Tom Ryder's story of traveling to Redfish Island:

"Ever since Hauk and I stopped on Redfish island a couple of weeks ago on our long distance windsurf sail we had been talking about camping on Redfish Island. For those of you that don't know, it's not a natural island. It's really just a man made breakwater about as wide as a two lane road made to break up the ship wake generated from the traffic on the Houston Ship Channel.

We both had conflicts that made the weekends impossible to use so we planned a micro vacation from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday at noon. After making a list of needed supplies we packed our Sunfish with as much gear as would fit. We didn't really need it but we wanted to have a campfire so I even brought some firewood. After filling the foot-wells of our Sunfish we still had to put our dry-bags on the decks over the centerboards.

It was just after 3pm when we left Seabrook Sailing Club. Redfish Island was a little over four miles away. I was having some trouble keeping up with Hauk (It couldn't have been the weight of my loaded down boat). So I moved forward to try and put more down-haul on my sail. When I pushed down on the boom it snapped. It was obviously the metal had been weaken and it didn't break because of my great strength. Luckily, we were just about 100 yards from our start so we were able to get back to shore. We thought our trip might be off except I knew I had an older Sunfish sail and booms at home. Once on shore I quickly drove home to pick up my replacement sail.

So after re rigging my boat it was about 4:15 and we started out again. I wasn't about to try and put more down-haul on the sail. The older sail was working just fine when the out-haul line snapped (I'm guessing it was just old and rotted). Hauk couldn't believe my bad luck. Fortunately, I always carry some extra line in the pocket of my life jacket. Hauk said if I sailed over to him he could retie my out-haul line. Of course, trying to do this while on the water with the sails up was bit tricky. It looked like our boats were doing an awkward dance on the water. Once Hauk completed fixing my out-haul my main sheet had gotten tangled around his rudder. It was rather comical. I know most of you are thinking it looks like we were being told by stronger forces not to go on this trip and turn back while we still could. But we had made the plans and wanted to make the trip.

Redfish is just over 4 miles in a direct line from Seabrook and we had to tack into the wind the whole way. Looking back North of us we saw the 30% chance of isolated thunder showers looked like it was now going to be 100%. We thought the best strategy was to stay near the coastline. It lengthened our trip but we would be able to get off the water before the storm hit. We passed by TCYC and the storm was getting closer. We agreed to try and make it to Noah's Ark in Bacliff and wait out the storm. However, the storm moved faster than we did and we had to beach earlier. Fortunately, I saw the house of my friend Dianne. So we made a dash for her house. We dropped our sails and tied our boats to some pilings and scrambled on shore just as the gusts of wind picked up and the rain hit us. Dianne and her family weren't home because their house was damaged by hurricane Ike and is still in need of repair. Fortunately for us, the back porch provided good emergency shelter from the storm. Once we made it inside the lightning started to hit. It was fantastic to watch from the safety of our shelter. I called Dianne to let her know we were using her home as our shelter. Hauk and I also called our families to let them know we were safe.

Once the storm passed we had to decide did we have enough daylight to make it the rest of the way to Redfish or should we head back. We decided to push on and if we couldn't make it we would just have to beach and call for help. The closer we got the more determined I became on making it the whole way. It was about 7:30 and the sun was nearing the horizon. We were getting close to the point of no return of leaving the coastline and going out to Redfish. Since the island has a low profile and is about 1.5 miles off of Eagle Point we were concerned about being able to find it in the fading light. Hauk made the point of how important it was we stay close together.

As we sailed away from the Point trying to spot the island we fumbled through our dry bags for our head lamps and other lights to make us visible to other boats. We both realized how difficult it was to get in the bags and control our boats at the same time as we zig zagged together. We finally saw the low outline of the island straight ahead of us. We now had the wind more to the back of us and were able to head straight to our destination. The only thing that would cause us trouble now was if the wind shifted.

We made it safely to the island just after it got dark. We both hauled our boats out of the water and began unloading our gear. As soon as I found my phone we called home to let our families know we were safely on the island. Then we pitched our tent and built our fire. We had enough wood with us to start a fire but we found some driftwood to keep it going.

We had some cold beer to wash down the brats we cooked for dinner. And then we mixed some pina coladas for our after dinner drinks because we were, "on da island Mon." After few pina coladas Hauk and I both realized how sickly sweet they are gave up having any more. We were going to try to see some of the Perseid meteors but the sky was too cloudy. So we watched the cargo and tanker ships go by us through the ship channel and the waves crash against the island. We talk for a while before we thought it might be time to catch some sleep.

Hauk brought out his air mattress and spent about 30 minutes destroying brain cells as he tried to inflate it. I just brought a thin foam pad to lay on the shells that make up most of the island. We planned to sleep out under the stars and the tent was just if a storm hit while we were out there. The wind picked up after we landed and actually blew the tent over even though we had it staked into the shells. So we put some heavy rocks on the corners to help keep it in place. Since it was a cloudy night and I couldn't see the meteors I decided to sleep inside the tent to help keep it weighted down. I think I feel asleep around 12:30 and slept on and off until 4am when I woke up wide awake for some reason.

I stepped outside and the sky was crystal clear. I tried not to wake Hauk and watched the sky for meteors. I think I saw one. Hauk later told me that ten minutes after he laid down on his air mattress he started to feel it losing air and soon felt only the shells underneath. He ended up putting on his life jacket to help cushion against the hard shells. Once I was up I told him to go lay down on my pad to get more rest. At about 5am I started to brew some coffee in my camping perculator. So we woke up to badly brewed coffee and even worse tasting freeze dried eggs and bacon. Hauk opted for a couple of breakfast bars instead.

Once the sun came up we could tell it was going to be a hot day and the forecast was for light wind. We packed up our gear, and trash and got ready for the sail back to Seabrook. We were in luck because the wind was at our back and was blowing nicely. We wanted to get going soon to take advantage of the good wind. Right before we left this huge tanker ship went by and we watched the bow waves roll towards us like the other ships had done throughout the night. The difference was these waves were much bigger and actually crashed over the whole island. The spot where our tent was pitched was just barely higher than the wash from the wave. It would have been much scarier if it had happened while we were still sleeping.

Finally, we launched our boats for our voyage home. The sail was a straight shot and we moved pretty fast. We had travelled over half way when the wind started to die. I settled down by sitting in the footwell with my legs up on the deck. It was pretty relaxing. I stuck my hand in the water every now to make sure I was actually moving forward. We ended up making the return trip in only 2 hours and 20 minutes. After landing and going to Neptune's for lunch Hauk actually went on to work and I went home to take a nap. And that folks, was our Great Redfish Island Adventure."

Cheers,

Tom Ryder