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Pre-dawn on the day of departure. The boat (a Catalina 350, which means it's 35 feet long) waits at the slip in Houston for her noble crew.
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The last picture you'll see of the whole boat... from here on out we're on it.
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Motoring out of Houston through a channel.
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Dawn on the first day (before the start of the race).
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From left to right: Sam (the skipper), Mike (the... uh... other skipper), Doug.
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Dolphins surf on the wakes of huge tankers, purely for pleasure.
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There were about 200 boats in the race... this is the line of boats in the channel behind us leaving Houston and heading to Galveston and the starting line.
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The starting area. Normally a hectic time full of tacks and jockeying for position, the lack of wind made it pretty tame.
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The start! No wind at all. Notice doug holding out the jib hoping for some kind of action.
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In the boredom that was the race start, I caught this boat whose name I thought Leslie would appreciate.
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Sunset on the first day, after several hours of racing. Still no wind (notice the glassy surface of the water).
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Another sunset shot with a boat (not ours).
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Sunrise on day 2. Notice the surface of the water: we have wind! At about 9pm the night before the wind slowly picked up and we had a good 6-7 hours at near-top-speed for the boat (7 knots, which is a bit more than 7 mph).
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A noticeably happier if scruffier crew.
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Noble captain at the helm.![IMG_2238](users/overt/_data/i/users/overt/menalto_albums/travel/20061004/IMG_2238-sm.jpg "IMG_2238 (1276 visits) As the wind dies late in the morning on the second day, we bust out the "whisker pole," a ...")
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As the wind dies late in the morning on the second day, we bust out the "whisker pole," a pole to hold out the jib (sail at the front of the boat) perpendicular to the boat and allow us to sail with the light wind at our backs.
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Bryan doing some random sailoring.
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More fun with the whisker pole.
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Doug sailoring.
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Bryan pulls on some lines.
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A view from the deck up at the mainsail and jib.
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Our happy family: Julie, Mike, Patrick, Sam, Doug.
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One of many offshore oil/gas rigs with a boat alarmingly close to it.
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Bryan at the helm.
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Doug at the helm.
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The finish line! We got in about 12:30am on Saturday morning, squeaking in ahead of at least on boat in our class. Sorry for the poor quality, camera operation was a tall order given my mental state at this point.
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Cleaned up for the party the next day, the crew of the Longhawk celebrate with pink-orange shirts and rum drinks courtesy Bacardi.
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The skipper and matriarch of the longhawk celebrate a 3rd place finish.
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Doug and Patrick with trophy.