Keith wrote:


It is not a backed up creek! Sorry, I have a chart of the Galveston
Bay area from the 1800's, before the Civil War that shows Clear Lake.
Now the word "Clear" must have been thought up by a marketing person
trying to sell land, because it's anything but. The tidal range is
almost nothing here, but the North winds in winter literally do blow a
lot of water out of the lake. OTOH, the South winds blow it into the
lake in the Summer, so you can sail all over then. Just have to watch
the winds more than the tide. The Houston Ship channel goes through
Galveston bay, and is around 50' deep. As with any cruising area, get
a chart of the area so you know where to go and avoid.


Ah HA! the tides
I kinda guessed that one.

I've been studying the electronic charts but will get a current paper
one as soon as possible. I don't have much 'lectrics aboard.

I think I'll add a small GPS because I suspect that on a hazy day
we can be pretty well out of site of shore on the bay.
We sit pretty low in the water

As I recall, "Clear" Lake was indeed a marketing scheme by Mr Sharps(?)
developer of Sharpstown. He really got the place going by offering
special deals for houses to the Mercury astronauts. Looks like it
paid off in the long run.

So (back on the subject of sailing) what does the bottom of the bay like
- anchoring wise?

We've seem a lot of achors drag on the lakes up here because the
bottoms are sometimes really hard mud. Not much of anything can bite
into it - so it's weight that really matters there.

I have two Danforth style anchors - a 10 and a 12 - on 100 foot lines
with 6 and 10 ft of chain respectively.
(Rememeber it's a 1500 pound 18 footer...)

Richard