We headed to the lake today. A lovely sail and then anchored out with Kurt & Kevin on Dancer.
Sunset:
Dessert (pie, get it?):
Tag: Lake Travis
Sun sail.
We headed to the lake Saturday for a sail and to anchor out overnight with Camelot. It was a gorgeous day! Winds 10-15. High in the low 70s.
After a lovely sail past Starnes Island and back, Camelot radioed that their engine would not start. Roh roh. Change of plans. We sailed back to the marina ahead of them. The winds were much lighter now and straight out of the cove, which made it possible for Camelot to sail slowly up to a side tie on the end of the far dock – where they could then just loose the sheets. We met them at the end of the dock to push them off and grab their dock lines. Exciting, but well planned and executed. Camelot will remain there to get worked on next week.
We ended up just spending the night in the slip. But a very lovely night it was.
Land lubbin’.
This weekend has been a glorious January one for the books. Yesterday we kind of got rat-holed by what should have been a 30 minute project at the house, but it ended up consuming the day.
Today, however, i was determined to get outside. The level of Lake Travis continues to remain woefully low at 624′ above mean sea level. Happily, though, the rain from last week raised the level about 9 inches. We just have another 684 inches to go before the lake is full!
One of the features of the land that surrounded the original river that the drought has uncovered is the piece of land referred to by locals as “Sometimes Islands.” When the lake basin is flooded, the peaks of this piece of land sometimes stick up; sometimes they are covered by water. Well, for the last 3 or 4 years, Sometimes Islands has become For-the-Foreseeable-Future Peninsula.
We set out today to walk the length of the peninsula. So we packed a few snacks for lunch, brought our GPSes, and tossed my Christmas present from Monte – a metal detector – in the trunk for its maiden voyage.
We stopped briefly at the historic site for the original Anderson Mill – the mill that operated near Cypress Creek in the 1800s – a NW Austin neighborhood and road still bear its name. They have a museum here as well, but it is only open for a few hours on the 4th Sunday of every month between March and October. We’ll have to come back for the tour.
Then we headed for Mansfield Dam Park and started our trek.
This is the old highway that used to cross over the top of the dam. It is closed to ordinary folks these days, and Highway 620 is the throroughfare now. I’d love to get a chance to stroll across the old road now, though.
I walked the length of the peninsula – about 2.5 miles out from the park – and found all the geocaches that didn’t require scuba gear. Monte marked a couple of points on his GPS that will hopefully be boating hazards and/or navigable cuts once again at some time in the future. This was the view from the park looking out over Sometimes Islands…the structure on the top of the hill in the center of the picture is the Oasis.
We also tried out the metal detector for the first time. And I have to say: “Pretty nice!” We were able to detect and reliably find nearly every piece of metal (aluminum, lead, iron, steel, …) that it sounded on, even if we had to dig 6″ or more to get to it. I’m looking forward to bringing it along on some of our cove-explorations when the weather gets warmer. No treasure this time. But it was fun.
I go back to work a week from tomorrow. This weekend was a nice adventure. I’m hoping to squeeze in few more next week.
How sweet it is.
It’s a beautiful Saturday. Temps in the high 60s for a change. We are anchoring out in our cove.
We have the place to ourselves.
Tutti a tavola e mangiare!
And for dessert: HOT BUTTERED RUM!
Cheers!
We tried Emeril’s recipe and it was just right!
We’re back!
After getting Nirvana 2 years ago, we had to move to E-dock. Last week a slip finally opened up on our beloved B-dock. So, of course we said, “Yes, we’ll take it!”
So today we headed out to the marina on a cool, drizzly day and moved our boat, dock box, and kayak to the new slip.
We celebrated with frosty beverages and (best ever) hot dogs with Kurt.
It’s good to be back!
I kind of zoned out there.
My posts for the last few months have been a tad infrequent. And it’s been two weeks since I last posted. I think I have just been decompressing. I have had a great summer – spending time with family, and then coming back to Austin for a couple of downtime weeks to play with Monte. Somewhere, in there, the summer has nearly slipped by. That’s ok, though. Onward!
Yesterday Sue & Marty joined us on the boat for a windless day on the lake. We headed directly for our cove, set anchor, jumped in and floated until just before sunset. A great day! Here is a shot of the blinding sun on its way to the horizon. 
Another Arky sunset.
I never tire of the sunsets in this cove on Lake Travis.
Three day weekend!
We celebrated the long 4th of July weekend on the lake. On Friday, Julie joined us for the day for a sail and a float in Arky South. Kalliopi tied up to us for the afternoon. And we whipped up an All-American grill-ful of burgers and dogs for dinner.
We took Julie back to the marina at sunset.
We had a nice view of a nearby fireworks show from the bow.
Saturday morning we took care of some chores on the boat before setting off for a long sail, ending up with anchoring off Starne’s Island to watch the Volente (day-after) 4th of July fireworks show. Voodoo, Sapphire, Dancer and Karma also showed up and we anchored nearby eachother.
The lights in this shot show the great many boats that turned out for the show. And the dark hump in the middle of the shot is Starne’s Island, from where the fireworks would be shot off.
We had a great spot!
After the show, nearly all the other boats left, and the water calmed down enough to stay overnight. Sunday morning, before we left, I kayaked from the boat to Starne’s Island to hunt for a lone geocache hidden there.
This tree on the island is home to 4 giant blue heron nests. None of them were home during my visit.
We made it back to the slip Sunday afternoon and wrapped things up.
Another great 3 day weekend spent on the lake!
Life lessons.
We went for a sail today on Lake Travis. It is almost the end of June and temps haven’t hit 100 yet (!*!*!) Lori and Doray went out on Camelot, we sailed along on Nirvana. We had a great day, with steady winds around 20 knots past Anderson Bend. We coasted back and made it to our marina’s cove about 5 o’clock. But at that point, Camelot radioed in that they couldn’t get the main down.
Ruh. Roh.
We sat a spell, and then talked them over to side tie on one of the far docks at the marina, which allowed them to come in pointed windward. We tied them off and then hoisted Doray to the top of the mast to loose the main. She wasn’t able to free the halyard, but we secured it below with a tether line that she attached and then got her and the mainsail safely back on deck.
Just another day on B-dock. 🙂
Fair winds, friends…
A look through the window, on my way home.
I’m headed home today, after a nice, long visit in the Pacific Northwest. I’ll share a few of the sights I took in along the way…
Roadsters on the way to the airport:
On the plane I chose a starboard window seat, expecting the normal fly by with Mount Rainier on my right. It turns out we flew south of Mount Rainier, so instead I had a view of its neighboring Cascade peaks Mount Adams (in the foreground) and Mount Hood (beyond and to the left).
The Columbia River gorge, with the Miller Island to the left, where the Deschutes River joins the Columbia, and beyond it, the Dalles, and then Mt Hood in the distance.
It rained a bit while I’ve been gone, and I could see the 630.5′ high Lake Travis through the steamy haze.
We flew over my neighborhood, and I got a shot of our house! Funny.
And Big Blue’s Austin offices… quickly being swallowed up by the Domain and other new development. Looks like noone works weekends anymore.
Home sweet home.
Spaaaaaaah-ed.
Today was spa day!!! An annual indulgence with girlfriends for the last 15 years or so. I’ve been staring at this one on the calendar with anticipation for a while.
How can you not relax at a place like this? The Lake Austin Spa Resort is a beautiful retreat, if only for that one or two days a year.
And I couldn’t resist trying a panorama shot:
Afterwards I joined monte at the marina to anchor overnight in our favorite cove.
A good day!
Last winter Saturday sunset.
It’s been a long time since my last post here. Too long.
Today we headed to the lake with Julie and Zach. We sailed up river and after a while headed backdown to Arky. We even saw blue skies. We watched the full moon rise through clearing skies. We played rummikub and grilled up some delicious steaks and then played iPod wars till the night wore on.
Summer soon come!
February lake day.
We headed to the lake today – a beautiful sunny winter day. Chris was visiting from Florida. Ireni and Laura joined us. A great day! This was the sunset from the marina at the end of the day.
Sunday funday.
Sandwiched between the snowpocolypse of last week and another cold front due in tomorrow night was a beautiful day with temps in the 70s and winds blowing in the 20s. We headed to the lake and Lori and Dave joined us. We sailed up and down the lake for about 4 hours and enjoyed being out in it.
Good crew!
Sheila365 