Kermit visits Lake Travis!

jrowan · Sep 4, 2012

I used to live in Austin, not far from Lake Travis. I heard that the lake went dry from the drouts. So they still have enough water to sail on?

kloudie1 · Sep 4, 2012

Laughing. ya probably would have found it much wider if the other 45 feet of water were there! But it is a pretty place.. and fine for sailing, especially when it is at full pool..

Joe · Sep 4, 2012

My cousin lives in Pt Venture, across the water from Lakeway. The lake is way, way down.... the floating docks are practically unreachable.... but you can still find great gunkholing further upstream. Lake Travis was voted one of the top ten sailing lakes in the US by Sail Magazine a few years back. When the water is average or above, I believe it. There is a yacht charter company based in Lakeway.

onecoolair · Sep 4, 2012

"High Gas Prices"

Kermit said:
My First Mate and I spent the day with the kids and grandchildren on Lake Travis in Austin, TX this past Saturday and absolutely LOVED it. Found it to be much different from what I expected. Much narrower (even narrower than Wateree Lake - I thought Wateree was the narrowest of the narrow) than I expected. And the size of the boats! Lots and lots of very larger power YACHTS! We saw a 48' power yacht with a jet ski on a platform with hydraulic lift. Saw several sailboats. I'm posting what appeared to be a P23 that sailed past a sand-bar-looking-island-looking jut-out about a mile upstream of The Gnarly Gar restaurant and marina. (Great food! High gas prices! Gotta love it!) If that was you I'd love to hear from you. I have several pictures and would be happy to send full-resolution images to you.

We had lunch at the Hula Hut Monday on Lake Austin. Didn't get to see much of the lake at all but it seemed nice, too.

We're looking forward to coming back sometime and sailing in your fair city.

Oh I get it now "High Gas Prices" Means for less Ignorate & Rude Speed Boaters!!

Tejas · Sep 5, 2012

The sailing company at Lakeway Marina is Texas Sailing, and the office is located in nice hotel next to the marina.

http://texassailing.com/

hewebb · Sep 5, 2012

In years past (several) we used to go to Lakeway (Sunday brunch was great) for the weekend and rent from sailing Texas. The only issue was the time limit to use the boat. At that time they would not let you be out over night or late in the evening. It was a beautiful place to inland lake sail. We bought our Catalina there last year and the lake was down 45 feet at the time. It was very sad to see the lake down so far and we felt sorry for the folks there with boats. It was quite a chore to get ours out of the water and on a trailer.

Charlie Jones s/v Tehani · Sep 5, 2012

Travis is way down. Lake Medina in San Antonio has two months of irrigation water and they'll shut that down. The big lake up by San Angelo is virtually gone.

Read the other day that some 500 million trees are dead across the state from lack of water- I'm losing a 100+yr old oak.

Texas has been and still is in many places, under record breaking drought. And it could get way worse, if predictions are correct.

Joe Diver · Sep 5, 2012

The population surge into the Hill Country has done more damage than the drought.

Lake Travis historically moves up and down quite a bit as it's flood control for the Colorado and a drinking/irrigation reservoir for the locals. Not as much as in the last decade though. They'll have to rename Sometimes Island to just "Island".

On a positive note....Lake Travis is the best scuba diving lake in Texas. When the water drops like this, the particulate dries up and blows away, so when it fills again (and it will) the water will be exceptionally clear. I've seen viz in the 40' range before. Also, the Mansfield Dam is a bottom release dam, so when it floods and they release water, they release all the super cold water from the bottom. (180+ deep, 50 degrees) Last time they had a super flood....maybe 10 years ago?....I was down at 110', no lights needed, and in shorts and t shirt....quite an amazing thing for a Texas lake. (down in the pecan grove)

Another thing about low levels...some of the technical dive sites are now accessible to recreational divers (Shaker Plant)...when the lake is full these are usually too deep for most.

Joe Diver · Sep 5, 2012

Its down by the dam. It's the first peninsula on the west side of the dam, the inner portion of the first bend in the lake. It's usually underwater.

Kermit visits Lake Travis!

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