Lake – Page 15 – Sheila365

Lake day.

We took friends out for a sail today. Chris was visiting Irene for the weekend, and after a lovely breakfast in Central Austin we headed to the marina. Irene took the helm for most of the sail and did great. The winds were light so we were able to set up the cockpit table with nibblies for the voyage while we were underway.

Lori and Dave came out, too, on Camelot. And we crossed paths with Wally and Kurt on Zen on our way back.

The day was overcast, and a front was on its way, but it was a really nice day on the lake.

Back at the marina we saw a bunch of our slip neighbors. Wally, Kurt, Lori and Dave joined us for a cocktail. Then we packed it up before the front dropped in.

Our resident ducks stopped by to say hello. They’re all grown up now.

The reason for the season.

Cross on Graveyard Point on Lake Travis.

We went for another sail yesterday. It was a beautiful, mild day. I took this shot as we were leaving our marina’s cove. It’s a giant cross out in the middle of nowhere on Graveyard Point. It’s at least 15′ tall and made out of steel beams that appeared out of the blue one day a year or two ago. No small feat for whoever put it up overnight. The guys at the marina like to refer to it as the “immaculate erection.” heh heh.

Anyway, it’s hard for me to sail past it without thinking of Him. I thought it was appropriate to post this pic today, on Christmas Eve. A reminder of what it’s supposed to be about.

Have a Merry Christmas with the ones you love!!

1224121 — Oh. And the OTHER reason for the season 😀

Still here!

Rumors of the end of the world have been greatly exaggerated. We headed out today with a boatfull of friends, Al, Tina, AJ and Ireni. Lori went out as well with Doray, Laura and Ann. A good time was had by all. AJ took the helm and took us up and down the lake in mighty strong breezes. He’s a natural.

We are blessed with great and fun friends. What a great day spent with them!

A wee sailboat.

One of the most well-padded packages I’ve ever received arrived today, containing a lovely gift from friends Teri & Jim… a hand-made sailboat ornament. L.O.V.E. I.T.! 🙂

Here’s to friends, family and fun. Embrace them all, every day!

Sailing away.

We went for a sail today, the winds were 10-15 knots. A nice sail up towards Lakeway, and then down to Arky South, where we dropped a hook and ate turkey sandwiches. Then back to the marina before sunset. Julie and Joel joined us. A very nice day. I wonder why they call this Black Friday?! 🙂

Not up the river.

Usually every November a large contingent of sailors head up-river for a multi-day raft-up…aka an Up-the-river cruise. This weekend the winds were so light, noone was interested in motoring for 6 hours to get up river. So, plans changed. Instead, we rafted up in a cove about 5 miles from our marina. It was a really lovely night, though. Temps got down into the 40’s but we were toasty down below. We baked pizza in the oven on Nirvana, and it turned out quite tasty.

We had 6 boats stay overnight. This shot was taken this morning by Robert from the dinghy, after Eric and Micheline left on Karma. We’re on the left on Nirvana, then Rory & Greg on Sapphire, Robert on Voodoo, Tony & Sharon (and Aussie) on Wind Thief, and Gray & Debbie on Sacre Bleu. This morning the winds finally picked up. We had a really nice sail back to our cove.

It’s Sunday, and I have 7 more days of vacation!!!

Day is done.

Just another B-dock sunset.

Night lights.

We raced the beer can today. Correction – not really raced. Mostly crept along at 2-4 knots. The wind was supposed to be out of the north 10-15 today, but it sure was not.

That’s ok though, we had a nice visit with Joe, who joined us on Nirvana. Robert and Tony (owns a 323 Beneteau on A-dock) won on Voodoo. Ken and Jay came in second on Spike. Kurt, Wally & Kevin came in 3rd. We came in 4th. Followed by the Wiz on Allegro.

It was nice out, really. A little chilly, but at one point I was in a t-shirt, working the lines.

Afterwards, we sat on Voodoo and chatted til after sunset. After climbing the hill back up to the parking lot we noticed the hot air balloons over at Lakeway City Park’s Great Goblin Glow Halloween festival. We’ve seen them from the marina the last few years. I can never get a good shot of them, though.

Oh well, pretty in person.

Scones on a boat.

I’ve mastered the gas oven on the boat. This morning I fired it up and baked blueberry scones for breakfast. We are definitely not roughing it with fresh baked scones and jam. 🙂

(Disclaimer, I’m not a complete Betty-Crocker, though, I use Sticky Fingers scone mix. Just add water. Delicious!)

Made it to the cove by sunset.

We raced the beer can today. This time Mark joined us on Nirvana. Wally & Joe sailed on Soul Healer, so we had another 320 to match up against. Lori & Doray sailed on Camelot, and Kurt & Kevin on Dancer. The winds were strong out of the south, which made for a fun sail. We didn’t come in last! Though, we very well could have if it weren’t for Camelot accidentally dropping the main on the last leg (argh!)

Afterwards, we dropped Mark off on E-dock and headed right back out to anchor up in Arky south for the night. We made it in time to admire another sunset in our favorite cove. Lovely.

Wally joined us after dinner on Zen, tying up to us for the night, and we chuckled our way through the evening.

Taking the day off.

My sister leaves tomorrow, so I took the afternoon off to play hooky with her. We started off buying beads at a bead shop to get supplies for making jewelry thingies. No pics of that – a project for another day. Then we headed to Zilker Park for a hike on the Barton Creek Greenbelt Trail. It was really lovely out. High 70’s and sunny. Perfect for a hike. The creek is mostly dry. We did see lots of flowers, butterflies and dragonflies.

The orange butterfly in the shot below stopped to let me take several shots.

1008125 — Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae).

Later on down the trail this swallowtail stopped to let me do the same thing.

1008126 — Eastern tiger swallowtail (papilio glaucus?).

I found a pretty good butterfly guide website to try to identify them. You might want to bookmark for future reference.

After the hike we stopped by Barton Springs Pool. Such a pretty place. The pool was beautifully clear.

Then we ran over to Sno-Beach for a must-have best-snocone-ever experience. You’d better hurry, they close at the end of October for the winter. Go out and get one!

Then. Back to Zilker to rent a kayak and tootle around Town Lake (ok, sorry “Lady Bird Lake.” old habits die hard). We paddled all the way to the South 1st Street bridge. On our paddle back we passed 3 UT Women’s Crew boats training.

The Austin City Limits Music Festival takes place this weekend. It’s a 3 day music extravaganza hosted in Zilker Park. Everything is setup and just about ready for the throngs of festival-goers. I took the opportunity to take a quick shot of the festival entrance, so I wouldn’t have to come down here with 75,000 of my closest friends to get the shot this weekend.

What a great Austin afternoon!

Joie de vivre.

Even though the chill of Fall is in the air, we, of course, headed to the lake. We raced in the beer can today. We had a great turnout: Wally & Joe on Zen, Kurt & Kevin on Dancer, Lori & Doray on Camelot, Dave and Wiz on MisGuided, and the 4 of us on Nirvana. We got off the start line a minute and a half late (need to work on that). Monte and I, the racing novices that we are, debated re: tactics as we sailed the course (need to work on that, too). 🙂 We didn’t win, place or show, but had fun.

Afterwards we anchored up in Arky South in our usual spot for the night.

My sister is visiting for a week. She took her turn on the winches and at the wheel. Another natural mariner 🙂 Julie joined us, too.

I enjoy it very much when family comes to visit, and when we hit the road to visit family as well. We both come from big families but don’t live close to them. My thoughts are especially on the importance of spending time with family, as I learned that my cousin died unexpectedly and tragically from a pulmonary embolism this week – a complication from relatively routine back surgery a few days before. So sad. So sobering. He had just turned 48 a few weeks back, in the prime of his life, raised a wonderful family, and was an active and accomplished Air Force colonel, getting ready to chart the next phase of his life’s course. I had a chance to visit with him in Seattle last summer. So glad I did.

Hanging around.

I cast my fishing pole several times. But this is the closest i got to a bite today.

To the lake.

To celebrate the first day of Fall, we spent the night on the lake 🙂 Well, we’d do that any night, but it does happen to be the first day of Fall. There were no winds to speak of. Plus, our main is at Bartlett’s Sail Shop getting a new luff tape.

We set anchor in Arky south, where there are, apparently, several billion gnats that have just hatched. Most of which were trying to find a place to spend the night on our boat. It’s usually not buggy out on the lake. Must be because of the recent rains.

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