TMCA Spring Fling

[Deckhand]

TMCA is holding the Spring Fling from May 16 to May 18. The venue will be held at the newly rebuilt Port Arthur Yacht Club on Sabine Lake. TMCA puts on a first class operation for Spring Fling every year. From seminars, vendors, to great parties and food, make plans to attend. For more information on TMCA's Spring Fling 2014 see their website at http://www.tmcaspringfling.com/.

[ChrisK]

How deep is it over there?  Glad to see it's back.

[Deckhand]

Sabine Lake is not as deep as Galveston Bay, but it is possible to sail with little problem with not a real deep draft. If you check out the Captains info tab, there are some charts that have a bit of info on entering Sabine Lake. This is a quote from the TMCA Yahoo site (Check out the Captains Info tab for the chart):

The most asked question about Sabine Lake is: isn't it a bit shallow?

The chart soundings may be a bit concerning, but in practice, most of Sabine Lake is very usable.   Port Arthur Yacht Club members at the Pleasure Island Marine sail nearly daily in Sabine Lake, and cover most of it, except for the area near Blue Buck Point (see chart below).  They have races every Thursday and plan cruises to all kinds of destinations around the lake.  There is even an area on the east side that is much like our Double Bayou with a narrow, deep river running for miles inland.

The chart waypoints below were given to me by PAYC member Ron Gremillion, whose boat is a 47' Catalina with a 6'2" draft.  He gets in and out of Sabine Lake with ease, except during winter when a norther blow through.  I have sailed Sabine Lake with PAYC members and I have sailed the lake in s/v Tradwind.  I calibrated my depth gauge with a measured plumb line before I went.  I recorded depths averaging 7 to 9.5.  The lowest I saw was a bump up to 6.2'.  The bottom is very silty, soft mud, so even if you do momentarily touch the keel to the bottom, you likely won't even notice it.

For Spring Fling, we will have buoys to mark the path to Pleasure Island Marina and PAYC member will be out on the lake monitoring 16 and 68 for assistance.  Tow Boat US will also be on alert and will have 2 boats ready just in case.

In another email later on, I will talk about the second most asked question:  the distance (which is only 9 nm further from Galveston than Freeport, jetty-to-jetty) and options for getting there.

Jerry Simoneaux
s/v Tradewind