The Book of Texas Bays

7. Galveston Bay and Bayport

59 Skimming along in a large sailboat always got my attention. It is exhilarating, even scary. I like the idea of being powered by the wind; I like the freedom of independence from fossil fuel. Above all, I like the quiet. Walter Duson taught several of us about sailing. He grew up in El Campo and spent much of his youth on Matagorda Bay and its tributary Carancua Bay, where his family had a house at El Campo Beach. Like many others, he moved to Houston for work, in his case as an architect. And like many others in Houston, he looked to Galveston Bay for recreation, for quality time. For Walter, sailing was it. The Clear Lake area is the sailing and recreational center of Galveston Bay. Formed where Clear Creek, Armand Bayou, and Taylor Bayou come together, Clear Lake is a protected secondary bay off Galveston Bay proper and is an excellent anchorage for recreational vessels. Today the Clear Lake area ranks near the top in the United States in terms of number of sailboats. It is a recreational paradise right next door to nasa’s Johnson Space Center. Walter kept his boat at Watergate Yachting Center on the south side of Clear Lake. We would motor down the Kemah channel, cross beneath the old drawbridge that once spanned the channel where State Highway 146 now boasts a 7 Galveston Bay &Bayport Galveston Bay &Bayport The Galveston Bay system has about 3.5 million people surrounding it, primarily on the west side. State Highway 146 runs along the west shoreline from Baytown at the top right to Texas City at the bottom center. The Houston Ship Channel was dredged from the Gulf of Mexico through the pass separating Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula (called Bolivar Roads) and then northward through the bay to near downtown Houston. GALVESTON BAY CLEAR LAKE H O U S T O N S H I P TRINITY BAY EAST BAY GALVESTON BAYPORT C H A N N E L 60 The Book of Texas Bays high-level bridge, and pass the commercial shrimp boats and restaurants of Seabrook and Kemah. Today the south side of the Kemah channel has been transformed into a carnival, with a Ferris wheel and other glitter entreating visitors to visit the Kemah Boardwalk and eat at Joe’s Crab Shack or Landry’s or other restaurants owned by Tilman Fertitta. When we sailed with Walter, the place was much simpler and, to my mind, better than it is today. Walter married my wife’s sister Liz, about the time that we moved to Houston and I entered graduate school at Rice University in the early 1970s. We had no money, but we did have Walter, and he would take Liz, my wife Garland Kerr, and me sailing any time we wanted to go. This was my introduction to Galveston Bay, how I first came to know these waters, sailing with Walter and Liz and Garland. A magical moment comes when you enter the bay and unfurl the sails. The main is pulled straight up along the mast and the jib is pulled up a guy wire extending from the bow to the top of the mast. The motor is cut; silence envelops the boat. You hear the wind, first playing with the sails, and then the sails tighten and fill, white wedges against the water and sky. You feel the wind taking over, powering the boat forward. Walter would take the wheel, immediately seeking the edge, the line where the boat and the wind were most efficient, smiling the devilish smile of a man happier than the law allows. Sailing hinges upon the art of the practical. The wind is in control—it is your power source and your director. You can sail downwind, but you cannot sail directly into the wind, and that is what makes sailing interesting. You must often glide away from your destination in order to reach it by coming about, rearranging yourself in relation to the wind so that it will push or pull you to where you wish to be. Sailing with Walter was about friendship and a shared enjoyment of the outdoors. It was about watching birds, fish, and fishermen as well as learning the force of the wind and water. Once Walter took us sailing out of the bay and down the coast. We started out in Galveston Bay and ended up at Port Isabel on Laguna Madre...