Wednesday - Prep day
Joe and Steve came down with Tom midday and together they washed Andante's exterior and deck. After Pete, Paul and Mike arrived we finished loading the boat with supplies from our vehicles. Scott showed shortly thereafter . Steve & Pete made a Wal-Mart run for a few supplies we realized were needed, mainly milk & some more rolls for wrapping around the generous load of pulled pork Deb Taylor had sent down to us with Tom.

We met at Chili's for a bite, watch some of the ball game and toasted to our anticipated regatta success. While leaving Pete took Scott with him but didn't realize Steve went to the can and he drove off and left him behind. The worst part of it was that we didn't notice him gone until he walked back and showed up at Andante! Sorry Steve- Pete

Thursday- Race Start
We woke early, ready for the day we'd all been waiting for. Everything was in place for a great start... a capable vessel, beautiful weather, an anxious crew, a confident Captain and plenty of provisions. Tom has done so much improving Andante in the past year- she is just beautiful.

We ate some sweet rolls, donuts, etc. and had some coffee and launched at about 8:00am as Dew Harvey, Gary's lovely wife, waved us off and took a few photos. We slipped into line between many other boats leaving the Kemah channel and made way towards the starting line. Before we reached the start line Pete heated up that pulled pork, toasted some rolls and handed out plates with a sandwich, potato salad with macaroni and cheese he'd fixed up. Just right, just Delicious!! Full bellies will be a common occurrence on this trip. It' necessary for success, you see.

The Sea Scout's Ship, a retired Coast Guard Cutter pictured in last years' slideshow at Corpus Christie served as the officiating vessel. They had set a triangular inflatable buoy a distance away which served as the starting "gate". They marked the time and sail number as each sail crossed over and the radioed the "starting gun". The seas were calm, too calm... meaning there wasn't much wind either.

Some boats slowly pulled away from us and some fell behind. We adjusted the sails and tuned things to optimize even though the wind was sight and from the South, the wrong direction.

The remainder of the day was spent keeping the ship pointed in the right direction and catching the most wind we could. Pete got on the PC and sent some pictures to the log site he created. If you're not reading this on the site, use this shortcut to go see the site/logs/pictures and follow our adventure: http://tevlin.org/hmr.htm. We discovered that the transponder had gone off so we got it going so you can follow our progress on a map too.

For dinner we made up BBQ brisket sandwiches with baked beans with chips. We're enjoying some brownies for dessert and watched the ball game. The winds have picked up and we're moving at a good clip now, 6-7 knts, Andante is at full tilt. We'll be up all night sailing and avoiding the dark rigs. We're 6 miles from the Freefort waypoint.

Thursday Night & Friday
The bulk of the race attempt can be condensed into one word: ROUGH! It was so calm as we began the race we were wondering if it would take us a very long time to get there. Winds started picking up and kept increasing through Thursday afternoon and through the night. Unfortunately they were from the S or SSE so very unfavorable for the direction we wanted to go. We fought it all night to the point that some were getting uneasy while some others were affected worse than that. We'll leave it at that but Andante was holding strong and steady in the waves that we believe were cresting at 12 feet, maybe higher. We were rocking about, on a constant lean to the right and up and down forcefully. Some waves looked so high we thought sure we'd be pushed over and at one point even Andante came very close to the point of being "broached" - leaning over so far the sails nearly touched the water line. The deck edge was below water and we were really close to being laid over proper. Needless to say much of our gear and contents of Andante were dislodged from what we thought were secure placements and we had stuff everywhere. The table in the salon area is mounted to the floor board but the floor board itself isn't screwed down so the table was tipping over. The counter over the oven dislodged too dropping some provisions to the floor with it. Once Pete was sleeping in the front V-Berth area and a foot long piece of wood came off the shelf above and popped him in the face, causing a cut below his eye and a potential black eye. Everyone was tossed into walls or rails at some point or another.

Struggling to stay on course while the winds did their best to push us ashore resulted in another close call with the surf off the beach near Freeport by morning. We had to run the engine to get offshore and to keep on course which technically took us out of the regatta; like last year, a disappointment for all. We pulled out from that into deeper water and things were still rough as ever. The reminder of the day we pushed on through it towards Port O'Connor, where we'd decided to moor for Friday night and refresh ourselves. After just sweet rolls and granola bars for breakfast for those who could eat anything; as we pulled between the jetties south of Matagorda Bay and into the channel towards Port O'Connor, conditions were smooth enough for Pete to prepare meatball subs with either mac & cheese or potato salad for lunch. Some still passed on a meal; even though hungry they were still "weary from the waves."

We cruised down the IW and before nightfall docked at the absolutely gorgeous Sanctuary at Costa Grande, where we visited last year on the return trip. We turned off the SPOT tracking trasponder.This marina community is top notch in facilities and beauty, built from the plain marches along the intercoastal waterway (IW) just West of Port O'Connor, this welcoming placed spared no expense and while it was really new and empty last year, we understand the lots here are nearly sold out now. Showers and standing on dry land again got us all on our feet and refreshed. Pete fixed up hamburgers and Paul grilled them on the BBQ pit to be eaten with ranch beans, chips, etc. We browned some link sausage too for an appetizer. We had mayo, catsup, mustard, cheese, BBQ sauce, pickles, onions... all the fixings thanks to Kim's expert shopping selections and suggestions! We turned off the SPOT tracking trasponder.

Saturday morning we departed at 7am ready for a day of motoring down the IW towards the after-race party at the awesome Port Aransas city park and marina facility, a destination we'd prefer to have arrived at anytime yesterday. Pete fixed up breakfast tacos with hash brown patties till everyone was full. It is pretty warm and we opened the jib sail to pull us along a bit and although the sky was clear at launch; before we even got to San Antonio Bay a cloud cover came over and rained on us slightly, the jib had to be retracted because the changing wind directions had it flapping about like crazy. Were progressing towards Rockport then on to Port Aransas.


It's been a while since I updated things, sorry for the delay, it was a busy (at times) but also a lazy (at times) day Monday and took me most of the morning to catch this up. We arrived at Port Aransas just after 1pm to the welcoming waves and cheering from the "ultimate" Ladies Support Team: Deborah Taylor, Teri Daeschner, Dew Harvey, Melanie Bergstrom, Noel Rowe, Phyllis Taylor and Ella. They took pictures of the crew and we visited there for a bit before the party started at the pavilion. Francine Riley came up and she and Paul left with her to go clean up at their room. Just before the party Pete realized his camera battery was low and despite looking EVERYWHERE, he couldn't take any more pictures with his main camera. Some of the new pictures, starting HERE are from my phone's camera and some given to me by Dew Harvey from her camera. Thanks Dew!!

The pavilion party was a lot of fun with beer kegs flowing and Bacardi, the race sponsor, pouring drinks for all. Everyone enjoyed each other's company, the live music, the delicious and plentiful Mikeska's BBQ meal with pie for dessert and rubbing elbows with the other racers. The awards ceremonies were lively and we regret again not being a 1st place recipient this year. The awards cermony was also very long too. There were so many boats in competition this year and they cut off the complimentary drinks when it started. After the party we went to the Back Porch bar for a while and visited/celebrated then returned to the Andante and made up some brisket sandwiches for everyone who came back with us.

On Sunday morning Pete made up breakfast tacos and hash brown patties for ourselves and Joe & Rene and Steve & Teri who made their way back to Andante and Ross & E.J. came for breakfast too. Paul and Francine came back by for just a bit. We helped Ross get his boat moved and settled into another dock. We visited a bit and Pete & Gary made a run into town for some provisions and ice. Pete picked up some shrimp from the PollyAnna shrimp boat that sells it fresh at the Port Aransas marina. On our return we ended our goodbyes and prepared for launch. Because of Andante's direction in the slip, the direction of a brisk wind and the close proximity of the rocks jetty to our rear, we moved Andante to the other side of the slip and with Ross's dingy up aginst and ready to press our rear side flank in case of drift... We released the ropes and the front swung around, but not quite as much as was expected so it was tight for a moment as Captain Tom and Ross manuevered us out the channel. We were off on our return trip to Kemah! It worked out that Steve could stay aboard with Pete & Tom for the return trip with as everyone else rode back towards Houston with our awesome Ladies Support Team! We left Port Aransas around noon and our destination was to reach Rockport's Key Allegro harbor by nightfall. We did that handily on a day where the winds were fairly strong and we used the sail to assist the motor with moving us along the ICW. For lunch we fixed up meatball sandwiches and mac & cheese. Winds were strong entering the channel there and when we approached the harbor we found a great docking spot along their main dock but to park there meant we had to point our bow towards the dock and turn around by bringing the rear around rather quickly as if to swing into the dock. Again Tom defty manuvered us gently up against the dock and a helpful guy named R.J. secured our line and welcomed us to the Key Allegro. R.J. was an interesting young guy who it turned out had a good bit of sailing experience. He is about to enter the service; "the Navy seals," he said.


Between straightening up Andante on deck and exploring the place a bit we peeled the shrimp for dinner, skewered it and fired up the bbq pit. It cooked up pretty fast with lemon squeezes, some Tony Chachere's spices and tasted great with a side of garlic and herb rice and some bread. We explored the harbor some more and found the pool was locked, darn it, but the Paradise Key nightclub there was open and that there was a live act performing. That's what that music was we heard and wondered about at dinner while the sun was setting.

We went to Paradise Key club after cleaning up dinner and found a dressy, fanciful tropical resaturaunt and club area. This place looked fun and it was also fancy, or sophisticated may be a better term, but for all the nice plants and easy, open layout, all this was secondary once we focused on the music act that was just restarting after having taken a break.

They were a trio music act with one tall gentleman playing what looked like two keyboards on a rack with a couple of cymbals but it soon became obvious that one of the two devices contained the ability to produce and syncronize the sounds of seemingly any other instument. Soon the room was completely filled with sounds as if a full band were present. The two others, a guy and gal, were vocalists, and only played a tamborine or morracas. Anyway, combined with a very comtemporary set of lights and clear amplification, these three entertained for over an hour with a jazzy and bluesy mix of familiar songs, everyone almost pitch perfect with the original artist. We, and others who jumped on the open floor dance area really were taken by their talent and we enjoyed their music act with a couple of beers keeping an eye on the Sunday night game, Vikings vs. Packers, all the while. The Packers beat 'em 28-24. Later, back aboard Andante we made some popcorn and flipped through the few channels available in Rockport Texas. but it was getting late.

On Monday morning Pete made up breakfast tacos and hash brown patties again- -Are you sensing a theme here? We left Key Allegro around 9am and as we moved our of the marina and into the ICW lane the strong winds we had been protected from began at full 20+ mph force again. They continued most of the day, actually and we "powersailed " along towards home steadily with a few minor diversions to avoid other barges and sailboats. Our landing point this night was the huge and extremly rugged and well built marina called Matagorda Harbor . It was very big place wnd they let us tie up at the end of dock "D". It was dark by the time we were secured. Their showers were clean too, bonus! Actually all of the places we've stopped have had top notch facilities. We cooked up burgers and beans with chips for dinner and watched a movie as the docks area was desolate and their bar/club closed at 9. Tom transferred a bunch of fuel around between tanks on Andante to balance the loads.

Tuesday we began our movement north about 10am and soon we were heading upstream on the ICW headed towards our Galveston goal . There are a lot of tugs/barges along here and much traffic.




History: Harvest Moon Regatta 2008 picture set - 2nd place
  Harvest Moon Regatta 2009 picture set  - technically we did not finish, but we got to Port Aransas in time for the party!
See a great video of Andante under sail!
Skipper: Tom Taylor 
Sail Number: 292

 

Main Race Website: http://www.harvestmoonregatta.com/ Map Boat Tracker site: http://www.trackleaders.com/harvest Map Boat Tracker site (Andante specific): http://www.trackleaders.com/harvesti.php?name=Andante

Tevlin Links