Frustration and planning lessons.

Dear friends and family,

I am still waiting. Waiting in Port Aransas for at least two days of wind that isn’t from somewhere in the north. It’s been ten days already and I haven’t found that yet and the forecast for the next week gives little hope. A limit I have found in my psyche. 

So, my frustration mounts. One of the goals of a trip like this is to find my limits and explore around those edges. I expected the limits to be something about sailing in big winds, camping in the mud in tight conditions, finding places to anchor or pull up on the beach. All the hard stuff that can be physically uncomfortable and hard. 

What I am finding is that in my planning for this trip, I missed a few factors: 

1. The wind mostly blows from the north in winter
2. I cannot really make much progress rowing against the wind (north)
3. There is a lot of time to be spent waiting out weather to complete a route along the coast towards Florida and
4. Most of the route has to be in the channel as the water outside the channel is too shallow even for my little boat.

So, then I must decide what to do about this situation.

I could just call it quits and pack up and head to Washington to park the boat and truck, but I came to sail, learn the boat, get exercise with rowing and explore this coast. Sure I had these great plans to sail and row the coast, but mostly enjoy the sailing, camping in wild places, the birds and dolphins and stay mostly out of the way of freighters in a place that is deep enough to sail outside a channel so traffic is not too big a problem.

My first reaction was to look at Florida’s Gulf Coast. The northern coast offers some big bays, but is quite developed, the southwest coast has much wild areas and good sailing, but is a long way to truck the boat there and then eventually get back to Washington. And who knows if the weather in winter offers similar challenges. 

And weirdly enough, here on the Texas coast it is offseason. On Florida’s Gulf Coast it is peak season. Same latitude. Off-season suits me. Seeing the next photo might explain that difference.

So, there must be a place that is closer, off season for less boat traffic and tourists, offer wildlife viewing and natural settings, and have water to sail wherever,not just in a channel.

Turns out that my next planned stop offers all of that. Matagorda Bay seems a really good place to explore, easy access to launch the boat and store the truck and plenty of places to camp after sailing outside any channel. And it is big enough to explore for a long time. And I have access to more bays from there if so inclined.

I thought I would wait and wait until I can sail there as its only a little over fifty miles from here, but the logistics of getting me back to the truck at the storage unit get significantly more complicated from there whereas from here it is relatively easy. 

So, I am disappointed in my total coastal plan not working out and my planning mistakes, but looking forward to putting this little boat through her paces and camping wild all over the Matagorda Bay.

That type of exploring is actually more interesting than just following the Intracoastal Waterway. I get to go exploring and find my own way and will have time to navigate between tiny islands and sandbanks. That is true adventure for me.

This reminds me of my bike tour across Colombia, where I thought I could go from north to south across the entire country. When I found out what that entailed, like riding in a very hot and dusty and not very interesting valley for the majority of the trip and thereby missing most of the cool ancient little towns in the mountains, I changed my plans and had a fantastic trip instead of my originally planned trip and I never had a regret about that change.

Flexibility for change does not come easily to me, a goal setting and achieving guy. A limit I have discovered for now and a lesson to learn. 

And maybe something about planning better, although if it is planned too much it takes away the figuring it out as you go, which I love to do. There must be a balance to be had here.

Alternatively,  as I recently came across in the book I am reading ( THE LOST CITY OF Z), according to the poem of Lewis Carroll, “Snark hunters” ( or Snark sailors?) ” suddenly vanish away,/and never be met with again”.

Sending love,

Charley