A Swallowtail Butterfly feasting on Plumbago in Port O’Connor. -Photo by Glenn Adamek

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Katherine from the Mobile, Alabama Boys and Girls Club followed the Aces during the 35th Annual Air Race Classic.

The Racing Aces, Dianna Stanger and Victoria Holt, are busy making final preparations for the 36th Annual Air Race Classic (ARC) which will begin on Tuesday, June 19th in Lake Havasu, Arizona. The 2,682 statute-mile race will span over eight states including; Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Ohio.

“The course for the 2012 Air Race Classic will present exciting challenges for the team. We will be navigating through mountainous terrain, and special use airspace. We will face extreme temperatures in the desert and weather that changes by the minute in the mid-west,” said Victoria Holt. “We’ve modified our strategy a bit this year, we have a new airplane, and the entire team has a winning attitude. So….Game on!”

The Racing Aces announced earlier in the year that they will proudly sponsor scholarships available for 2013 Calhoun High School female graduates with the proceeds from the air race.

As female pilots, the Aces are well aware of the obstacles that each female pilot has had to overcome and they are working to encourage more girls with what has come to be a passion of ours: aviation! According to the Federal Aviation Administration, females comprise a mere six percent of all pilots, a percentage that has not increased in nearly a century of licensing pilots. This troubling statistic is one that we are going to personally combat during this race as we promote education in aviation to the general public along our race route.

“The opportunity to race along with fifty other teams of female pilots is an experience that lasts a lifetime. The fact that our race route changes each year gives us an opportunity to visit some locations and landscape that the Aces would have never gotten to visit,” said Dianna Stanger. “It is a very humbling and exhilarating race with new friends made each year and smiles we never forget.”

As a part of the minimal female pilot population, Victoria and Dianna are looking forward to the competition and the spirit of the Air Race Classic while educating our youth regarding all that aviation has to offer. Visit the Aces website, www.theracingaces.com to track them as they compete in the air race.

A new plane, refined tactics and a year’s experience under their belts; the female pilots are excited to take to the skies.

NOS Special Projects has developed, in collaboration with the National Geodetic Survey and NOAAs Coastal Services Center, a new tool to view NOAAs collection of historical shoreline surveys. The NOAA Historical Shoreline Survey Viewer provides access to a large number of historical shoreline surveys conducted by NOAA and its predecessor organizations. About 7,800 surveys, the earliest dating back to 1841, are available for viewing in Google Earth. In addition to overlaying a scanned image of the survey in Google Earth, the viewer provides links to download the original scan and metadata, the resulting extracted vector shoreline, and a descriptive report compiled by the survey team. When compared to imagery available through Google Earth, the surveys provide invaluable historical information about how the shoreline has evolved through both natural and man-made changes over the last 170 years. More at http://specialprojects.nos.noaa.gov/tools/shorelinesurvey.html.

This is the 5th year of the TEXAS Sail Club’s “Raid” up the South Texas Coast.  This year, as it was last year, will start in Port Isabel, Texas with stops in Port Mansfield/Jetties,  Happt’s Cut, then a big to-do at the Padre island Yacht Club, with a Last stop at Paul’s Mott.

There will be a “first” for the Texas 200 Sail Club, as there will be a wedding at the Paul’s Mott over night. What a way to start a life with another person! On a Raid, by a Captain, of a Small Boat.  Good luck to the newlyweds!

Boats have been as small as a 4X8 sheet of plywood, and just as square,  to the larger white plastic sail boats that everyone sees, –  and everything in between. From Mono hull’s to Cat’s, and Tri’s they’re all there.

As with any time of year in Texas, one can expect great weather. That is, if one is from Texas and understands that Texas Weather can be from just warm “upper 90’s” to the warmer 115◦ plus.  And the wind can be from nothing to gale force.  As it was last year, we started in a calm and light wind, and ended with small craft warnings all up the coast.

What a way to live!  Sailing in the coastal waters of Texas, in the Summer and nothing to worry about but your self, “Your Boat” and where you’re going next!  Some of the sailors and boats come from ‘’All’’ over the Country, just to sail and RAID the Coast of  Texas!

This year the start is on the 11th of June and finishes here in Seadrift, Texas on the afternoon of the 15th.

Come on down and watch the boats finish this 200 mile Raid, “run up the Coast”.  And everyone that finishes, is a Winner!  The winning is making it the 200 miles.  And most do!

Jack LaBarge
Just a Member of the Raid

You can tell Summer is here. We have 90+ temps, big crowds, full parking lots at the boat ramps, lines at Speedy Stop and lots of boats going to Sunday Beach. Memorial Day brought lots of people to town and the weekend after was about the same. Everything was orderly and I didn’t see any signs of problems, no gunfire or anything.

The fishing held up pretty well during the last few weeks. Trout fishing has been best in San Antonio Bay. The surf is holding good trout but the weather hasn’t permitted very many days that left the surf safe to fish. South winds have been in the 10 to 15 knot range. We had one or two days last week that allowed surf fishing and the results were excellent but I would encourage everyone to be extremely careful when deciding whether or not to fish the surf. If you think it might be too rough, it probably is. Catching trout isn’t worth the risk of turning your boat up side down and hurting folks.

The lakes are getting better as the water temps rise. Reds are the main attraction but trout are there as well. Some big trout are there to spawn so you might find a 25+ trout in Pringle or Contee. Most folks are using live shrimp under a rattle cork or throwing soft plastics. I’ve found that on most days the artificials worked well but some days the grass makes it a lot easier to fish the shrimp.

The jetties have been good overall. The last few days have been a bit tough with some pretty stiff tides. I have been doing better in the late afternoon than in the morning. We’ve caught a little bit of everything; reds, drum, snapper, grouper and trout. I had two trout over 25” on one trip this week. Its been a bit difficult to get to the outside due to some fairly big swells (5-6ft) at the ends of the rocks.

In the above picture, Sissy and Randy Jordan from Anahuac and Pat and Sheldia Hill (no relation) of Oak Grove, La. had a good time on a windy day at the jetties.

Capt. Bob Hill
Port O’Connor Charters
(281) 984-0015
www.fishportoconnor.com