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Finally some more sailing. It had been 9 days since I'd been able to rip around and I was jonesing for a fix.
I decided to give Oso Bay another shot, because it's a lot closer than Bird Island (30 minute shorter drive), there is a grassy rigging area and decent launch, fewer weeds than Grassy Point, a bit deeper than Grassy Point, and little or no jellyfish to contend with. It's also really close to the TAMUCC launch, so you can pick between them with about a 5 minute drive. If you want, you can sail under the bridge out into Corpus Christi Bay near the TAMUCC launch. TAMUCC is a great place to sail, but you have to rig on sand and park on this rocky area. All in all, Oso had a lot going for it.
Mike M. and I got there about 5pm and it was blowing, but not howling. Mike rigged his 6.0 and I rigged my 7.8. The first 15 or 20 minutes was slogging... little or no planing. Then it started to pick up and I had about an hour and a half of ripping around. I was using my Allstar and my 44 cm weed fin, and I was a little worried about running aground or hitting something under the water, but I didn't have any problems. Fishermen have lines all over, but they are marked. I didn't have any problem, but it's something to watch out for. What is in the water is the biggest drawback to Oso. There are supposedly some old crab traps and some spoils and oyster reefs to worry about.
It worked out well, though. There were three kiters for awhile, but they packed up about six, while Mike and I sailed for an hour longer. A few times some big helicopters would slowly come overhead on their way to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, which is on one side of the small bay.
The chop was pretty good. There were a few 1-2 footers, which was surprising given the direction (east, not much fetch) and the shallow water. I've sailed Oso on my 4.7 in a SE and the chop was a bit bigger. Just enough to have fun with, and a little challenging, but nothing major. It will be a good place to learn chop hops. The chop has a better pattern than at Bird, which is a rather hapharzard chop pattern.
I pulled off one really great planing jibe today, and made a ton more of the falling-off-a-plane variety. I'm still getting my footwork down and toward the end of the day I was getting dehydrated and wasn't as agile. I'll get them soon. I can at least turn without any problem, but coming through on a plane is mostly still to come.
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