder learning/demonstrating sailing skills such as        knots, sail trim, terminology, navigating, mast tuning, maintenance, etc.    Fleet 69 caps... other items?    Book swaps..

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