THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER

Anytime’s the right time for another good snap of the Tall Ship Elissa.

As he did for the Abercrombie in Little Ship, Big War, Lt. Cmdr Edward Stafford tells the compelling day-to-day detail of life aboard an even smaller warship.
SC 692 was about as small as they came in World War II, other than PT boats. Like the PTs, the subchasers also were made of wood. Meaning, among [...]

Great fun watching the live stream (archived video, actually) of the 90-foot-long trimaran races off Valencia, Spain. Giant boats with crews scurrying about like ants, as they fly down the course on one leeward hull or the other, even in light air. The USA team, BMW Oracle Racing, won the first race against a Swiss [...]

Sunk on purpose by Navy Skyhawks in 1968, she lies somewhere on the bottom of the Pacific off Baja, CA. But while she lived, as related in Little Ship Big War, The Saga of DE343, she was a microcosm of World War II and its civilian and professional sailors.
Even down to her irascible captain who [...]

Deck view of an LSMR, from this hobbyist’s page. New stuff to me, these special ships carrying rockets to support troop landings, encountered in Little Ship Big War, The Saga of DE343, by Edward Peary Stafford.
Good book it is, with much day-to-day detail of life aboard a destroyer escort in the last months of World [...]

It’s been a while since I finished this good one, and I’m not sure why I didn’t write a review at the time. The mental pictures of little destroyer escorts plunging through big seas to take on Japanese cruisers in order to protect American escort carriers linger yet. It was in the last days of [...]

Not many people had ever heard of nineteen-year-old Garrett Gilbert when he was rushed onto the field last night at the Rose Bowl to substitute for the injured Colt McCoy.  Garrett is better known here where he led his Lake Travis team to two state championships.
His father Gale played QB in the NFL, for Seattle, [...]

This week’s rain, particularly storms out in the Hill Country along the Pedernales and Llano rivers, and the subsequent runoff, have raised Lake Travis by more than six feet. The rise is expected to continue today, eventually bringing back about half of the fifty feet lowering by the drought.
That would still leave the lake [...]

This week’s rain, particularly storms out in the Hill Country along the Pedernales and Llano rivers, and the subsequent runoff, have raised Lake Travis by more than six feet. The rise is expected to continue today, eventually bringing back about half of the fifty feet lowering by the drought.
That would still leave the lake [...]

The upper end of Cypress Creek Arm, at Anderson Mill Marina on Lake Travis, is a boat-and-float-filled pasture.