Our nephew Jake is visiting for a week or so. We had pizza night last night and today we headed to the lake. Of course.
Jane and Jeff joined us on Destiny. It was a beautiful day. After last week’s rain a straggler shower or two dodged around on the horizon.
We didn’t get rain but were treated to this rainbow from arky south.
We spent a second night on the lake last night. Nick and family had peeled off, so we had the anchor to ourselves. Today I paddled around the cove again. I went all the way up to where Arky cove ends. This is as far as I can go. As much as we still enjoy the lake immensely, in spite of the low lake levels, it’s hard to imagine that just a few years ago we would be able to sail up in here and beyond, to anchor, with about 40 or 50 more feet of water above where my head is. The lake is at its lowest in 50 years, right now: 625.5 feet above sea level, as we speak. Very sad. The lake is dropping as rapidly or more rapidly than it ever has during the summer… a foot or more this week, already. I don’t know what to say at this point other than this really sucks.
Pray for rain.
Hola! Happy Cinco de Mayo. Before I forget, I want to post this shot that I took yesterday. I took it with my waterproof camera from the kayak, so I wasn’t able to upload it until today. This is Nirvana and Sapphire at anchor. Pretty boats.
Today I paddled completely around Arky South cove. I enjoy paddling. But I like, even more, cruising along the shore for found objects. Today’s haul: 4 plastic bobbers, 1 popper jig, 1 croppie tube jig, and 2 nice docklines with spliced loops.
Then we pulled up the anchor and sailed for several hours. We sailed along with Kalliopi (with Nick and his kids on-board) for a while. Then we turned around and caught a glimpse of Lori, Joe, Wally and Kelly on Camelot, with her newly raised 150 whomper jib. I think Lori’s getting serious now, ever since Nirvana beat Camelot in a beer can a couple weeks ago. 🙂
On the way home, we saw this guy riding along 620. Amazing. It appears to be direct drive, no evidence of a chain. And, I have no idea how he stops / dismounts this thing – that front tire is about 5′ in diameter.
And, now back home, we are celebrating Cinco de Mayo with Julie. Salud!
We have another niece visiting us this week. Rachel and Monte went out to the lake and sailed for a few hours. Then Julie and I joined them about 4 o’clock. We sailed around for a couple more hours. Then got a great table at the Oasis. And surprisingly enjoyed the appies that we ordered. The view of sunset was awesome, as usual. Very, very nice!
We anchored in Arky south last night. It was chilly, in the 40s, so we hunkered below. This morning we lounged around until the wind filled in, then went for a sail. We beat upwind all the way to Bee Creek. We dropped sail and motored up the creek until it got too shallow. The big wide basin where we’ve rafted up in the past is just a twisty creek now. 20′ deep where we turned around.
On the way out of the cove we turned the motor off and ate lunch as the wind nudged us back out to the lake.
Another lovely day on Nirvana.
On the sail home this row of birdhouses high on a ridge caught my eye. What a great spot for a birds eye view.
We made it to the lake today in time to race the Beercan. We got a late start, and crossed the starting line about 2 minutes late. But we caught up with the field. In time to come in third out of five!! Woot woot!
We headed to arky and put out an anchor and are waiting for the riff-raff to show up.
Lovely sunset.
We were successful tonight! The comet is definitely not as bright as it must have been just a few days ago. I have seen some really clear pictures of it taken from Austin. But, now that it is a bit higher in the sky, it sets later and so it may be easier to make out after the sun has set. But it is definitely faint. We drove out to Iguana Grill as the sun was setting. I think we spotted it around 8:25pm, or about 50 minutes after sunset. I was not able to see it with my naked eye. We brought binoculars, and I was able to see it pretty clearly through those. I used a 3-5 second exposure on my camera and was able to catch it faintly. Can you see it to the left of the waxing cresent moon?
My first comet shot!
Since the water is too cold, noone will be taking the usual photo-from-a-distance of the boats on the raftup. This one from the cockpit will have to serve. Port to starboard: Zen, Nirvana & Sapphire.
Monte, Julie and I hit the lake today. It was a nice day, no wind to speak of, but sunny – temps in the low 70s. We motored to Arky South, anchored and played rummy for a bit.
Dinner at Chuy’s.
A new Downton Abbey episode tonight.
Good day, indeed.
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.
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!!
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!
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?! 🙂
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!!!
Sheila365 