My wife wants to sail the J24 to Galveston, spend the night at Harbor House and sail back to Seabrook the next day. This sounds fun to me and i do not want to miss a chance to get her out on the boat. We want to do this sometime this spring or early summer and the trip will be about sailing, a pleasant dinner, and relaxing at a decent hotel. If all goes well, my chances for a future sailboat vacation increase substantially.
The problem is, I know little about Galveston Bay outside HYC to Eagle Point, and Clear Lake for Wed. night racing. We just have the tiny two stroke motor, so I want to sail all the way and keep plenty of distance from the ships. It seems the best way would be to sail down east of the ship channel. The chart shows spoil banks on the east side of the channel, and on both sides further south. Do I need to find the channel through these spoil banks, or can you just sail across anywhere with a 4 foot draft? What about the Redfish bar? All we will have is a Tactick compass and hand held vhf radio, so we will pick a good weather window, if Sailflow can give me two days of nice wind.
I have a lot of racing experience, but the only navigation I know is looking for the windward or leeward marks. Actually. I can follow channel markers and even took a ride on the Bolivar ferry to get a first hand look at that busy intersection. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Barry
The problem is, I know little about Galveston Bay outside HYC to Eagle Point, and Clear Lake for Wed. night racing. We just have the tiny two stroke motor, so I want to sail all the way and keep plenty of distance from the ships. It seems the best way would be to sail down east of the ship channel. The chart shows spoil banks on the east side of the channel, and on both sides further south. Do I need to find the channel through these spoil banks, or can you just sail across anywhere with a 4 foot draft? What about the Redfish bar? All we will have is a Tactick compass and hand held vhf radio, so we will pick a good weather window, if Sailflow can give me two days of nice wind.
I have a lot of racing experience, but the only navigation I know is looking for the windward or leeward marks. Actually. I can follow channel markers and even took a ride on the Bolivar ferry to get a first hand look at that busy intersection. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Barry