October 31, 2003
Redfish Island
Left April Fool Point at 1205 hours, course 018. Winds 123° at 12-15kts. Approached the PORTS Eagle point weather station at 29° 28.8'N, 94° 55.1'W.
Assumed course 030 to Redfish Island, Eagle Point abeam at 1238.
Altered course to 048 at 1240, and again to 339 at 1252.
Entered Redfish Island anchorage at 1254.
Came to anchor at a crushed shell shell beach, located at 29º 30.0'"N,
094º 53.3'W at 1305. Observed shipping. Noted three small craft at anchor, two power boats, one ketch.
1403 - made sail and proceeded on course 296. Spoke Ketch.
Northern point of Redfish island abeam at 1408. Hauled wind and proceeded along eastern shore of Redfish Island, course 075.
1412 Tacked, course 170.
1413 Tacked, course 69
1416 Tacked, course 171.
1420 - centerboard aground, altered course to 207.
1429 - centerboard and rudder aground. course 223
1433 - restored rudder to correct position., course 212
Visually confirmed existance of wreakage at 29° 30.1'N, 094° 53.7'W.
1452 April Fool Point abeam, course 270.
1500 Altered course to 264.
Sighted new man-made island, in 29° 28.1'N, 094°56.7'W to be called mud island. Island is hook shaped, with base of hook at southeastern end of island, and shank on southern side near dickinson channel.
1506 Came to anchor on leeward side of island.
Tow vessel Jennifer Ann arrived weather side of mud island with barge laden with soil for island construction. Spoke same. Tow left without barge approximately 30 minutes after arriving.
Left mud island at 1640 after GPS survey conducted. Proceeded to port, course 060.
1650 - Tacked, course 152
1654 - Tacked course 047
Arrived in dock at 1659 hours.
Hi Bob,
Just read your Redfish run on Halloween, very interesting. I had plotted your courses on scratch paper (not being too familiar with locations of landmarks) before I found your course chart. I was surprised at how well my sketching matched your chart, excellent narrative.
It has been over 30 years since I sailed to "old" Redfish. Sounds like the Redfish environment has not changed much, i.e., barren but interesting to sail to in a small sailboat. The one memory I have is when our Lido 14 fleet was having a picnic there, with all boats anchored on the western shore, (side opposite from the ship channel). A large freighter was outbound to the eastern side of Redfish. The surprise was that her wake wrapped around the island and came down the western side, throwing all of our little boats all over the place. This was the second set of scratches on old 2107.
Dick Hoover
Posted by: Dick Hoover at December 13, 2003 12:22 PM