In May 2003 David and I took our Hans Christian 33T on a three day excursion to Double Bayou. We were accompanied by Crystal and Darrel on sailing vessel Marcella, Scott and Blake on s/v Southern Cross, and Jim on s/v Cavu. Dan and Pam came with us on Bruadair, but later returned with s/v Southern Cross the first evening. Double Bayou is located along the Eastern shore of Trinity Bay, Trinity Bay is located NE of Galveston Bay. Double Bayou is a small river that quickly splits into two rivers, the West Fork and the East Fork. The town of Double Bayou is located along the West Fork, and is full of shrimp boats and a processing plant. The people of Double Bayou went out of their way to accommodate us. We had gotten a ride to a gas station a few miles down the road, free oil for the outboard, and an awesome lunch and cold drinks at Double Bayou Landing (Thanks Sheral!!). We chose the East Fork as our destination for the solitude. We enjoyed beautiful sunsets, fishing (catfish and bass), bird and alligator watching, and exploring in our dinghies. We hope you enjoy the pictures, there are close to 150 in the photo album we have set up.

To see photos of our trip in the photo gallery, please click below. (I tried to get the pictures in order, but some are still out of sequence.)

Photo Gallery - photos of our trip to Double Bayou

Movie 1 - short movie of our trip.

Movie 2 - another short movie

Navigation Notes - We departed Waterford Harbor Marina at 11 am. Weather was mostly cloudy, changing to partly cloudy in the late afternoon. When we reached marker #1 in the Kemah Channel, we made a course for Channel Marker 61 on the Houston Ship Channel. During this short passage, winds were under 5 knots and the waters were calm. After crossing the Houston Ship Channel at marker 61, we continued to motor along in Trinity Bay. The winds had picked up to 15 knots, but was from the NE, right on the nose. We met s/v Southern Cross at the entrance to Double Bayou and waited with them for Marcella and Cavu to catch up. The entrance to Double Bayou is well know for being tricky as there are many shoals along the way, and we thought it would better to follow Southern Cross in as they had been there before. The five mile Double Bayou Channel was easy to navigate, but it was nice to have Southern Cross show us into the bayou. We had the raft up secured by 1530 in the East Fork, and the dinghies in the water by 1600. Two days were spent exploring the East and West Forks, spotting alligators, and catching fish. On the trip back to Waterford Harbor Marina, we followed a reciprocal coarse, but now the wind was again on our nose. We motored all of Trinity Bay, but did get some motor sailing done in Galveston Bay. An excellent first trip in the boat!

For more information on Double Bayou, click here to go to the Bay Area Rum Runners web site. They have excellent information and chart photos for Double Bayou.