LMYC Mexico Triangle Race Feb. 13, 2011

My friend Jim and I were given the opportunity to run the "Committee Boat" during the LMYC Mexico Triangle Race.  Rick of TowBoatUS provided his "Rede 1" for the committee boat.  After a checkout, he turned us loose with his boat.

The race was scheduled to run from the Jetties at South Padre Island
South east to an artificial fishing reef just off the Mexico US border.  There is a yellow buoy marking the reef.

From the reef to a gas well about 9 miles Northeast, then about 9 miles back to the Jetties.

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men.  At the start of the race, there was NO and I do mean NO wind.  As the first leg worn on, the wind picked up to about 3 to 5 knots directly on the nose of sailboats trying to make the yellow buoy.  The "Lucky Strike" was the first boat to make the turn around the yellow buoy.

The next was Abel and Frank in the O'Day 25, and third was Mike and Marylin in Sweet Pea.  Since by this time it was well past noon, it was decided to omit the second point and head straight back to the Jetties.

Sweet Pea had a little competition for the buoy as they made the turn.

This Montgomery 17 "Tynee" piloted by Andres Garcia was the 4th boat in the race.  Really looked good, but had a terrible time as did everyone else making headway.

Even though it was poor sailing conditions, it was a fine day to be out on the water.

Random Thoughts from our childhood

My sister asked me about the Radio and TV repair shop that our father opened up in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1953 or 1954.

Daddy opened the TV shop up in 1954, I was 11 years old and for the rest of my childhood, I was there every day after school and on Saturdays.  I finally got time off to play Little League and Little Boys Baseball.  But most of my practice was at the shop next to Mack Weldmon's junk pile.  Boy there were some big rats that lived in that pile of junk.  KALB TV came on the air in 1954.  Most of the day all that was on was a test pattern.  Programming did not start until afternoon and early evening.  Before Channel 5 came to town, the closest station was WDSU in New Orleans.  We had a black and white TV.  It was placed in the corner by the front door of our living/dining room on Baldwin Ave.  If you got as far away from it as possible, you could just make out the images in the "snow".  But we thought it was fantastic.

Daddy worked with Francis Trotter for a few years before he opened up 1401 Lee Street.  Francis had a shop at the corner of 10th and Lee Streets.  Daddy was a 35% partner with Francis in the shop.  At first there was just radio.  One of the things I remember is that the chicken processing plant had an electric grid that killed the chickens.  Daddy would have go out and repair it quite often.  Occasionally they would have to bring it into the shop because repairs could not be completed at the plant.  Daddy and Francis had a lot fun telling stories to the local neighborhood residents about the "electric chair".  It was here and later at our shop that Daddy taught me to get under the dash and check the vibrator on the car radios.  If the vibrator was not buzzing, we checked the fuse, if the fuse was good, we replaced the vibrator.  The vibrator was a metal can with 4 prongs to plug into a socket.  All systems were 6 volts.  Later when 12 volts became the norm, the vibrators had 4 prongs and 3 prongs.  So we had to stock several types.  If the vibrator was buzzing, then we tried the OZ4 rectifier tube that was next to the vibrator.  Most of the early radios were in two sections.  The power supply with the vibrator and OZ4 was hung under the dash on the passenger side or bolted to the firewall.  The RF section or controls was mounted in the dash or under the dash in the center of the front seat area.  If the power supply checked out ok, we then took the cover off the RF section and put our hands on the tubes checking to see if they were warm, usually at this time we would find a cold tube.  Replacing the cold tube usually fixed the problem.  I used to laugh at guys that would bring their car in to have the radio fixed and would say to us that they would fix it themselves if they had the proper tools.  Most radios were Motorola.

LMYC Super Bowl Party

An Impromptu Super Bowl party was held at the club house.  A good time and fellowship was had by all.  Plans were made for the Mexico Triangle race on Saturday the 12th.  A few Pictures are below.

Day on the Bay

Yes, we did get out on the boat today.  Jake and I cruised the Laguna Madre and ship channel for a few hours.  We passed and visited with Jim and Joan of Wild Blue for a bit.

Sadly we saw many dead fish as the cold temperatures affected the marine life used to the warm waters.  We had water temperatures drop into the 40s and are still now just below 50dF.

Quite a bit of activity as the dredges and tugs pushing barges are out in force.

A good day temps up near 70....What a difference a day makes.

What a difference a day makes

What a difference a day makes.  Beautiful sunshine!!  We spent most of the day yesterday in our motor home in our garage.  I propped the huge door open about 6 foot and opened the back passage door.  That with the 3x3 vent at the rear of the garage and the North wind gave us enough ventilation to run the aquahot diesel heater.  We ran the inverter for computers and routers.  We moved most of our frozen food down the reefer in the motor home.  We expected the generator to come on, but the new batteries have great reserve so we never used it.  With the temperature around 50 in the house, we were comfortable in the motor home.  Seems like there are a lot of leaks around town with broken pipes and valves.  We lost water pressure this morning and now it is off completely.  I guess I will just have go play in the tug.