Hey Y'all! Writing to you from the Gulf of Mexico where the sun is shining and the wind is up. A perfect day for windjamming in the Gulf. The term windjammer was actually was used in a derogatory manner by the early steam sailors to describe square riggers. Of course we use windjammer as a term of endearment today and to see Elissa sailing would make any heart beat a little faster. As you know I am down here on the tallship Elissa where we are sailing along with a fleet of 260 small sailing vessels racing in the annual Harvest Moon Regatta. It was an incredible sight here this afternoon as all 260 vessels converged on the starting line (and Elissa too, at times). The wind is from the NW about 15 knots and we are off to Port Aransas, 150 miles distant.
A cold front blew through the Texas coast on Monday when we arrived just like it does in Maine. The wind went from southerly to northerly in a matter of minutes and kept us pinned to the dock on Monday. We finally eased out Tuesday afternoon to the face of the dock, took on a few thousand gallons of fuel Wednesday morning and sailed that afternoon.
We will be racing all night long with the rest of the fleet nearby (we are currently winning in the 3 masted barque class!) We should be arriving at Port Aransas early tomorrow afternoon and then on to Corpus Christi on Monday. I get to fly home for a few days in between venues here. I miss Maine but this is a very beautiful place to be. The Harvest Moon should be up in a few hours when I take the watch at midnight.
Have a great day. Be well. Do good.
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