Crew Available: Crew for Weekend Trips from Houston or N. Texas Lakes

[travelphotog]

My wife and I are looking for a way to get experience crewing on a sailboat anticipating the possibility of full-time cruising in the near future after taking early retirement. I have some sailing experience from years ago, wife has none. We're both in our mid fifties and we would love to crew on weekends on a boat in Houston/Galveston/Kemah area or on one of the lakes in North Texas (we live near Dallas). We hope to get some informal experience and know this is something we're going to want to continue to pursue before buying a boat or shelling out big bucks for certification to be able to bareboat charter.

I should also mention that I'm a professional photographer and I can trade photo skills for instruction and experience.

Suggestions and/or crewing opportunity welcome!

Ken

dkenhurst at hotmail dot com

[txtowman]

I have a catalina 22 near brownwood. I would be interested in sailing and doing some photography lessons on the water, I just upgraded to a dslr And get tired of sailing by myself.

[rgscpat]

Could perhaps the Texas Mariners Cruising Assn (TMCA Texas Mariners Cruising Association Home Page, Galveston Bay) be a resource for you? And I think the area also has a sailing/social club (Sail La Vie?).

[travelphotog]

Thanks for your responses txtowman and rgscpat! I'll check out the TMCA as a resource and txtowman I'll send you a PM soon and maybe we can work out some sailing/photography experiences. Do you trailer your catalina or is it in a slip near Brownwood?

[rgscpat]

I've visited with a couple of the TMCA folks and know they did frequent cruises -- running across the bay to camp in Double Bayou, going down the Intercoastal, etc. It seems that networking with them would be a good way to start picking up rides.

PS, my son Gerald is a photo major at Arizona State. He's thinking he'd like to be a park ranger and do mostly nature photography on the side. Gerald is also the president this year of the ASU sailing team (though that's historically been a very small and poorly funded group but they are proud of how the support equal access for all sailors, including a couple of boats set up for sailors to overcome disabilities).