Finally! Internet!

Wow- It's been a long haul without internet. We've had an adventure already. I am writing everything in more detail for a book later on so I won't make the blogs too long.... I'll try to sum up each day for you until I get caught up...

(OKAY- I just started writing and it's long. Sorry. Lots to tell. You know how I am) :)

As you can see, Benny has finally found his comfort spot.

He's doing much better after that first day.

Day 2: MATAGORDA TO SARGENT... FREEPORT..

We left Matagorda and headed toward Sargent for a short journey before resting to do projects. We'd read that it was a good place to tie up for free. Shortly upon leaving Matagorda, Brett decided to take us on a detour straight for a mooring buoy! These things were eigh feet in diameter, solid concrete! They were built to keep barges moored up. He had been watching the gears. I glanced up and saw him close. He turned it hard to port and we narrowly missed the buoy. I glared at him. I was angry at the thought of what would happen to us if he'd hit that concrete buoy with us doing 5 knots! After awhile we joked about it.

"How would we explain THAT to Boat U.S.!" I laughed. Brett was notorious for wandering at the wheel.

We put up the sail for two hours. It was great to not have the engine on.









When we reached Sargent, the tie up area was too shallow for our 5'8" draft. So we headed down the waterway toward Freeport. We figured we'd have just enough time to make it before dark. Going through the Sargent bridge was easy and we meandered toward Freeport. Everything was great. We checked out the San Bernard river for anchorage but decided to wait for my first anchorage. We wanted a protected bay without a current to possibly drag us into the Gulf. LOL Crossing the Brazos River locks was interesting. The current pulled us toward the river toward a barge that was lining up in front of us. Brett had to struggle to keep us off the barge. After the river, we ran into heavy barge traffic. After the locks, our barge had slowed to 1.9 knots so we politely requested permission to pass. He let us pass without a problem.
We crossed under the first Freeport bridge- My first bridge on a boat. It was exhilarating. After the bridge, we caught up to another tug. We were worried that we'd not make Freeport before dark. We asked to pass and he said we could after a turn, but as we passed between him and a tug that was sideways, the large barge sped up, making it impossible to pass him. We fell back behind and followed his prop wash for an hour. We finally reached the harbor just before dark. We grounded getting up to the transient dock. The tide was extremely low. We discovered that only 50amp power was available at the slip we pulled up to. The security guard had come over and was helping us move the boat. So we shimmied the boat through the mud back to a different slip. LeRoy was very nice and we chatted with him for a long time. I was worn out from the stress of the barge traffic and the grounding. We ordered pizza that took forever to get there and called it a night.
















DAY 3: FREEPORT TO OFFETS BAYOU, GALVESTON, TEXAS
We got up the next morning and paid our $1.50/foot fee for the night. Then we walked over to West Marine to pick up Galveston Bay charts. We tried to find the current Skipper Bob book but West Marine didn't have it. We headed out of Freeport. It was a quiet ride, I even took a nap!
Approaching Galveston, we came across thousands of brown pelicans nesting along the jetties. It was incredible! As we came upon the narrow intersection of channels, before the Galveston Causeway bridge, I came back from taking pictures of the pelicans on the deck. I sat down and smelled something burning. "Brett. Do you smell something burning?" He frantically ran downstairs as I took over steering. He gingerly opened the engine room door and steam flowed through the crack. I shut off the engine and we spun around in the narrow channel, our bow being thrown over by the 15 knot winds. I started to panic, seeing us crippled in the middle of the ship channel with only a few feet of water on each side.
I asked Brett if we should throw up a sail. He said to just keep us in the channel. I steered the boat the rest of the way into the channel, back to where we had just come from. It kept us in the channel as he feverishly worked away at the radiator. He had me start the engine and veer back to our destination. He took over steering while I preceded to pour gallon after gallon of fresh water into our radiator. It was a hot, sweaty job with the engine running near 200 degrees. For an hour and a half, we poured all of our freshwater into the radiator, approximately thirty three gallons.
Just as we'd run out of water, we reached the bay and were able to throw up the sail in front of Moody Gardens. We tacked toward the SouthEast part of the bayou. As I steered, Brett chose a spot to anchor and we dropped anchor under sail. Not bad for my first anchoring! We secured everything and Brett went into the engine compartment to take a look.
Another thing Brett is famous for. Not tightening fittings and forgetting to solder plumbing pipes. LOL. He had forgotten to retighten the hose clamp for the radiator hose after checking it. It had shimmied loose with the vibration of the engine. We spent the night quietly anchored near another boat that looked like it was there for awhile.

DAY 4: OFFETS BAYOU, GALVESTON
The next day, Brett explored the marina and other anchored boat with our dinghy and then we headed toward Ray's Bayou Bar and Marina for the night, about a hundred yards from where we were anchored.











We spent the day running errands on the bike. Walmart was only a couple miles away and AutoZone, Boaters World and West Marine were also close by. Brett spent the day working on the engine, replacing hoses and buying spares while I made purchases from store to store. Our GPS had decided to quit on our first day so I picked up a cheap, $100 model at Walmart. It didn't have the navigation aids on it like our Garmin Map76S did but it would work. I rode my bike across the hairy roads to West Marine. The lady there was super nice and offered me tons of advice for anchoring and mooring. She had gone down the ICW three years earlier. I bought a log book (proven useless) and the August Issue of Lattitudes and Attitudes magazine. (Couldn't live without it!).







That evening, I washed all the laundry at the RV park and surfed through my email. We had a nice dinner at the restaurant we'd parked next to. We discovered that the fuel docks did not have diesel. So Brett and I walked to Walmart at 9 o'clock and bought two more diesel cans. We returned in the evening and intensely studied the Galveston Bay chart.

DAY 5: OFFETS BAYOU, GALVESTON TO STINGAREE MARINA, CRYSTAL BEACH






In the morning he rowed over to the gas station and bought three five gallon cans of diesel. We were surprised to see we'd only used eleven gallons of diesel on our first leg. I scrambled back to the laundry room to wrap up last minute bills online and then we headed out.














The Galveston Bay crossing ended up going very smoothly.


We called the Stingaree Marina to see if they had space. Many people had told us that it was burnt down and not reopened. I called the marina and someone answered. They said they did have the open slip available so we made our way to Stingaree. I was excited because we had a lot of people tell us it was a great place. Before we knew it, we were sliding into a channel, marked as Stingaree. The channel shallowed to just under six feet and we slid through the mud to get in. It seemed very narrow. There were sailboats and RVs and a large building just as the Stingaree Marina was claimed to be. But no one was around and there was no slip available next to the other sailboats. It was extremely shallow and narrow.

I called Stingaree Marina and apparantely the chart had the wrong cut marked as Stingaree. We headed two miles East and finally found them. The owner, Jim, caught our lines and gave us a grand welcome. He was extremely pleasant and helpful, accomodating. We met several people as we sat in front of our boat at the bait shop's picnic tables. One family even asked to see my jewelry and bought a lot of it, right off the boat at a bait shop. It was wonderful! They were such nice people who really seemed interested in our adventure! We met another family immediately after they had left who also found our story fascinating.


Brett and I immediately fell in love with this little place. We lounged around, talking with people. Jim's thirty seven foot Fisher was the only other sailboat there on the tiny dock next to the shop. We ate at the Stingaree restaurant (that had been rebuilt immediately after a section of it had burned). Excellent food. We strolled around the park during sunset. It was beautiful.





DAY 6: STINGAREE MARINA TO TAYLOR OUTFALL BAYOU
We headed toward Taylor Outfall Bayou for anchorage the next night. On our way, I attempted to use the Skipper Bob book that Carol and George gave us. I had tried to get us into several anchorages but none panned out. I tried again just before the Taylor Outfall Bayou but struck out again. I was following the mile markers in the book and didn't understand why it wasn't working. Brett suggested the mile markers were for a different part of the waterway. I told him he was silly but read the contents in detail. It was for the EAST coast not the GULF coast. Oh how stupid I felt!!! I apologized profusely to Brett.
We turned into Taylor Outfall Bayou. There were already four barges anchored for the night. I suggested another canal that branched off the Taylor Outfall Bayou just a little ways up on the West Side. As we glided through the calm waters, we came upon the canal with a trawler anchored just inside it's mouth. We gladly swung West of the trawler and also placed our anchor. It didn't grab tightly, so Brett had me reverse the engine and we dug it in tight.
It was a gorgeous evening. I had enough energy to whip up a new meal with our canned stores. It took forever to cook but was delicious. Boiled/fried red potatoes, corned beef and canned mushrooms all sauteed together with some Johnny's seasoning. YUM!
We spent the evening surveying for alligators. This channel had run into a wildlife preserve where there was supposed to be alligators and birds everywhere. And of course, giant sized salt marsh mosquitos. We found those.



DAY 7: TAYLOR OUTFALL BAYOU TO ADAMS BAYOU-SABINE YACHT BASIN
At around midnight, our inverter alarm went off, waking us both up in a frenzy. At four thirty in the morning, I heard rain start to tap our deck. I raced around, opening our mosquito nets to close the hatches. Brett woke up and helped me secure everything from the rain. The wind had picked up and the squall surged by us.
I stepped outside to put things away in the cockpit. As I looked up, I saw the ghostly creature in the water. "Brett," I whispered. "there's an alligator near our boat!"
He jumped outside with me and we gawked through the binocculars. Our boat had "swung on the anchor" but we held tight, our stern now near the crab pot and reeds. We heard a noise behind us. Brett pointed. " See them, our neighbor's anchor didn't hold. They are in the reeds, trying to motor out!"

They hollered and revved their engines until they freed themselves. Without missing a beat, they disappeared in the darkness. Apparantley they had been too embarrassed to "hang" around anymore.








We watched the alligator for about an hour, feeding it lots of bread. I crawled back into my berth as Brett declared that we should get an early start. Ugh. After convincing him to make coffee, I peeled myself up out of bed and got ready for us to leave at daylight, six a.m.

It would be a shorter run today and I was glad to possibly have a few days rest at Sabine Yacht Basin. It sounded perfect. It was a marina up a canal with restrooms, showers, grocery store, ships store nearby. I felt sure they had internet by the sounds of it. As we glided down the waterway, I tried to call them on both phone lines. No answer on either one. We passed through the northern edge of Sabine Lake. We tried to sail but the wind just wouldn't cooperate. We soon made it to the junction and headed down Adams Bayou which outlined the Lousiana/Texas border. It was amazing the drastic change of scenery almost right at the border. Beautiful green trees and plants danced over the edge of the waterway.

As we headed up the canal, we approached the basin. Introducing it was a large steel sailboat, half sunk in the entrance with a rusty messed up sailboat in front of it. The beautiful building had plywood over the doorways. As we coasted slowly by the eerie scene, more torn up sailboats and power boats emerged from the trees. It was completely abandoned... We slowly made our way toward the end of the channel at a fifteen foot bridge. We started to turn into the last cut but were told it was too shallow. There was a larger sailboat tied to the end of a dock next to a derelict sailboat and shrimpboat. There was a small space between the boats into land. The gentleman hollered at us to tie up to his sailboat, that it was eight feet. So we pulled next to him. He offered his electricity as he didn't stay on the boat, he was just repairing it. The marina, River Rats, was next door. It was a pitstop for the pipeline workers.
The owner of the marina scurried over and discussd us with our new friend, Wayne, about the electricity. Their arguement was polite and low key. Very southern. The politeness and laid back demeanor of the southerners blows me away. The saying, "Southern Hospitality" truly stands, even today. After assuring the owner that we were there only for one night, he agreed to us hooking up. He had been worried that we'd use too much power and the pipeline workers' trailers would not have enough juice to run their air conditioners. But we plugged ours in and everything worked good so he gladly let us stay and had us meet up with him at his bait shop. He was very pleasant at the bait shop and was glad to hear our story.

Brett trying to summon our Adams Bayou alligator.

Wayne left us but came back later to finish his fiberglass work. We chatted with him awhile. We found out he didn't actually own the boat, he was taking care of it for someone. He lent us a chart off the boat he was looking after. After studying it in the evening, I returned it to the nav station of the forty eight foot Mariner. I couldn't believe the room and layout inside the center cockpit boat!! I loved it. It even had a bathtub! It was run down but beautiful.

We walked to the gas station of the little town and found me a razor and some hot dogs.

DAY 8: ADAMS BAYOU TO BOW TIE MARINA, LAKE CHARLES, LA

Brett had studied the charts and decided for us to take a twelve mile detour up the Calcasiu River to stay near Lake Charles. The book had said it was an anchoring mecca. The Bow Tie Marina had all the amenities we needed.


We tried and tried to call the Ellender Bridge. It was only fifty feet high so we had to have them raise it. We were told that this took 4-24 hours for us to have done but as we approached closer and closer, we couldn't reach either the Black Bayou bridge or Ellender bridge on Channel 13 and 14 of the radio. It was extremely frustating. Five miles before the bridge, a tow boat captain finally had contacted the bridge. They had us change to channel 12! The book had been wrong. We had left early, expecting at least a 4 hour delay but after telling them we had an hour to go before we reached the bridge, they arranged with us to pass when we arrived! We ended up behind a backup of barges trying to turn a huge corner just before the bridge. But we made it at exactly and hour and the bridge opened right up with almost no delay. It was pleasant to not have to wait in all the barge traffic we were experiencing.

We had run out of paper chart after Adams Bayou and flipped on my computer with the free downloaded charts that Bill had told us about. Thank God. It helped us immensely as we wound our way up the Calcasieu River. There was a ton of ship and tanker traffic. We finally reached Contraband Bayou. As we made our approach, a tanker asked "the sailboat to do their business on channel 13". So, thinking he was talking to us, flipped to channel 13 and listened. He directed us to turn to port and wait at the docks till he was done backing up. I fumbled with our location. We ended up having tow boats yell at us to get out of the way even though we had swung to port. There were no docks. Finally, Brett grabbed the radio and asked them to confirm which sailboat they were talking too. After much confusion, it was discovered that we weren't the sailboat that they were yelling at. The other sailboat never did say a word.


By then my nerves were shot, as we coasted into Bow Tie Marina. The bayou was breathtaking with stumps and trees and calm green water. Such a difference from the Calcasieus River with all it's traffic. I called the Bow Tie Marina and they had a slip for us. When we glided in, they took our lines and tied us up. They treated us like royalty as they filled our diesel tank, lent us an adapter for our 30 amp cord to plug into 50 amp service and helped us pump out the holding tank. They wouldn't hardly let me touch the lines. It was funny and I kind of giggled at the outstanding service the boys and the gentleman were giving. I read the sign more closely and it said Bow Tie Marina. Valet marina. This is what they did. We paid for our night and attempted to cool the boat down. It was 105 degrees outside! Benny had been doing really well but he was hot today. So we decided to try and head to a Walmart and see if we could get a better a/c than the portable one we were using.

The taxi cost $34 round trip to travel 5 miles. Everyone had said not to even ride our bikes down the street the marina was on. Too dangerous. So we were trapped. We paid the taxi and discovered that none of the air conditioners would run off our inverter. Bummed, we bought some groceries and went back to the marina.


It did eventually cool down that night. We decided to stay an extra night to rest up.

















Brett is actually on a computer! He's looking at charts with Benny.













DAY 9: BOW TIE MARINA, LAKE CHARLES, LA



I awoke early and washed the deck before it got too hot. I then spent the day making clay jewelry and regular jewelry while Brett relaxed in the cockpit. There was no internet here either, so I was doing without yet again. In the afternoon, we flipped on the weather report to prepare for our next LONG leg. All of a sudden, we're hearing hurricane reports! The hurricane was to hit by Brownsville and reach all the way to Port O'Connor which is near Palacios. There was to be 15-25 knot winds and flooding here in Louisiana. We rushed to the office to see if they had more detail. They didn't. We asked to stay a few more days till the hurricane passed Texas so we wouldn't be out in high winds and rain here in Louisiana. They didn't have room so we had to continue East the next day.





































More updates to come.... I'm running a little behind...

DAY 10 (BOW TIE MARINA - TALENS FUEL DOCK)

DAY 11 (TALENS FUEL DOCK - SHELL MORGAN LANDING)

DAY 12 (SHELL MORGAN LANDING - CYPREMORT YACHT CLUB)

DAY 13 (CYPREMORT YACHT CLUB)

DAY 14 (CYPREMORT YACHT CLUB)





I amnervous about the Harvey Locks coming up in New Orleans. But I am hoping we can spend a few days in Houma, LA first. I think there is a place to do laundry, shop and have internet at a coffee shop. We'll see. I am also hoping to get a little mail while there via General Delivery but it was short notice to get stuff to me.

We're doing good, though. Everyone we've run into has been generous and friendly. It's been hard, it always is for cruisers the first few hundred miles as they smooth out the wrinkles. If this was easy, everyone would be doing it. It just involves patience and flexibility.

Our friends, Tom and Sue came here on their trawler from Florida. They did the same route. They had similar problems on their way. When they reached Palacios, they, too, thought about selling the boat. But when they took a step back and went back to their old lives, they realized that were living the dream to experience life by boat. These friends have been my motivators in many ways. When I left for Oregon last year, I saw that they did had parted ways for a few months to make their dream work so I figured I and Brett could do it too. It was harder than heck, but we did it.

Thanks for following our adventure. Sorry I'm still not current, but I am trying to catch up.

Believe it or not, my book I am writing is much more detailed!

Keep in touch. Miss everyone terribly...

Kyla (and Brett)