December 22-27, 1986: Christmas in North Carolina
	November 11-14, 1986: A Week in California
	Return to the Index for 1986

Today, Grant and I are going out to Lake Ray Hubbard to have an afternoon sail on his relatively new S-2. It is a little chilly today- maybe about 65°.

Grant used to keep his old boat at Lake Lewisville, up northwest from Dallas. That lake is not particularly picturesque, and so when Grant traded boats and acquired his S-2, he investigated other places to keep it.

He decided to keep it at Lake Ray Hubbard, so when he traded down at Inwood Sailing Center, he had it delivered there, and put in the water at Chandler's Landing Marina, part of the Chandler's Landing Yacht Club complex.

Chandler's Landing is on the east side of Lake Ray Hubbard, which is in turn east of Dallas; it is about a twenty-mile trip out there from our house near Love Field. Lake Ray Hubbard, formerly Forney Lake, is a large fresh water reservoir east of town that covers portions of four counties- Dallas, Kaufman, Collin, and Rockwall. It was created by the construction of the Rockwall-Forney Dam which impounded the East Fork of the Trinity River.

The reservoir covers almost 23,000 acres and has a storage capacity of almost a half-million acre-feet (600 million cubic meters) of water at a maximum depth of 40 feet. The dam itself is currently owned by the City of Dallas. Interstate 30 crosses the lake about in the middle, if you measure north-to-south, but in fact most of the area of the lake is south of that crossing; certainly most of the usable area is south of it, as the half north is relatively shallow and still has numerous submerged obstacles. The lake was renamed when it was incorporated into the City of Dallas; Ray Hubbard presided over the Dallas Parks and Recreation System board from 1943 to 1972.

With the construction of the dam and creation of the lake, a whole new residential area was created east of Dallas, offering lakeside and lakeview property. It took some time for enough people to decide to move this far out of the city, but eventually the town of Rockwall on the east side of the lake and the surrounding communities grew to a size where there were enough facilities to make the lakeside communities self-sufficient. Interstate 30 offered a convenient route to the east side of the lake, although it eventually started to clog up at certain times of the day.

The Chandler's Landing Yacht Club was founded and built shortly after the lake reached its maximum size. With a nice clubhouse, a swimming pool, a dining room and, of course, a marina, the yacht club offered Grant a nice environment for keeping the S-2. The lease payment for the dock slip began at about $75 per month, and rose over the next couple of years to $110. But the facilities were nice enough that this was not an exhorbitant price to pay. Grant secured a convenient slip on the north side of one dock and far enough out such that coming in from the lake was easy.

(I might note that for reasons you will discover in the next few album years, the S-2 was here only through 1990. After we took it out of this marina and sold it, we rarely came out here. In the 1990s, the marina had financial difficulties, mostly due to its attempted metamorphosis into a tennis club. It is still in business, but it is a much different operation than when we were here.)

We have had the S-2 here for a few months now, and in the summer the two of us came out almost every weekend to take the boat out. Today I brought my camera along to take a few pictures.

I began taking pictures when we arrived, parked the car and headed down to B-Dock where the S-2 is berthed at Chandler's Landing; here is Grant walking down the dock.

We have had a lot of fun with the boat since Grant bought it earlier this year. This Fall, we have sailed frequently, although it is getting a little chilly for sailing now. It is still much nicer than if we were in Chicago, where Grant still has the little boat that he began his sailing career using. It is in storage in Gurnee, Illinois, although it would have to have been taken out of the water in October anyway since the water would freeze and ruin the boat.

Down here, boats stay in the water year round, so we can always get out on it and Grant likes to use it as much as possible. We haven't got much experience yet with the weather in Dallas, but it is certainly a lot warmer than in Chicago.

Grant has a routine when we get to the boat; certain things have to be done in a certain order before he can fire up the inboard diesel and motor out into the lake where the sails can then be put up. I am learning the routine, and starting to anticipate what he wants to do.

Here is Grant standing on the boat. Grant's boat in Chicago is named Obsession, so he has named this one Obsession II. I am looking up out of the cabin to take this shot of Grant standing near the tiller, which you can just barely see behind him. I did not know it at the time, but Obsession is the most common name for boats that are registered.

The S-2 is a very nice boat, at least from my experience. It has a nice cabin with a forward berth, a head, and plenty of seating in back, including a dining table that folds down. There is a small galley and I have already fixed guacamole on one of our sails in the Summer. In the picture at left, you can see Grant coming up out of the cabin.

The instrumentation is pretty simple, and the lines are relatively easy to work. I am getting so I can be more of a help in sailing than a hindrance. We haven't had too many people on the boat, just Lowery, Brad and one or two other friends, but this first Summer of sailing has been a pleasure.

Grant still has his smaller sailboat in Gurnee, and he is beginning to think that it might sell better if it were down here, although I think that since it was made for a lake like Lake Michigan, maybe he should wait for spring and then try to sell it then to someone in Chicago.

Grant likes the boat a lot, but he would prefer a boat with a wheel instead of a tiller, although wheels normally only come on larger, more expensive boats. I also tend to hit my head on the hatchway occasionally, and he says that a larger boat would solve that problem, too. But this boat is all Grant can handle for now, and I don't want him to get in over his head, so to speak.

Although the weather was cool, the sun was very bright, so I needed them standing on the dock next to Obsession II. Not too many people braved the cool air today, but we sailed out onto the lake anyway.

This is I dock at Chandler's Landing, and we are in space I-16, about 3/4 of the way out the dock. From where we are, it is relatively easy to get the boat in and out of the slip, and I like that. The yacht club is the building on the left.

It takes about 45 minutes to get to Lake Ray Hubbard from our house, but it very much seems like a resort once you get here; the yacht club has a swimming pool, tennis courts and other amenities. There are condos and houses all around- quite a little community out here, consisting mostly of people who work in Dallas but who don't want to live in the city.

Here I am standing on the bow of Obsession II. We decided to just motor around near the marina today, and while we were doing that Grant took this picture of me.

When we got back to the dock, Grant wanted to putter around on the boat for a while, so I went forward to lie down in the berth. Grant has purchased a zip-up comforter that just fits the triangular shape of the berth, and it is quite cozy. We have already spent a couple of nights on the boat, although during the Summer it is too hot most nights to do that.

As usual, we had a good time out on the lake today, even though we didn't go very far. Having the sailboat, and, more importantly, having someone who knows how to pilot it and care for it, has been a really neat thing for me. I enjoy our times on the sailboat very much.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	December 22-27, 1986: Christmas in North Carolina
	November 11-14, 1986: A Week in California
	Return to the Index for 1986