"Were do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be? The sweet love story that is older than the sea?"
Strange to think it has been so very long since we last posted to this blog. Why the long span? We didn't want to bore you with the mundane, stinky, sweaty, frustrating "joys" of refitting a S.O.B. (Smelly Old Boat). Oh, how I wish we had kept a list of everything we have done, but oh, how glad I am that we DIDN'T keep track of how much money we've spent!
After spending 20 months (was it REALLY that long?) at the dock living aboard and checking off project after project, we finally set a date to GO! Well, setting a date doesn't actually mean that you DO go (broken fridge and another month in the slip), but it did give us a hard date to shoot for.
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| Joan in the fridge adding insulation and Starboard lining. Lucky my butt isn't any bigger |
No, not everything is done. And yes, we are still (and always will be) working on the boat. But the best part is WE FINALLY UNTIED THE DOCKLINES AND SHOVED OFF!!
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| Leaving Kemah |
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| Into the Bay. The first time. Thanks for a great pictures Cindy |
After delaying for the fridge rebuild and rescheduling crew flights and vacations,
we departed Legend Point Marina (aka, Ghetto Docks) in Clear Lake Shores, Texas on Monday, July 24th, 2017 at 9:07 am. At 11:55 am, we pulled back into our old slip for repairs. Shit! Not an auspicious beginning, to say the least. Low oil pressure and high engine temp forced a quick return. Fortunately, we have some of the greatest friends on the face of the earth and within a few hours, generous friend and sailor, Ed Lowrie had us fixed up then we were off again!
Going across Galveston Bay we encountered another minor snag: water in the bilge from a leaking water heater fitting. Having no idea how much of our fresh water we lost, we pulled into Galveston Yacht Basin and topped off the tank and also shut off the water pressure to the faucets. Not going to run out of water half way across the Gulf if we can help it!
We left the Galveston jetties at 7:30 that same evening. We were all in our places with bright shining faces - except for Pat. He had the look of constant worry and fear of the unknown engine gremlins just waiting for him to relax to do their evil worst.
Our crew consisted of Tom Goldsbury, our treasured dock neighbor and owner of the only boat to leave Legend Point on a regular basis, and Richard Eberhardt, our longtime dear friend and sailor extraordinaire from Perry Yacht Club in Kansas. We knew these guys would hit it off!
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| Richard and Tom (new bffs) |
Then there was our worrisome, but quite capable captain, Patrick and finally me. Me being first mate, provisioner (But NOT galley slave, damnit) and calmer-downer of previously mentioned captain. I was completely confident in the boat, the crew, the navigation equipment, the weather, but NOT my ability to keep watch for fear of being seasick. I was REALLY worried about that. Turns out, no biggie due to Bonine for the first (sightly drowsy) day and a half and pretty smooth seas. Richard used the scopolamine patch for seasickness prevention and was able to get food and drink for us all down inside the hot, rocky boat until I was able. (I'll love you forever for that Richard!)
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| One of the few smiles we saw Pat wear the whole trip |
The responsibility of getting this old boat and all her crew safely across the Gulf of Mexico weighed heavily on Pat but he wants everyone to know that he DID have a good time!
We had planned on a route to Pensacola, Florida out of Galveston Bay heading southeast from the jetties to just below the mouth of the Mississippi River then northeast into Pensacola. Friends had told us that this route across "the oil patch" contained LOTS of rigs but you could see them because they were all lighted. No worries. It's more direct and shorter. Let's do that. Then just as we shoved off, Ed (fixer of the previous motor issues) said to stay in the safety fairway which has more ships but NO rigs. It only adds another 50 nm or so and we would be within quick radio contact with passing ships should "ship happen". Quick crew vote. Safety fairway it is!
Only trouble was that the wind was coming straight off the nose which made for a rocky rolley ride. Why is it that the wind is always coming from directly where you want to go? Anyhow, we saw LOTS and LOTS of oil rigs. Big ones, fat ones, short ones, skinny ones, lighted ones but no unlighted ones. Well, you wouldn't actually SEE an unlighted one, would you? Kinda the point, isn't it? And apparently they ARE out there. We've heard since being here in Florida, that some are just capped off well heads sticking out a few feet above water. Hit that and it quickly ruins your day so it was a smart decision to stay in the safety fairway. Thank you Ed!
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| Just a couple of the MANY rigs in the Gulf. One night I counted 20 plus the glow of MANY more over the horizon. |
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| We had to power up the engine to avoid having to pass behind this shrimper trolling nets behind. |
We divided up our night watches into a team of two crew in the cockpit on 4 hour watches. Since I was new at this and Tom has the same navigation equipment we have, he and I were a watch and Pat and Richard were on the opposite one. I LOVED the night watches! The Milky Way lit up the sky like you can't imagine and for a short time, we saw bioluminescence in our wake that made it look like there was a sparkling Milky Way in the water as well. So beautiful! We had a small pod of dolphins swim under our boat one day and saw lots of flying fish scurry across the top of the water for a surprisingly long distance.
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Sunrise
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Sunset
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One afternoon we saw a medium sized boat coming off our starboard quarter. It was coming pretty fast. What was most notable though was the size of the wake spreading out behind it. Holy cow! You could see it rolling on the horizon! There we were all in the cockpit just sitting there watching the growing V of rolling water getting closer and closer to our boat. Yup, w'ed better turn into it at an angle so it doesn't wake our boat too much. Watching, watching, here it comes! Turn. Hang on! Then someone remembers that ALL the hatches are WIDE OPEN... too late. Oh. My. Gosh! Pat and Richard mopped up the mess as best they could. I didn't want to go below to see the damage. Oh, well. We learned a good lesson. Funny thing after that, we had several "Quick! Close the hatches! Drills" after that.
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Hot, disheveled salon. Note the lifejackets on one side and the empty Corona box on the other. Hey, I said it was hot!
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The highlight of the trip though came after trailing different lures for two days fishing for that elusive tuna, Tom finally caught a fish! Funny we had just been discussing what we wanted to have for dinner. Nothing sounded too appealing then whizzzzzzzz went the line! It took Tom 30-40 minutes to bring it in but he provided us with a feast from the sea that night! True to my word, I was going to have NOTHING to do with catching or cleaning a fish. Pat bought the pole, Tom caught and cleaned the fish, Richard grilled it and I got to eat it!! Sounds like my kind of deal!
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| Working hard fishing. Tom says Cuba next! Gotta get more cigars. |
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| "Took me two days but I GOTCHA!" |
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| Cheap rum down the gills is an instant stun then off with its head! |
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| Richard at the grill working his magic. Note the flat seas. |
In our zeal to get off the dock, we never actually did a proper, full length shakedown cruise where you learn important things like the fuel burn rate for your particular engine. Did I mention that we had to run mostly under engine power? No? Well, things like burn rates are important to know when you are in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico with only 100 gallons of diesel on your little boat. Once we checked the fuel levels after running the engine for 30 hours, we learned that our burn rate was 50% higher than anticipated. Normally, it wouldn't have been a factor; we are a SAILboat, after all. However, with no to very light winds, we ended up motoring 80 out of the 90 hours it took us to cross the Gulf. Fuel is important. Fortunately, Port Eads at the mouth of the Mississippi had diesel, albeit at an ungodly price, and we were good to go on to Pensacola.
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Port Eads tucked up in the marsh in the middle of nowhere sees only about 4 sailboats a year at their dock.
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After overnighting from Port Eads, crossing the ship channel at the mouth of the Mississippi where we were squeezed between two container ships, we arrived in Pensacola on Friday morning.
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| Holy ship! We made it!!! |
We treated ourselves to 3 nights at the Palafox Marina right in the heart of old downtown Pensacola with lots of nightlife, restaurants, shopping, baseball field and beautiful people to watch including some of the cute young Navy pilot trainees. (I liked that a lot!)
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| Last night in Palafox at Jaco's Restaurant. And amazingly, after 6 days on a little boat, WE'RE ALL STILL FRIENDS!!! |
We saw Richard and Tom off to the airport on Sunday. That was so, so sad. Richard left first. Then right after Tom left, Pat and I looked at each other, suddenly donning on us that it was just the two of us now. We both literally cried.
Our crew got really tired of us thanking them for helping us get across the Gulf and literally launching us into what we hope will be "the fun phase of our adventure" after all the toil of the refit on our S.O.B. But we're gonna do it again... THANK YOU!!! We couldn't have done it without you! We have many others to thank as well. Johnny and Carol of Atlantis Marine Canvas (the greatest canvas shop in all of Texas) are not only generous friends but also great supporters and encouragers of all things that can be sewn on a boat as well as electronic gremlin chasers. Thank you both so much! And of course Ed and Cindy Lowrie for literally pushing us off the dock - twice!
Then there is the cast of friends in the vicinity and dock neighbors we left at Legend Point Marina. They were always ready to lend a hand or words of advice. Thank you all. May your docks remain intact and your pilings erect. (Yeah, good luck with that. Seriously.)
We had a grand time and consider our crossing a huge success! We are pooped but good. We have lots to learn, see and do ahead of us.
I'll end with my favorite quote from Mark Twain:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore! Dream! Discover!"
