The Crew
Of course the most important item on the boat besides the food is the crew. I was fortunate to be able to recruit my sister-in-law, Rene, for the journey. She would be the muscle to man the winch, haul anchor, tie-up and generally push or pull anything that required any level of force that I could not muster. Though our short adventure we had a great time and Rene came through with flying colors with the new knowledge that sailing is not a passive endeavor, even when it’s “just cruising”.
Exit Strategy
I skirted close to the south wall (red line) as I dared and only bumped twice on the bottom. Tide was up approximately 1.2′ – just above the oyster growth on the docks. Zephyr drafts 4′ and she was fully laden so may have had a couple of inches more.
Port Isabel to Potrero area.
A series of low barrier islands with scrubby vegetation and numerous fish camps along the shore. We carefully nosed in at high tide to a piling that formed part of a long gone pier of a dilapidated cabin on the windward side.
Departure 0800 6/16/2023
Port Isabel (26°04’28.8″N+97°12’57.9″W)
Destination south of Potrero Cortado 26°50’32.5″N 97°27’59.0″W
Approx. 48 nm
Up early for the high tide we depart at 8am and head to the opening of the Fingers also called “The Moderen Venice” of Port Isabel . The tide was high enough that we only bumped a couple of times and headed out, this was unlike other occasions when I attempted to take out Zephyr and got stuck in the mud requiring BoatsUs to assist. I probably have a plaque hanging in their office awarding the most calls from the Port Isabel area for a sailboat in a two year span. A bit of an embarrassment.
I planned for us to sail sun-up to sunset but we left ‘late’ at 0800, after a well deserved espresso, and continued until dusk. We sailed wing-on-wing smoothly with southerly wind of 10kts. The Texas ICW is a deceptively narrow ditch with steeply rising shallow mud banks and occasional bordering spoil islands. The navigational aids are, on many occasions, few and far between so keeping on eye on the depth, the chart plotter and any visible marker is essential. Watching out for broken, shifted and missing navigational aids is quite a task.
We stayed close to the windward bank on the ICW as we headed north. Given that the Texas intracoastal is just a trench between shallow sticky muddy banks, ‘hitting’ the side means you get stuck in the mud. I thought that by staying on the windward side of the trench, if we were to ‘touch’ bottom we could heel over and get blown back in into the channel. However, that only works only of you don’t have a full keel boat and dig yourself deep into a muddy (sticky) bank.
Well I managed to work myself into a very ‘sticky’ muddy bank on the windward bank and no amount of heeling or engine power helped Zephyr get off . Her four foot full keel was stuck hard. Another, hopefully last, call to BoatUS and a short hour later we were off and running with the wind again. From then on I stopped pinching the windward edge of the channel and played it safe keeping more to center. The GPS display was essential in maintaining a course within the narrow cut while keeping sight of the channel markers in the distance. It seems that there is a delay between your real position and that displayed by the GPS, just enough that you need to account for in real tight situations.
After our slight misadventure we continued to clip along wing over wing at 5+ knots and reached our destination around 20:00/hrs for the first night just inside a series of spoil islands that provided protection from wind and waves. This long channel of approximately 13 nm extends north from Laguna Madre to Baffin Bay with fishing cabins spread throughout the area.
Most cabins were empty, others were in serious disrepair. Water depth is limited on the banks and varies with the tides. We found a dilapidated cabin with enough water depth that we could nose in and tie off on a sturdy piling. Fishing is definitely good in this area given all the splashing and commotion that continued throughout the night. A nice breeze blew all night, kept the bugs away and allowed me to sleep on deck and watch the stars in the moonless night. It was a magical display that you can’t see in the city.
The evening was peaceful, until shortly after midnight at least 15 rounds from a semiautomatic rifle were rapidly discharged somewhere south of us followed by another long volley from a smaller caliber handgun. We noticed lights at a cabin about 1/2 mile south of us and hoped they were not randomly shooting our way. All I can surmise is that liquor, boredom and a generous level of incompetence were involved.
Later that night a boat was loudly reeving it’s engine – peeking out I saw bright fishing lights and a small boat stuck on the east bank attempting to dislodge itself. This went on for 20 minutes then relative silence until this was repeated shortly after on the opposite bank. I think that once again, incompetence and alcohol were most probably involved. I only hoped that these were not the same clowns that were playing with guns earlier.
While traversing this area we did not encounter barge traffic. It was very relaxing to cruise the ‘Potrero’ area which extends from north Matagorda Bay to Baffin Bay and I would like to return and spend some more time in this area again. Low spoil islands with easy fishing and islands to explore.