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Vacation Stories: A Galveston Experience
By Geoff Von Wollenberg
(first published in "On The Wire", 1996)
(first published in "On The Wire", 1996)
Galveston, Texas! Home of the famous sea wall, beautiful old homes and Bougainvilla. I had been trying to get there since I first moved to Texas in 1962 but never quite seemed to make it. When a group of my catamaran sailing buddies suggested the trip and I had the time free, I jumped at the chance. We discussed the trip and all took time off so that we could spend plenty of time enjoying ourselves. The six of us, including myself, decided to leave Dallas on Tuesday and to return home again on Sunday afternoon. Plenty of time to see the area, I thought. I had no idea what an interesting experience it would turn out to be.
Having never sailed the gulf, I was thrilled with the opportunity to go to Galveston. I arrived in the area the evening of Tuesday, May 30th, with my Hobie 16 in tow and decided that I really liked it there. The humidity aside, it was green and lush. The sound of the frogs singing in the distance was very peaceful indeed. I stayed in a motel in Alvin, (home of Nolan Ryan, for you baseball fans) that first evening, since our camping reservation at Galveston State Park was not until 2:00 PM the following day. The motel, which had once been a Holiday Inn, was an old place and looked rather dumpy. The rooms were cheap which was a God send since I was on a strict budget. It turned out to be spotlessly clean and I had a very nice night's sleep.
The morning of the 31st, I set out for the last short hop to Galveston Island and was enjoying the leisurely ride and the scenery. As I crossed the high bridge that leads to the island, I looked away for a second to admire some ships in the channel and when I looked back, my windshield looked like someone had thrown up on it! I gasped and then it dawned on me where I was. I had been selected as a target by a sea gull. Yuck! My nice black truck had a white ring around the windshield and two huge target marks on the hood.
I found the park and my friends. Jay, who sails his Hobie 18 SX single handed, and a young couple, Kenny and Jeanie who own a Prindle 18.2 had arrived early and set up camp. Another friend, Anne, whom I had promised to take sailing and was from the area, showed up not long after me. After all of the introductions, the men were anxious to set up the boats. I had looked over the dunes from our camp sight and the Gulf looked dark and wild to me. Surf was running about 5 feet high and was breaking a lot further out than I had expected. This was not the Gulf I had seen in pictures and I was a little apprehensive about trying that surf as a first-timer. It seemed higher than it should have been. Undaunted by all of this, Jay and Kenny were determined to launch. We decided to take the boats to the public launching area up the beach a bit from the camp, set them up and Anne and I would drive the two trucks back to the campsite and wait until the next day to launch my boat.
There were no landmarks to speak of and I would wave a flag so they would know where to beach once they got back down the coast to where the camp was. We set up the two "Cats" and Anne and I helped them launch. Jay, who had done this before, set out through the surf and promptly flipped his boat. The wind was up and I could see from shore that it was all he could do to keep his boat in the water. Kenny and Jeanie made it through the surf and returned to drop Jeanie off to help Jay right his craft. Now they were all on the beach again but about 500 yards north of us. We watched until they launched again and when they were safely out past the surf, Anne and I drove the truck and the jeep back to the campsite. We ran over the dunes and when we saw them they were way out and looked VERY small against the high swells. I told Anne I was glad we hadn't tried it since she had never been on one of the cats and I was new to surf launching. It looked frightening to ME! We waved and jumped and must have looked like total fools to those on the beach but my friends were too far out to see us.
They ended up beaching about a quarter mile down the beach and we had to tow beach dollies down there and "walk" the boats back to the camp. We set them on the sand very close to the dunes so the tide wouldn't catch them in the night and silently sweep them away. Then we walked over the dune to our camp.
It had been at least 13 years since I had last put my tent up but my son had used it and I knew all of the parts were there so I decided that I could figure it out. After laying it out, looking at all of the pieces and fitting this here and that there, and having a few more beers, I got it put together (with much help from Anne and more than enough innocent chiding and incorrect input from the rest of the group). It was beautiful in its oldness. All brown and dumpy looking with some kind of white stuff all around the bottom that caused me to comment that my son must have camped at a talcum powder factory last time out. At least it was big and roomy and I could stand up in the center if I wanted, even if it didn't have the secondary rain fly, fiberglass bungee poles, fancy shape and pretty blue colors of my friends' tents. We all settled down to a dinner of steak and baked potatoes with all the trimmings and Ranch Style beans.....with jalapenos. WOW! They're really good and REALLY hot! After cleaning up, we all sat around and talked until the park closed and Anne had to leave. We said our good nights to her and all went to bed.
I had felt uncomfortable the entire day and wasn't quite sure why. I decided that I was still tired from the trip and chalked it up to that. Boy, was I wrong! About 2:00 A. M., something woke me. I looked out of my tent and saw Kenny sitting in a chair watching a lightning show over Houston. He and Jeanie were listening to music and enjoying the cool breezes that were blowing. Just then a gentle drizzle began to fall. Ahhhh, I thought.....what a wonderful sleep I will have with the sweet sound of rain on my tent and the coolness it will bring. I heard Jay zip up his tent and I followed suit.
At 2:30 I awoke with a start! This time there was a definite reason for my awakening. It was the roaring sound I heard. I sat straight up and reached for the poles at the side of my tent just as a gust hit so hard that I thought we were all going over the dune and into the Gulf. I was hard-pressed to keep the tent poles from bending and as I held them, it began to rain. Not just rain, but downpour, and in straight line fashion. I heard Jeanie shout, "Get the clothes! Look at Geoff's tent. ItÕs still there!" It took about 10 minutes before I noticed that water was rising in my tent. The rain began to fly right through the fabric of the tent, it was coming so hard and fast. I could see it with the small flashlight I held in my mouth, and in the bright lightning that was flashing every second or so. I had an empty ice chest in my tent and grabbed one of my bags of things and threw it in there, followed by my pillow. After closing it, I put the other bag on top of it as my air mattress started to float across the tent. The wind was still blowing and I couldn't find my lighter, which I thought I might need the next morning, but by the way the tent was buffeting, I decided it was time to get out. I unzipped just enough to slide out and was immediately drenched to the bone. Kenny's tent was all over the front of mine and I struggled to get past it on my way out. It was raining so hard that I couldn't see where I was going and I worked my way around my boat and trailer to the driver side of the truck. Turning my back to the rain, I fumbled with the key but the wind was so strong I could barely get the door open. I leaped and the door slammed behind me. I had on a bathing suit, a t-shirt and a shirt. I was soaked through and through. Luckily, I had two bath towels in the front seat so I peeled off the shirts and dried off and covered myself with the towels.
My truck was rocking back and forth and it was really frightening. I cracked my back window and looked at the dunes, hoping to get a glimpse of the masts in the lightning, but to no avail. I took inventory and it looked like I had everything I needed to sit it out in the truck so I reclined the seat and attempted to get some sleep. It seemed to let up a little when I heard Kenny's Jeep start. He was taking Jeanie to the bathroom. When they returned, he pulled in facing the other way and we could see the campsite clearly in his headlights. Their tent was just a pile of junk laying on the ground. Jay's had aluminum poles like mine and both of ours where still standing. I heard Jeanie ask Jay if he wanted to go over the dune and check the boats and he said, "No way! If they are damaged, I don't think I want to see it. Let's get some sleep." It started blowing and pouring again and I just decided to try to sleep.
The next morning, we awoke to sunshine about the same time as the rest of the campers in our area. The place was a shambles. Someone's air mattress had been lodged under my truck and a pair of swim trunks were lying next to it. A table cloth was wrapped around the rear tire of Jay's truck. There were buckets and pans, air mattresses, tackle boxes and all sorts of other things embedded in the dune behind us. Everyone was foraging around for their belongings. Kenny's tent was just a twisted pile and he threw it in the trash. The park officials came around and told us there had been a lot of damage. Two people had been flipped over inside their campers and one man had the top blown off of his pop-up camper trailer. It looked like someone had tossed a stick of dynamite inside it.
We could see no masts. As we went over the dune, we were met by a terrible sight.
We had been afraid that the boats had been blown over but we had no idea how bad it had been. Jay's brand new Hobie 18 SX was laying upside down about 10 feet
from where he had 
left it, the mast snapped in half and laying on the ground.
Kenny's Prindle 18.2 which had been windward of Jay's boat, had been picked up, thrown through Jay's and was now 30 yards down the beach in a twisted mass of rubble. It looked like a giant had picked it up, snapped it in half length wise, and thrown it down. The hulls were in perfect condition with only a scratch on them but the crossbars
had snapped like twigs. Jay had a small hole in the side of one hull that Kenny's boat must have made on initial impact. My Hobie 16 was still on the trailer and had no damage at all. Was it the black mesh tramp that saved it? Maybe the air was able to get through instead of flipping it over, or the weight of the trailer held it down?
It was then that the other two members of our group arrived with another new Hobie 18 SX.
They had decided to postpone the trip from Dallas until that morning due to the heavy
thunderstorms they would have had to drive through on the way down. The park officials opened a gate so that we could get
the trucks and trailers on the beach
and we all proceeded to take the boats
apart so we could get them correct enough
to trailer them. We fit Kenny's boat
back together on the trailer. We had to flip Jay's right side up, which took all of us because his boat has wings to sit on and we couldn't get them off with the boat upside down. Since I was the tallest, I tried to catch it on the other side but it came flying over and luckily I was quick enough to get out from under it before it could crush me.
Officials said that there was a 60% chance of this happening again that night
and I decided to get out while
everything I had was still intact
so I headed back to Dallas. My truck
was black again. The rain had erased
all signs of its being a target the day
before. All
I had lost was the top off of an old foam ice chest. I think luck was definitely with me!
I would suggest to anyone that is going to the gulf coast during the spring or hurricane season to watch the weather closely. We had no warning that this storm would circle around and come up the coast with a vengeance!
More articles in category Vacation Stories & On The Wire Archives
- Catamaran Sailboats Delamination Repair Instructions (by damonAdmin on Nov 01, 2003)
- Roll Tacking Your Beach Catamaran Sailboat (by damonAdmin on Sep 24, 2003)
- Catamaran Sailing - understanding your telltales. (by damonAdmin on Aug 11, 2003)
- A Batten Tapering Guide. (by damonAdmin on Apr 16, 2002)
- A Galveston Experience (by damonAdmin on Apr 16, 2002)
- What's All This About Weather Helm? (by damonAdmin on Apr 14, 2002)