Today a solar eclipse occurred right as the sun was setting. Farther west in the US, the entire eclipse would be visible. But, in Austin it started about 45 minutes before sunset, and by the time the sun was to set, it would only be about 50% eclipsed.
A few weeks ago, monte ordered #14 welder’s glass so that we could view it safely. We scoped out a high enough perch that would allow us to see the sun for the longest time before it slipped below the horizon.
We decided on the Iguana Grill above Lake Travis. The view was pretty great. A bunch of friends joined us to watch it occur. This is a shot right before the it slipped away.
We headed to the lake yesterday to raft-up overnight in Arkansas Bend cove with Marty & Sue, and Joe. It was really pleasant out. Overcast yesterday, but nice breezes. This is a shot from yesterday of the windsocks on Joe’s backstay on Prelude. It got into the 60’s last night. Refreshingly chilly. It will be hot again soon enough.
We made quite the fleet. 2 sloops, 1 catboat, 2 kayaks, a rubber dinghy and a stand-up paddle board.
Today, we kayaked and sup-ed around the cove, and then headed back early in the afternoon to prepare for Monday. Today was much sunnier, blue skies with big clouds, and a nice breeze for the sail home.
We had planned to raft up last night, but as it turned out, we didn’t make it to the lake. It ended up raining overnight, so it’s just as well that we weren’t out there. Today we went to the marina to bring home the kayak and close up the boat. It was nice to back on the lake. It’s been a while, for me. The temps were in the 90’s. The water temps are in the high 70’s. Tis the season for B-dockers to hang out on the lake every weekend.
We saw Joe, Mike, Marty, Sue, Jerry and Wally. Sue has her stand-up paddle board in their slip. So, she and I paddled up and down the dock for quite a while. Along the way we saw lots of the neighborhood ducks. The mom and babies in the shot above were not too leary of the kayak – we were able to get pretty close. Though, I’m told that last week, this momma duck had seven babies, not six.
The shot below shows some of the ducks that have become quite accustomed to handouts from B-dock. You can see one of the big carp under the surface of the water on the right side of the frame.
Back at the marina, today, we saw Pam & Mark and visited with them for a little while, then packed up and schlepped our stuff back up to the car. We popped into Shades for lunch. They are finally open for the season, and this was our first time in this year.
Ok, back home now and getting ready for Monday. *sigh*
But what a fun weekend!
It’s hard to believe the lake was once at about 701′ (about 62′ higher than it is now!). But just to jog memories… here’s a pic from the July 6th flood of 2007… the old Aunt Tilly’s sitting in the same spot as Shades.
Yacht Harbor Marina - July 2007. Lake level @ 701.
Now you know why the new restaurant has its kitchen, bathroom and office in trailers that can be driven away before the next deluge.
It’s that time of the year. This weekend was the first raft-up of 2012. And it was a doozie! We had 14 boats, 31 people and 2 dogs. I don’t have a picture of all the boats, but I took this one of 12 of them as we were coming in to tie up, and Joe arrived later.
It took quite a while to walk from one end to the other. Some of the boats’ lifelines couldn’t open, so it was a gymnastic feat crossing from boat to boat …with one hand free 🙂
Let me see if I can do roll call….left to right, we had Mark & Sarah on Serenade, Gray & Debbie on the blue hulled First, Bartlett’s parents’ Catalina, John & Claudia & 2 others on the brand new Solace, Tasha & Robert and Tony & Michelle (visiting for the weekend!) on Voodoo, Danny & Casey on the Beneteau 31, Rory & Greg on Sapphire, Camden & Terry on MoonRock, Kurt, Wally & Kevin on Dancer, John & Deanna on Caribbean Run, Mike on Allegro, Lori & Dave on Camelot, Monte & me on Cupholder, and last but not least, Joe on Prelude. Whew!
As much fun as these are, we did have a rare, bad experience on our way to the cove. Some <expletive> motorhead nearly crashed into us as we were under sail. Coming within about 5 feet of us, and going about 30 miles an hour. As they passed, they turned their boat, pushing up a wall of water that dumped into our cockpit, drenching both of us, and pouring water into the cabin, v-berth and lockers below.
Monte immediately got on the cell phone and called LCRA dispatch, gave them a description of the boat and their heading and … they pulled them over. Goobers. It could have been very bad. I guess it’s good that we only got wet.
Anyway, we didn’t let that spoil our evening.
In true B-dock fashion, the party went on into the wee hours. A good time was had by all.
It’s truly wonderful to have this bunch of people to play with. Everyone really enjoys being out on the lake together. We are very lucky.
First day of spring! It rained buckets overnight. The front passed through here about 1:30AM this morning. It dumped a ton of rain in the Hill Country, so the lakes are on the rise! As of right now, Lake Travis has risen 4′ since this time yesterday (@ 636.7′), and is expected to rise another couple of feet, as they have the flood gates open on Lake LBJ and Lake Marble Falls, to let their overflow pass through.
After work tonight I took a walk out back to see what I could see. One of the birdbaths caught my eye. The water was so calm, like glass. There were leaves in the bottom of it, but I didn’t want to disturb the surface of the water, so I just took it as is. I like how the cedar elm tree above it is reflected in the surface.
The shot above is after I changed it to black & white. The original is below. I like the B&W better. It seems to show much more detail of the reflection. How about you?
One of my favorite artists is Mary Doerr. You can browse her extensive collection of prints either in person or online at Images of Austin gallery. The image below is a link from her online gallery of the print entitled Lake Travis. Monte gave me this print as a gift several years ago. The vantage point of the view in her print is above the lake overlooking Marshall Ford Marina and the basin. Across the way you can see Windy Point, the land on the left fading into the distance is Hudson Bend. There are no signs of Sometimes Islands in her print (which only start to show when the lake drops below about 658′), as she has captured the basin as we love to see it — full.
Mary Doerr's capture of Lake Travis.
Below is a shot from a similar vantage point taken today with the lake at 626 feet. Sad to see. Let’s hope for LOTS of rain in 2012.
View of Lake Travis basin from St. Luke's.
But, even with our lake low and dropping, we can’t stay away. So, after our stop to look at the lake, we continued on to our marina. I joined Lori, Laura, Ann and Ireni for a ladies’ sail on Camelot. Monte and Joe went out on Cupholder to find some fish. It was a beautiful day, as you can see in the picture. Light northerly breezes made for a nice sail.
Today is Friday, New Year’s Eve’s Eve. Just 3 more days left of what’s been a great vacation from work. Here’s to not taking anything for granted. Cheers!
This afternoon, though it was very chilly, we headed to the lake for some fishing. We picked up Joe, Kurt and Wally and motored over to the docks across the lake. Wally caught the first bass, and Monte caught 2 more.
We headed back to the marina as the sun was slipping away. I love the light at this time of day on the lake. It is the golden hour. The shot above is of monte’s 2nd fish, lit up by the golden sunset.
The shot below is of the sun as it was setting.
Sunset.
The shot below is from the cockpit of the catboat, after the sun has set. I love the colors of the sky at dusk.
Dusk.
And this last shot is of the crescent moon, with Venus to its left, as viewed from B-Dock, through the Christmas lights on Allegro’s rigging, as we were heading for home.
Joe suggested a cruise down the lake to see the Dam. It’s rare to see the basin when the lake is so low – at 627.85′ today. It’s really not a basin anymore. Sometimes Islands are all the way out of the water, and connected to land, so, islands no more. The original river channel winds all the way around them. Windy Point looks more like Windy Acres. And many of the marinas have scooted out to what would normally be the middle of the lake, but is now the edge of the shore.
Monte and I joined Ken and Joe on Prelude for a sail. It was a beautiful day. We had nice breezes on the way down. The closest mile marker to our marina is mile marker 14, and the Mansfield Dam is at, well, mile marker 0. So, round trip was close to about 30 miles.
As we passed the Austin Yacht Club we got to see several of their regattas underway. The shot above is of some of the University of Texas Sailing Team’s Flying Juniors fleet. The 2012 Nationals will be in Austin. So they’re working hard to get ready. Good luck Longhorns!
Here’s a sight we don’t see very often…
MM 1.
And, finally, we snugged up as close as we could to Mansfield Dam. They have a string of bouys in front to keep people from getting too close – which foiled my plan to get a shot of myself touching the dam.
Upstream side of Mansfield Dam.
Construction of the Mansfield Dam (originally called Marshall Ford Dam) began in 1937 and was completed in 1941. Mansfield Dam and Lake Travis are the only structures in the Highland Lakes chain specifically designed to contain floodwaters in the lower Colorado River basin. The lake can store as much as 260 billion gallons of water. Some other factoids from the Lower Colorado River Authority website:
Elevation when full: 681 feet above mean sea level (msl) Volume when full: 1,135,000 acre-feet Historic high: 710.4 feet above msl on Dec. 25, 1991 Historic low: 614.2 feet above msl on Aug. 14, 1951 Normal operating range: at or below 681 feet above msl Spillway elevation: 714 feet above msl Top of dam: 750 feet above msl
The floodgates are at the bottom of the dam and are used to generate electricity and for flood control. The spillway openings are on the right end of the dam in the picture above. Water will start to spill over them at 714′, but it’s never happened… yet. The highest I have seen the lake was 701.5′, which was over the July 4th weekend of 2007. Hard to believe there was ever that much water in the lake.
We had a really lovely sail. A nice Sunday adventure.
We spent the night in Arky South cove. We enjoyed more laughs, music and good company last night. Mike and Kathy joined us on Soul Healer yesterday for a few hours, and Lori, Dave and Jake joined us this afternoon on Camelot.
Shortly after we woke up this morning, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise, coming up right behind the Commander’s Point lighthouse (well, water tower really). A lovely sight.
Then, later in the morning a funky fog bank sunk over the lake for a while, but shortly lifted for a beautiful, sunny day.
Where did that lovely sun go?
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention… we have christened this and any future such auspicious gathering a Riff-Rafft-up. For obvious reasons 🙂 In attendance this weekend were Wally & Kurt on Dancer, Joe on Prelude, Monte & Sheila on Cupholder, and Marty & Sue (and Koko) on Caribbean Hug.
We have another full-moon raftup this weekend, the Full-Hunter’s Moon. It’s been several months since we rafted up on the lake, the last few have been marina-based “slip-ups.”
I have been wanting to make Jello Shots for some reason. Kind of a fun treat for the lake, if I can just figure out how to get them there in tact. I have been looking around for little 2 ounce plastic cups with lids, and couldn’t find them in grocery stores. A few weeks ago we stopped by a restaurant supply company and found them – in bulk 🙂
So, this morning I googled conventional web-wisdom on jello shots and came up with the following:
Jello Shots
1 3-oz package of Jello 8 oz boiling water 2 oz cold water 6 oz rum or vodka or whatever
Pour the Jello powder in the boiling water, stir for a minute or two. Then pour in the cold water & booze and stir. Fill cups and refrigerate til set. 1 package ended up making about 12 of these 2 oz sized cups for me. Note that if you put in more or higher octane alcohol, then you run the risk of them not setting properly. With the mixture I used, the cups set fine in about 4 hours in the fridge.
I popped on the lids, and put in the ice chest for the lake, and they made it just fine.
We’re back home. We had a nice time in the Pacific NW, but it’s nice to be home again. We flew in over Lake Travis and got these pics. The lake is at 629.07′ today, according to LCRA. We are lower now than we were in 2009, and only about 15′ more to go to hit the all time low. The shot above is of Hurst Cove and our marina. You can see the docks all stacked up. The marina sent a notice saying they’ll be moving some of the docks out to the middle of the cove. Not much water left in there.
This is a shot of Arkansas Bend. Arky North and South are slowly disappearing.
Arkansas Bend.
Below is a shot of Cow Creek. It’s hard to believe we were up in there for the March birthday raftup.
We spent this day, the 10 year anniversary of the bombing of the World Trade Center, together with fellow B-dockers at the marina. We were all mindful of what day it was, but really enjoyed spending time away from the painful reminders and just enjoyed talking, fishing, floating and trading stories with friends.
The lake is at 632 and change – 3 feet from the low of 2 years ago, which will surely be surpassed. It’s sad to see the pasture out back that Hurst Cove south has become. This (poorly stitched together) panorama shows the view off the back of the marina looking towards Lakeway Park. Across the way you can see Hurst Harbor Marina (on land). All their boats have been moved across the lake long ago. Also missing is Johnny Finn’s floating restaurant that has been moved again to the mouth of the cove.
The shot below is Sail & Ski marina on the other side of the marina, looking out towards the main body of the lake. All the docks have been stacked to make 3 long docks. Johnny Finn’s is in the distance, right in the mouth of the cove. On the far right you can see the private docks stacked up on land in the dry finger of the cove.
Woooo-weee what a party! Well, we will NOT be doing that every weekend!
After the beer can race yesterday everyone jumped in the water and stayed there for quite a while – me, monte, joe, kurt, wally, lori, dave, marty, sue, wiz, david (new guy on b-dock w/ Misguided), robert, and his friends who own Hakuna Matata on a-dock). After last weekend’s very wake-y raftup spot in Cypress Creek, this weekend we’ve planned to have a party on B-dock and just sleep on our boats.
Doray, Tom and Judy joined us after the race and stayed til after sunset. Teri and Jim showed up around 11pm. We brought a blender, and lots of ice and margarita and pina colada fixins. Staying in the slip has its advantages. What a fun time. Dave left about 9 or so, when his teenage son called my cellphone looking for his parents… heh, heh (isn’t that supposed to be the other way around?! 🙂 )
We pulled out the coleman stove and made a bazillion quesadillas. Sue brought her legendary bean dip. We played iPod wars into the wee hours. There is a digital recording floating around somewhere of what may perhaps be the worst rendition of the happy birthday song ever. (Happy birthday Mark!) The security guard even stopped by about 2AM, wasn’t that nice of him? I think it was about 4AM when everyone headed back to their boats for the night.
I’m so glad we started working on that first wooden boat 13 years ago or so. We could never have known at the time that it would lead to us learning to sail, making a bigger sailboat, getting a slip at Yacht Harbor marina, landing on B-Dock, and meeting such fantastic people that are so easy to have fun with.
We packed up early this morning and got home about 10AM. On the way home we took a short detour up to Vintage Villas to see if I could get a shot of the lake from up there. This is a shot looking down on Arkansas Bend. In the distance you can see Hurst Cove, where our marina is.
Sheila365 