Butterflies and Dolphins

First Day Out

We left Palacios just after 9am, with South winds around 8-10. Our wonderful friends bid us farewell with happiness and tears. Eddie took his boat out with us to the first marker to wish us good-bye. I cried as my dearest friends became tiny specks behind us. We motored down the channel, as the South winds were directly ahead of us, making it impossible to sail. We averaged 3.5 knots with the engine in idle. I took a Ginger Root pill (Thanks Sue!) and put on my armbands to ensure I wouldn't get sick during this first part of our voyage.

This shrimp boat, Capt Tino, is well known in Palacios harbor as one of the few bay shrimpers left still shrimping.

It was neat passing him and having him come in behind us. Almost like a farewell from Palacios, the shrimp capital of the Gulf Coast

Unfortunately Benny did get sick and had his usual panic attack. Jack handled it well.

We turned on our GPS and used the chart to guide us near Half Moon reef, to cut into the channel. We discovered that after a few minutes the GPS went blank with a line acrossed it. So I went below and changed to new batteries. The same thing happened. I dug out our rechargables that I had used before with the GPS and it still happened. We had had this GPS for 4 years just for this moment and the first day out, it gives out. So we had to turn it off every time we got the lat and long. I recharged the batteries last night and I just turned it on and it didn't shut off. So hopefully it was just a fluke about the batteries.

On our way toward the waterway, we saw a lot of dolphins! They were jumping and flipping right in the channel fore and aft of us. I saw a dolphin jump at least 8 ft in the air! It was amazing! We also had a beautiful yellow butterfly guide us into the channel.

As we mosied down the waterway at 4.5 knots, Brett had me radio the tug boats to tell them we'd "pass them on the one" which means we'd pass on the right, just like a car. The first tugboat I had to do that with was not happy with me because I didn't give him our location even though we were directly in front of him. Then Brett had me radio to the Colorado River Locks and they seemed really nice and happy to have a woman on the radio. Then I called the swing bridge and they also were more than happy to stop traffic for the female "captain". LOL We got right through both with no delay.

We pulled into Matagorda Harbor at around 4pm, 8 hours from when we'd left Palacios. Craig (who I kept calling Dave) helped us tie up and we took showers. I was so embarrassed to get his name wrong because he was a good friend of Eddie.

Tom and Sue met us here and we had dinner at the restaurant here. I had been looking forward to the good food since we decided to head out, but my fish and Sue's fish ended up tasting like dirt. Literally. They made me still pay the $16.00 even though I couldn't eat either plates of fish they brought. So I had had a $16 plate of grilled veggies and dinner salad. But the company was great and that's what counts.

We walked the docks with Tom and Sue and then they left and we went back to the boat. I called my mom and we chatted for a long while, while opening her care package. We had some other cruisers invite us aboard their boat and we had a wonderful visit with them. George and Carol Remington. We swapped tips and tricks with them and are planning on meeting down in Isla Mujeres next year.

It was a grand first day out except our kitty getting sick. The boat did really well. Today we're heading toward Sargent which is closeby so we can tie up for free and spend some time getting things done on the boat. I want to pull into Freeport tomorrow but we are very afraid of the slip fees after Carol and George told us they paid $2.00 a foot for their 42 foot boat for one night at the new marina. But Freeport has a West Marine and I desperately want to get a few little things.

Up TOO Early

Wow- We have a LONG day tomorrow and it's important to sleep before a sail and here I am-Up at 3am and unable to go back to sleep... The wind makes me anxious. They are coming directly out of South at 10-15 mph today.... We wanted 4-10 SW. We'll have to motor out instead of sail on most the channel out of Palacios Bay.

My nose is running. I have a lot of problems with my nose running when I wake up.

I really needed sleep tonight...Darn wind. Darn nose.

Gearin' Up To Go

Last week, Charl used his boat for the La Salle reinactment for Palacios on July 3rd. It was really pretty with the flags on it. A strong Southerly blew threw right when they were to do the reinactment. There was even a water spout sighting! All the fisherman raced into the marina in their boats. The reinactment finally took place around 3pm instead of 11am.

We made the decision last week to tie up loose ends and head on out of Palacios this weekend. We will be heading up the ICW toward Florida and eventually South. Brett has worked feverishly on getting projects done and I have spent extensive time reading and provisioning the boat with stores. I also was able to put up some of the insect screens on the hatches.

Brett installed a flexible water tank. He's added more shelves to the galley. He built a box to hold the utensils and silverware. He's reorganized everything in the cockpit as I did in the boat. We've spent 4 days cramming more and more into the 37 foot space. Though it looks cluttered, it's amazingly spacious. I bought enough supplies to last us about 1-2 months but we have very, very little money left to pay bills.... We are relying on Brett's ability to get a job and on my jewelry. We ended up bringing some of the show equipment and hope to find a show to sell at down the roa..waterway. We have ordered an inverter that will run our refrigerator. We didn't plan on a refrigerator but are hoping that it will work with the inverter so we can have cold beverages.

THE ESSENTIALS...

We did buy a french press and tea pot to keep our coffee addiction satisfied. I've spent the last six years planning and studying provisioning and continue to study Good Boatkeeping and Care and Feeding Of the Crew as I stuff pudding and rice in the hanging locker, toilet paper under the sink and spare lightbulbs in the bulkhead cabinets.

Our hammock over the sink is stuffed full of CLIFF bars, cinnamon rolls, pretzels, raisins and gingerbread men.

I have rearranged the hanging locker, tossing out the clothes onto the vee berth and putting canned food and extra food stores into it. The vee berth (our former bed) and the quarter berth (the bed behind the nav table that goes under the cockpit) are crammed full of thirteen sails, show equipment, our sewing machine and foul weather gear.

I bought supplies for a customized first aid kit. I used a makeup bag for storing it. This way we can only buy what we need and the amount we need, including important things (ie. finger splint) and leaving out the 300 bandages that come in regular kits.

I bought enough for our ICW trip and will buy more when we prepare to go offshore. (ie. syringes, iodine, CPR respiratube, enemas, etc)

We've bought seasickness remedies of three different types. I got a pr of seabands, Bonine and Dramamine (generic) because I don't know what will work best. I am hoping to get the behind-the-ear patches at the pharmacy here in town. I also stocked up Little Debbie's Gingerbread Men and GingerSnaps.

We also weren't able to find the "2nd Skin" burn pads at Walmart and I am hoping to find those here at the pharmacy as well. Otherwise, I may have to have someone mail them to us. Brett believes the 2nd Skins to be very important after his incident in Utah with massive blisters. (That's another story).

We sold the car to a fellow Oregonian for $100. The water pump had gone out. We bought a new water pump and she got that, too. What a deal. We are hoping to get the truck/camper sold by Saturday. We are snagging our mattress out of the camper -It is a memory foam mattress we bought at Walmart years ago and it's been wonderful for our backs. We plan to cut it up and use it for cockpit cushions!

Our friend, Eddie, who has given us many items already, generously gave us a a portable air conditioner and a 1500W generator to run it! We are strapping them down in the cockpit to use when it gets unbearably hot (particularly in the swamps of Lousiana). He has been great, like so many friends we've made here. The South really is hospitable and I would do anything for these lovely people we've befriended here in Palacios...

The only thing we haven't been able to get is a CQR anchor that we desperately want. A new one is about $700-1200 and a used one is running about $300. We're hoping to find one along the way to by cheap or trade for something.

We have three Danforth anchors but a CQR anchor is meant for mud and sand.





Both of us have struggled with bad backs for awhile. Mine has really been bad this last week. I think with some rest, it will eventually heal...

We lost our autopilot, it quit working and cannot be repaired. This was a big setback but we'll just keep moving forward. We have an amazing amount of hardware we did NOT think we'd have such as a wind generator, windvane, radar, inverter, refrigerator, and of course, the generator and air conditioner that Eddie just gave us. With all the gear, the poles, the dinghy, the bikes, the bbq, the windvane and other gadgets, our boat has definitely transformed into a cruiser.

We have been slowly saying Good Bye to our good friends. It has been impossible to accept the fact we are leaving our friends forever. I never knew it would be so hard. The people we've met here have been absolutely amazing....

Rebecca, Ann and their daughters made me the cutest gifts out of clay including clay cinnamon roll earrings, clay hippo earrings, fuschia glass earrings and little clay turtles. So cute and sweet! My friends are very sad and do NOT want us to leave... It's been incredibly difficult to say good-bye to them... They have been amazing friends... Everyone at ACE Hardware gave me a brilliant good-bye and lasting memories. Some of the greatest people I've ever met....

It's also been unbearable to say good-bye to Dennis... he has been phenomonal to us and helped us immensely with our goals. His support and graciousness have been amazing and his friendship will be greatly missed...

....

I'll write more soon... We will be anchoring or tying up at a marina every night as we head down the InterCoastal Waterway so we'll have our phone and hopefully some internet along the way...

Thank you ALL so much for your support that you've given us these last few years.

Stay tuned for more...

Visits Galore

We had a wonderful visit last week with Brett's daughter, Melody. They hadn't seen each other in 8-10 years. While waiting for her flight to come in, Brett and I stopped at the Boat Resale Shop in Kemah where we had bought our stove. We ended up finding a teak folding salon table!! We asked him to lower the price. Brett was going to build one of these days but the price was cheaper on this table than building one. It ended up being a little long but he spent a few hours and cut it down to a great fit! So we now have a table in the salon.

After we checked into the B&B, we had a few hours before Melody's flight so we walked along the Kemah Boardwalk. We had a great time and even spotted "The Wanderer" in a locked up marina. The Wanderer was the boat in the movie "Captain Ron". It was fun to see her in person.

Melody flew into Houston and we stayed the night at Clipper House Inn in Kemah. We ate at Joe's Crabshack on the boardwalk. Melody and I ended up having the bartender spike our cokes! It was weird! None of us drink so it made quite the scene. LOL I've never known diet coke to go down warm. LOL We got Melody a Crabshack tee shirt for a souvenier.

The next day, we visited NASA Johnson Space Center. We ended up driving through the security parking lot of the actual campus before being redirected to the Johnson Space Center, where the tourists are supposed to arrive at. We spent a few hours at NASA before heading back. We all had expected a little more out of NASA, but the space center had been built around touristy money making business and children for the space camp. But it was still really neat to see the campus on the tram tour. There was a shuttle that was in space, too, (STS-124) so that was really cool.

We drove back through Galveston and waded in the Gulf's 83 degree water. Melody couldn't believe how warm it was!

We spent Friday preparing our renaming ceremony for the boat at the yacht club. Brett got into a costume and played Neptune. He read a script we'd found online to do the proper ceremony of renaming a boat, including buying expensive champagne and wine. Mike, a friend of ours, donated two nice bottles of French Wine that we christened the boat with and shared with our friends.

I and Melody dressed up and we had about 30 friends gather with us at the yacht club for the celebration. We had a fantastic time, especially having Melody there.













On Saturday we drove to Matagorda Beach and played in the water and flew Brett's kite I had bought him for his Birthday in March. It was really a beautiful day.

After work on Sunday, I painted the name on the boat. Melody sat with me on the floating dock for the 2 hours it took. Both the floating dock and the boat were jumping up and down in the choppy water but the names turned out okay. I even ended up having some friends ask me to paint their name on their boat!

On Monday, we were finally able to take the boat out with Melody. We took an hour and really strapped everything down as the wind had been houling for the last week. Brett reefed the main but in the end, it wasn't windy, just choppy so we only averaged about 3 knots. But it was a beautiful sail and Melody really enjoyed it.

Her and Brett played some awesome Chess with each other. They were both very good and they loved having such a challenging opponent.

We drove her back up to Houston on Tuesday, using Ann's car that she had graciously let us borrow. Our car had a pulley come loose and we felt sure it wouldn't make another trip to Walmart let alone Houston.

She ended up being stuck on the plane in Houston for 2 hours while a nasty storm hit. She got home late but it worked out in the end as her friend was going to pick her up late in Sacramento.

Yesterday, Brett and I worked on the boat and attempted to free the windvane again. After purchasing the windvane from Bill, we discovered that the rotating part was completely frozen together, aluminum to aluminum. ack. Brett spent 4 weeks soaking it with commercial grade oil (thank you Dale at ACE!!) I suggested he work on it yesterday. We turned the boat around and mounted it. He strung up a pulley system with a winch, using the boat as leverage to free the frozen part. We had been very bummed this last month at the prospect of our expensive windvane being deemed useless... He pulled and pulled on it but it didn't budge. Then I suggested that he beat on it with a hammer while I pulled on the winch. After several tries, it finally came loose!!! We hooted and hollered in excitement. Then we spent an hour swinging it back and forth with ropes (him on one end on our dock and me across the slips with another rope). We seemed to have finally freed it up and it will be usable. WHEW. Huge relief for us...

Benny LOVES shoes.

Updates and Inner Thoughts

We have decided to hold an official renaming ceremony for our boat at the yacht club. Brett's daughter is coming for a visit for a week and we will hold the ceremony while she is here. We have invited all of our sailing friends to partake in this age old tradition. It should be a lot of fun. We're really excited to have Melody with us for a few days as well. We plan on staying in Kemah the night she flies in and visiting the Nasa Space Center the next day. We also hope to get a lot of sailing in while she is here.

We made a lot of small improvements on the boat this last weekend including a cockpit table and cup holder, repairing and replacing the main sail with the other one, deep cleaning, and other small projects. We plan to focus on the haul out again after Melody's visit.

Brett got the propane hooked up for the stove and oven! He rebuilt the propane locker to hold our larger tank and installed the hose to run the propane to the cooking stove. It's exciting to finally have the stove but we have yet to try it out. LOL One step closer to cruising!

My new computer's hard drive already crashed but Dell sent a new hard drive after some prodding under the warranty. Luckily I was able to backup most of the pictures and documents.

I have not done a lot with jewelry the last three weeks but I do still plan on visiting galleries to sell my pieces around the big cities.

Thinking out Loud on a Late Night....

I always tell ya about what we are doing but don't often share the insecurities. It's late and I probably should be in bed as I have an 11 hour day tomorrow...

I have been getting overwhelmed by the lack of security that cruising comes with, especially when finances are meager, and have struggled greatly the last couple weeks with it. I battle financial burden and feeling like a good partner in all aspects of Brett and I's life together.

The hardest part of choosing this new life is letting go of ALL securities and as we get closer to our date, I have been struggling more and more. I sometimes feel lost and separated from everyone in my life and that can be so hard sometimes. Money really still controls my feelings and attitude. I spent 4 years preparing for the financial insecurities that sailors face and recognize that I have to fight through them to make this a rewarding experience.

My emotions have been messing with me lately. I see a lot of the difficulties in this venture and sometimes forget to look at the wonders of it. Such as the beauty of the scenery, the simplicity, the people we meet. I tried to make drastic decisions that would change Brett and I's life but those decisions are a hard call for being the right or wrong decision. Fight or Flight is a real struggle for me right now and I hope that my loved ones continue to pray for Brett and I's strength and safety through God who has blessed us so incredibly.

It's late and I am rambling and will regret in the morning.

We are doing well, yes we are, and are so glad you keep up with our adventure.

Love you all and please keep us in your prayers.

Kyla

Updates

Hello from HOT Texas!

I gave my notice at ACE for June 3rd on Wednesday but some changes happened so I might stay longer. Brett and I discussed me traveling in the car to stores in Austin, Galveston, Corpus Christi to sell my jewelry to them and to maybe do shows.

I got my passport in the mail yesterday. The first passport I've ever had. It was VERY cool!! Brett's will be hopefully be here in about a month.

We have decided to get the stove finally hooked up. YAY!!!! FinAlLy!! I am ordering a hose and regulator today. WHew. It has been SO expensive to eat out like we do!

We got our VHF hooked up finally. We had gotten a new antenna, new cable and Brett went up the mast to install it. Our friend, Eddie, had given us his old VHF when he bought a new one so that was great! It works great! We get the weather on there, too, which is nice. Brett had me test the VHF on Channel 16. "This is S/V Benevolence, requesting a radio check". We got a response right back of, "yup". LOL It was cool. I was the first one ever to call out our boat. hee hee.

We had driven down to Rockport to the Nautical Flea Market (that I had mentioned last week) and I forgot to mention that we ran into the guy on his boat that had sold me my gemstones! We were looking at boats and there Mike was, sitting on the bow of S/V Carol Ann, with his new puppy. We reintroduced ourselves and chatted for awhile. He is still planning on heading out a couple months after we do. So we may run into him one of these days! I enjoyed our visit with him and was glad to see he was doing so well. I hope so much we will someday run into these great sailors we meet here in Texas down in Isla Mujeres or Roatan or Panama.

Yesterday, I put up our white tarps to help keep the sun off the boat. It makes a huge difference. About 20 degrees! And it helps flow the wind into the boat. It was blistering hot yesterday at 92 with a lot of humidity but today it is raining and in the 60's. It feels nice actually. The rain always reminds me of Oregon. (sigh) The tarps are helping keep the rain out so we can leave the hatches open, too.


Last week, we spotted a 6ft alligator hanging out in the marina. I spent most the day watching it. I ended up with a horrendous sun burn on my back. Ack. I went out and bought Aloe Vera gel with medicine as well as Copperguard spf 50 for UVB/UVA rays so that BETTER work.

I have another meeting with our new South Texas Coastal Beading Society tonight. I hope so much everyone comes back and keeps up with it.

We are discussing an a/c finally. It didn't take Brett long. LOL. He didn't really want one but as it gets hotter, he is rethinking that. He really wants a marine a/c ($1200-2500) but I reminded him we still need a generator to use it when we aren't hooked up to shore power. For now, we're borrowing a unit from Dennis that will sit on our main hatch above the salon. There is a hood with it that will help direct the flow of air down to the inside of the boat. It will make going sailing a real pain but so do the tarps. Staying cool and sailing are a hard mixture.

I haven't done much with the clay this week but I made some more pieces for the websites yesterday. I wasn't thrilled with them but hopefully someone will love them.

Hope y'all are doin' well.

Love- Kyla (and Brett)

Lots of Sailing

Even with SPF 45, I fried after this 2 hour sailing trip...

Benny loves Latitudes & Attitudes too.
The pet article of course.


We're determined to leave Palacios by Sept 25th (the same day we left Oregon in 2006).

Our goals rely on our haulout, installing water tanks and a propane tank for the stove and to stock up a cruising 'kitty' before we leave for 3 months of cruising.


We went to the Rockport Nautical Flea Market last Saturday. The car drove there well. The market was not very good, there was mostly crafts and antique stuff and fishing gear. But it was nice to get out of town and have a Starbucks coffee. :) We did end up getting a 12v fan to install in the salon (main cabin). We need at least 2 to 3 more.


I am part of the South Texas Coastal Beading Society with Ann and Rebecca. Last weekend, I built a website for us and a local couple donated an apartment for the guild to use for beading and crafts. We have our first meeting on Friday and are excited to finally have everyone get together to bead, do clay and craft. The new website I built is http://www.sotxcbs.weebly.com/


I have been continuing to create with polymer clay. I have made some jewelry and am really enjoying this new media!































Ann, Rebecca and I had a contest for making clay Love Bugs (A HUGE pest here in Texas). This was my entry. None of could decide who's was best, they were all SO cute!!















I went into Victoria with Rebecca and her daughter, Emily, last week. That was fun. It is always nice to get out of town. We went to the mall but it didn't feel right being in a mall. I felt very out of place. But we had a lot of fun there and at Hobby Lobby which is a huge craft store, similar to Michaels but bigger.

We have taken the boat out a couple times since our last post. S/V (sailing vessel) Sparrow was also out and we tracked her down and sailed back to the marina with her in wonderful winds. She is a 38 Morgan, beautiful. The owner is selling her and he had taken our friend, John, out with him to try her out. It was a blast to sail with another boat and we both got great pics of each other!



I LOVE this picture!

The weekend before, we also went sailing and had a pod of 5 dolphins swim with us!!! It was awesome! We were cruising at 7.2 mph, and even hit 7.8 mph which is her hull speed. We were pleased that she averaged 6.5 easily. Benevolence is a smooth, fast S/V!































Brett has been getting the canvas done. He has the dodger and bimini up and almost completed. Next, he'll build the weather cloths for the cockpit to protect us from spray. We will need to buy more fabric to finish a new mainsail cover and a forsail cover.