free island guy thoughts

I tried to go sailing at Lake Somerville spent most of the morning trying to raise the mast. Once we had the mast up we went to launch the boat and found that the motor wouldn't run so we pulled the boat back out and I noticed in the morning that the bow eye was loose. On the way home there was some traffic on 290 coming in. I had to stop suddenly and since the boat wasn't really connected to the winch it slid forward past the winch and so now I have some gel coat to fix. So I decided to pull out the bow eye that I had bought earlier and put it in the holes that were vacanted by the old bow eye. Looking through the hole I could see that there was no obstructions.The bow eye that I purchased was just a little bit different. The dimension up to down was skinnier than the old bow eye and the holes in the bow post The wood that goes at front of the Bow. So taking a hammer I banged the new Boweye in. It fits snugly but then when I went inside the boat ...

Stillhouse Park Lake ramp is usable the lake is considerably down there is a marina that's closed due to the drought the dock that accompanies the ramp is probably at least 50 ft above the water line so it's unusable I did a little survey of the marina to see if maybe I could tie the boat up there while I parked the truck I'm not sure that would be workable since all the docs near the ramp are roped off to construction and maintenance I'm leaning towards not using still House Park Lake until the water comes up which time I could probably use Travis again the good things about stillhouse Park Lake is there is a restroom close to the ramp unlike Summerville whether they were no restrooms anywhere near by the ramp that I used with Kai I watched a fisherman launch his boat which is probably a similar length to Bagatelle and I noticed that he ran his trailer out onto the ramp and it did not fall off the end. So in conclusion still a house ...

It's been 7 months since I've been sailing on Bagatelle. I've fixed the motor so it runs and I wanted to go sailing. I sent a note to my group of Craigslist sailors that I wanted to go sailing the second weekend of February. I had like four people that said they wanted to go. I thought great! But on the Thursday before the sailing trip a meeting was called by the American legion because David Goldstick had raised a ruckus that caused problems at the post. We had to meet to discuss. I asked the guys to come over on Friday so we could take the boat out to Lake LBJ to Set her up so that we can go sailing on Saturday. Also on Thursday, I got a note for the city that they want my boat hidden. I asked the guys to come over and help me move Frimi back further in the yard, so I could  put Bagatelle behind the gate when I got back. Doing that took us an hour and a half to accomplish. Meaning we left the house late I wanted to leave at 1:30 we left at 3:00. By the time we got out the...

Summary In January 2024, the best lakes in central texas to take my boat an Nimble Artic 26 with a 18" draft on a 30' tandem trailer to launch are : Lake LBJ at the Lake LBJ Marina Inks Lake Lake Marble Falls at Cottonwood creek Lake George Town at either Park The Trip around Central Texas, north of Austin, south of Walburg On Saturday December's January 7th 2024 myself and Mr Werner Nagy traveled around central Texas checking boat ramps. Cottonwood Shores Park Since I live in Austin Texas we traveled West to Lake marble falls to check the boat ramp at cottonwood shores. The boat ramp and cottonwood shores is in a small Park there are six boat trailer parking spaces along with two handicapped parking spaces there is a rack of loaner life vests. The ramp is good the end of the ramp is at least 30 ft from the water level. Above is a view of the Bouys at the end of the ramp. Above is a view down the river at Cottonwood Shores The view across the riv...

I left Pat's place before breakfast because, I needed to get to Erie Pennsylvania that day by way of Niagara falls. I drove North along US 219 dreading the traffic that I saw on the way down to Bradford on Friday but I found that the traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. The cause of the traffic problems is they are constructing more Lanes on the highway. So the traffic has been reduced to one lane in both directions. Since it was early in the morning I only had to wait one cycle on a stoplight at interstate 86. On the other side of the of interstatr, there was an Indian reservation gas station where the gas was a dollar cheaper than anywhere else. I filled up there and I got a sandwich and some coffee. It was raining most the day as I drove North to Niagara falls. When I got to Tonawanda New York I stopped to use the restroom and I took a picture of the lake that drains into Niagara falls. From Tonawanda I drove into Niagara falls State Park and surveyed the p...

I visited the ramp in Clear Lake on January 20. This ramp since it's on the Gulf or actually Galveston Bay doesn't have the same problems that lakes up near Austin have.  There's generally always water, the amount of water changes with the tide. I tried to launch Bagatelle on the mid rising tide at 4:00 on Friday and I think the trailer fell off the end of the ramp when the boat was floating. So if your boat has a draft of 18 in more or less then you probably should wait for high tide to launch here. while I was there a fellow with 30 ft fishing boat, one usable at sea, came over launched his boat no problem. there's a fishing pier and a period of tie off on to the landlord side of the ramp and didn't try it but I think it would work in nearly every tide. I plan to come back when the weather is warmer and preferably when the wind is lighter to launch again.