Cruising Fun on the Gulf Coast - Texas or ???

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Houston (Kehma area) big city or Corpus (laid back). There are lots of other places in between,but if you fly here, your probably going through Houston anyway.

For a long weekend, go to the Houston/Galveston area. Plenty of stuff to do and tons of boats in a small area.

[leboyd]

I live about an hour from Kemah area (includes Clear Lake and Galveston Bay, with several marinas). This is the area where I took my ASA courses back in ‘12 (yes, yes, a rookie/youngster sailor). Did one sail down to Corpus.

We do not have a boat because the water is 10’ deep and very muddy. You cannot see anything in the water, so I won’t get in and I won’t get in, neither will my wife. Additionally, it’s not within eyesight of anything. Everything looks the same - like nothing. Everything is flat, so you don’t see hills on the shores. Houston’s too far to see. Best view are the HUGE ships coming in and out in the Houston Ship Channel (a 45’ deep ditch dug out of the middle of GB. Redfish Island isn’t like an island. It’s itsy bitsy, and stick out of the water about 1 foot. There is no life on the island, including vegetation. Lastly, it’s 30nm to the Gulf - straight against the prevailing wind.

CC on the other hand seemed better. The water was clearer, beaches aren’t mud, coast has some view and the Gulf is “right there”.

I’m 3ish hours from CC. If I ever buy a boat (there are plenty to charter anytime you want out of Kemah area), I would probably keep it in CC. If I was only interested in getting out to the Gulf quickly for 20kt-30kt sailing, I would choose Freeport (nothing to see there but closer then CC for me).

YMMV

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Thanks guys. This information helps; especially when I'm a first timer to the area and trying to cover the most ground and learn what I can over a weekend. Any restaurant recommendations near any of the marinas? Same deal, I don't want to go to a chain but want something nice - not fancy, just good food preferrably local fare.

[SSgtPitt]

Perfect timing for this thread, for me at least. Wife and I both just quit our jobs, kids are taking over the house and we’re headed to Corpus in a few weeks to move onto the boat and finish our upgrades so we can leave.
Everything about CC above is true.....it almost never stops blowing. First thing in the morning it’s dead calm and glassy though which is great for pulling the sails up to work on them. Once the sun gets up a little bit though it brings the wind and off you go. Our boat is in the CC City Marina and we love it. We’ve been traveling back and forth a little over two years now. It takes about 4 hours to get from the Marina to open water and the wind is on your nose the whole time. You need to stay awake because there’s puh-lenty of stuff to run into and the big ships will be on you quick.
We clean our hull in the marina with a 2 mil suit on and haven’t had any skin problems yet. October the water was so full of Jelly’s you couldn’t get in anywhere.
Unfortunately you need a car to go anywhere decent, unless you like Joe’s Crab Shack and Landry’s. WestMarine is 20 mins away. Same as the grocery and liqour stores. There’s enough traffic in and out of the marina that it’s easy to hitch a ride somewhere and everyone is so friendly that rides are offered often.
If you get more than 1/2 a mile off the coast the heat and humidity get oppressive, we’re from Colorado Springs so it takes a few days to get used to the wet blanket feeling. But our skin smooths out and the wrinkles get less noticeable and we don’t feel like a dried out popcorn kernal anymore. Otherwise staying on the water with the wind blowing all the time is great.
If we could leave CO today for Texas we would, it’s great down there.