Although several folks expressed an interest in sailing canoes and kayaks across Lake Anahuac, only two folks were brave enough to take the plunge on Sunday, August 1. Robert Trout and Greg Fan joined me for a fun day on the water as we unfurled three different kinds of sails to try our luck across the bounding main.
Setting this up in advance, there is no way to accurately predict the weather. Knowing the prevailing winds are from the south or southeast I knew we would have push power to get across the lake before we would have to paddle up Turtle Bayou to reach or takeout. As it turned out, the winds were from the west or west-southwest, and never above 8 mph so the trip wasn’t entirely speedy but no turnovers either.
Robert and I had homemade rigs. As I searched the Web for inspiration, I came across this Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoY4V2EHQeg IMHO, there is a lot to like about Ray Goodwin’s rigging and technique. Of course I love seeing his dog running about in the background, eagerly awaiting that trip in the canoe. You can see my sail and rigging is patterned after his:
My Sail, photo by Natalie Wiest
As the three of us stood at the putin at the boat ramp, south end of Lake Anahuac,
Lake Anahuac, photo by Natalie Wiest
We had some trepidation as to wind speed and direction. Sure enough, we set off into the open lake waters and it seems the wind had decreased considerably, somewhat to our relief but also slowing our forward speed. Greg and Robert found that needing both hands to manage a sail was somewhat detrimental to steering capability, and also rather tiring, but they both had some nice “poofs” and surges across the waves. Here is Robert with his rig:
Robert's Rig, photo by Natalie Wiest
Greg went with a commercially produced sail that looks like this when deflated and lying on his cooler:
Greg's Rig, photo by Natalie Wiest
… and like this underway:
Gregg's Rig in Action, photo by Natalie Wiest
We didn’t set any speed records across the lake. My Runkeeper ap for some reason (how did I do this?) was talking to me from the safety of my back hatch and was reporting 27 minute miles. Also that it was 3.4 miles from putin to the observation area of the Anahuac Chenier Plain Visitor Center. I had intended to get out of the boats to stretch our legs and eat a snack there but alas, our observation that the lake looked quite high was borne out by the waters almost lapping the bottom of the deck. No nice sandy beach to sit on today.
Observation Deck, photo by Natalie Wiest
From here we paddled on to the west and the mouth of Turtle Bayou where it empties into the lake. Greg took this photo:
Mouth of Turtle Bayou, photo by Greg Fan
It was another two mile paddle up the bayou to White’s Park, where we had our lunch, ran shuttles and departed for home. The thunderstorm building on the northern horizon graciously held off pouring on us until we were safely driving our cars for home.
Here is how Runkeeper recorded our trip:
It was a fun day on the water. You should join us next time.
Natalie Wiest