Port Aransas Archives | Funky Texas Traveler

Aug 02 2018

Five Ways to Do Port Aransas Right | One Year After Hurricane Harvey

Port Aransas has mostly recovered after the worst hurricane season in U.S. history. I was down on the island recently and did a little scouting. Based on that visit, it’s time to put out an update with five ways to do Port Aransas right… a year after Hurricane Harvey.

Sadly, some beloved spaces are only sweet memories. Yet other hangouts seem comfortably the same with just a little evidence of storm-related upgrades. Like when your grandma changes her lipstick color. And the Key West of Texas vibe is still strong. [Read more…]

Apr 03 2018

Port Aransas Wooden Boat Festival

Port Aransas is clawing back from Hurricane Harvey. How better to celebrate her recovery than with the Port Aransas Wooden Boat Festival, April 6-8? After all, wooden fishing boats, tall wooden ships and stubby wooden hauling scows put Port Aranasas on the map. The Port Aransas Wooden Boat Festival touches on all of those.

Admire the Texas Butthead

Maybe you read my post about the Texas Scow Schooner, called a “Texas Butthead” by more refined naval architects. Check out the loving reconstruction of the Lydia Ann, a scow schooner that was rescued by the wooden-boat loving folks in Port Aransas. With the shoals and sandbars all along the Texas Coast, vessels like the Lydia Ann brought the goods inland to early Texans. [Read more…]

Oct 31 2017

Port Aransas post Harvey

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

I drove south this past Wednesday with Joe Holley from the Houston Chronicle to see how Port Aransas post Harvey was faring.

Admittedly antsy as I rode the ferry, I worried about my friends and favorite places in this beloved Texas town. My anxiety ratcheted up when I heard from a very good friend who didn’t want me to post on social media that I was headed down there.

“Please delete your facebook post. The last thing the poor island needs right now is people down here who aren’t part of the clean up.” If I could have reversed direction in the ferry line, I might have done so but I am so glad I didn’t.

My friend’s frustrated reaction was completely understandable. I should know. My home in Houston flooded a few days before when Harvey paid us an unwelcome visit. But I was compelled to come down. Port A has always felt special. As Dan Solomon said on a recent Texas Monthly blog, “People from all over Texas have strong, tender feelings toward the town, and have long used the place as a getaway from their day-to-day reality. “

[Read more…]

Oct 19 2017

Dan Pecore, Port Aransas boat builder

Dan Pecore, a Port Aransas boat builder, is bringing the only Texas scow schooner back to life. Pretty life-changing for a city kid from Houston who moved to Port Aransas years ago to raise a family. While Dan was growing up in Houston’s museum area, he’d spend weekends on his family’s farm. In the country, this city kid discovered a serenity from working with wood, specifically old wood.

How did Dan become involved with boats?

Dan especially liked the weathered posts from the stock pens and their imperfections – all worn down and sometimes stained by urine and cow shit. He told us he seemed to be able to feel the years and changes the old wood had watched. Sometime later on Port Aransas, he started to build beautiful things from the scraps of aged lumber – jewelry boxes, furniture, keepsakes.

And then Dan began looking for pieces of old boats, specifically dismantled sailboats from places like the Chesapeake Bay. He refashioned that wood into projects, using the knots and the holes to lead him. And in time, he started to build wooden boats.

Texas Scow Schooner project

In 2015, Dan hired on to lead a team to complete the construction of the only Texas scow schooner that now exist anywhere. He has thrown himself into the project with the passion of affair with a stubby, squat beauty that will eventually be called the Lydia Ann.

The balance he has created in his life by building keepstakes, resurrecting the Lydia Ann and reading Rumi is being tested by Hurricane Harvey. Good luck and traveling mercies, Dan.

Oct 15 2017

Port Aransas and the Texas Scow Schooner Project

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

Hurricane Harvey blasted Port Aransas but unbelievably the Farley Boat works and the Texas Scow Schooner project looks untouched. These two historic gems reach deep into the roots of Port Aransas to make you appreciate how difficult it was to build a thriving town on this spot. I’ll give you more background on the Farley Boat Works next week. This week, it is all about the replica Texas Scow Schooner named Lydia Ann, which was to be completed and ready to sail by the end of the year. With Harvey’s visit, who knows when she will hit the water. Here is where to find the latest update on the Lydia Ann.

Boat survived but boat builder’s house not so lucky

Even though the schooner survived, I drove by the home of the man who is leading the project to bring her back to life and my stomach dropped. The beach house where friends and I visited Dan Pecore months earlier to learn his background and the schooner’s history now looked like those long-abandoned adobe dwellings you see in Terlingua. No roof or windows, just exterior, and interior walls. Even more worrisome, I haven’t been able to contact Dan, but I’m hopeful a passion this strong will overcome one little hurricane.

A Beautiful Texas Butthead

Dan finds every inch and curve of the Texas Scow Schooner a thing of beauty – perfectly proportioned and shaped for her function. But when I first saw it, I thought it was kind of small and squatty. Someone had called her a “Texas Butthead” and that description fit. [Read more…]