cancelled due to weather...
Alternate Easter Cruise to Oak Island/Double Bayou
April 7-9, 2023
Having now been a member of TMCA for 27 years I do remember a time when for someone scheduling a cruise for a weekend when another cruise was already scheduled, it was kind of a no-no! The theory was that there just were not enough interested and motivated TMCA cruisers to make two cruises work on a given weekend. By doing such a thing myself I have proven a few times in the past that this theory is just not correct, and now I am once again going to try to prove that this is still not true!
This upcoming weekend’s Fish Fry Cruise (I am writing this on March 20) will be TMCA’s first cruise back to Job Beason Marina in Oak Island since before the pandemic, and depending upon how things go with this cruise (successful navigation up the channel, water depths in the marina, the weather, etc. etc.) I am proposing a cruise back to this destination over Easter weekend.
Starting in 2011, and continuing every year through 2021, there was an Easter Cruise to Job Beason Marina organized by Houston Yacht Club, and through my contacts with HYC I was fortunate enough to always be invited to join in, with a slip made available to me. And these cruises were always part of a very big Easter celebration there in Oak Island, at Job Beason Park, which were put on by the locals, and which were exactly the way a small town might be expected to celebrate such a weekend.
Organized events included a decorated vehicle parade through the entire town, an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos, other events there at the pavilion, a Resurrection re-enactment there at the top of the park’s hill, and some years live music and arts and crafts and food booths there on the grounds! HYC members always acted as the judges for the best-decorated vehicles in the parade, and a great time was had by all.
The best way that I can give you an idea of what some of these events were like is to provide photos, and lots of these are available in albums on my flickr site as follows: 2011 https://www.flickr.com/photos/15251435@N08/albums/72177720298162927 2014 https://www.flickr.com/photos/15251435@N08/albums/72157644225580202 2015 https://www.flickr.com/photos/15251435@N08/albums/72157651438407218 2019 https://www.flickr.com/photos/15251435@N08/albums/72157706725098751 2021 https://www.flickr.com/photos/15251435@N08/albums/72157718880443549
So HYC is not doing this cruise this year, and when I recently inquired from my local contact in Oak Island about what was planned by them for 2023, I was told that the parade and the egg hunt and some other things are still planned for Saturday April 8th, although I do not think that things will be quite as big a deal as they once were! It of course takes a lot of effort to organize such events, and sometimes people just run out of steam!
But it is so much fun to see it all that I myself plan to head over there that weekend, and any and all who might be interested are invited to join in!!! Other than what the locals are providing on Saturday afternoon, I am not pre-organizing any other TMCA activities for the weekend. We can of course do Docktails on both Friday and Saturday late afternoon under the pavilion, but other than that you are on your own!
There are however plenty of low-key kinds of things to do in Oak Island, and so pre-planned activities are, imho, not necessary! Amongst these activities are dinghy exploring up either the East Fork or the West Fork of the bayou, or out along the shoreline of the Galveston Bay, riding around the town on boat bikes, fishing (for those who are into that sort of thing!), paying a visit to Frascone Winery (http://www.frasconewinery.com/About.html), and enjoying lunches and/or dinnertime at Channel Marker 17 (https://www.facebook.com/channelmarker17/?msclkid=5ebb57d4d14611ecbb5ca8f0ec54ba7a ) and Hurricane Titas ( https://www.facebook.com/resortbargrillstorehotel/ )
There are various TMCA’ers who think that Double Bayou is either impossible, or too difficult, to navigate anymore without running aground, but I submit that this is not necessarily true! The predicted tide levels for Easter weekend are quite favorable for entering and leaving Double Bayou at various times (re: tides Round Point 4-7-23.JPG ), and although s/v Silhouette draws only 4ft, boats with drafts up to almost 6ft can make it in there, all with some careful navigating, and utilizing waypoints that can be accessed in my “Double Bayou Navigation” pdf file found by clicking this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eq62ut8uxjfi3gi/AAAGaTDyQt_krjBDGbvZ71Iwa/Destinations%2C%20routes%20and%20anchorages?dl=0&preview=Double+Bayou+Navigation+(Pasture+version).pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1 (For those who have never made this trip, this file also contains many photos of Double Bayou and Oak Island scenery that you will get to see.)
I have made 4 trips to Double Bayou in 2020, and two each in 2021 and 2022, and I can attest that, due to many commercial vessels coming and going in that channel all the time, conditions are probably better there than they have been for a quite some time! Don’t let Double Bayou navigation scare you!!! It has been one of TMCA’s most favorite destinations for many years, and there is no reason that it cannot still be! (But we’ll just have to see how things go with the Fish Fry Cruise.)
Registration for this cruise (for as many nights as you wish) will be on the TMCA website, and whereas TMCA typically has collected the slip fees for the marina when you registered, and then forwarded those fees to Chambers County, this time instead I ask that you individually be responsible for submitting your own fees (only $25/night) and payment via credit card can easily be made on their website extension at: https://www.co.chambers.tx.us/page/parks.home (Click first on “Credit/Debit Card Payments” and next on the “Continue” button and then follow the instructions.)
There is also a Boater (release of liability) Agreement that Chambers County now requires, and a fillable version of this can be found at:https://www.texasmariners.com/resources/Documents/Job%20Beason%20Slip%20Contract%20-%20Form.pdf Please fill out this form, print it, and sign it, and bring it with you on the cruise where it will be collected and submitted to the county.
So it seems to me that this is a great destination for us to have an Alternate Easter Cruise to, and so if you don’t wish to travel all the way to Moody Gardens, please consider joining me in the lovely little waterfront town of Oak Island! And if you have questions please give me a call at 713-598-6454.
Philip Kropf, Cruise Leader
s/v Silhouette
pkropf@flash.net
Please see the photos and the video:
DB panorama.jpg
IMG_8559.JPG
IMG_0051.JPG
MVI_0084.AVI
