Sailing with Friends on Galveston Bay - Storm Encounters

Some of our sailing friends from Dallas came down for a visit for the weekend. We decided to go out for a nice sail knowing that we had a 40% chance of isolated Thunder Storms. We were out for 5 or 6 hours and had a really nice sail. The weather did kick up a bit and we had a nice broad reach sail, a close hauled sail in heavy clouds and gusty wind followed by a rain fall heavy enough to really cut down on visibility. We sailed under reefed main only for a while and then as the heaviest of rain was about to start, we dropped and secured sail and motored outside of the mouth of the channel until visibility improved. When the rain cut down enough to see a couple of hundred feet we started back toward the inlet to Clear Lake from Galveston Bay. All in all it was a great day sailing. The biggest mistake was forgetting to close 2 of the ports over the rear bunk so we got a bit wet in that section of the boat.