Starting to replace some wood panels

It is still hot out (and in the boat) but I want to get something started with replacing some of the wood.  I figured I would start with 2 spots out of the way a bit and go for the angled flooring pieces that go between the sole and the bulkhead under the owners bunk.
I noticed that to get the panel out I had to remove the decorative Teak transition from the sole to the panel as well a the small bulkhead wall that forms the front base of the seat in the stateroom.  It was a bit rotted on the bottom so I will replace that as well as the flooring panel.

I scraped some of the rotten floor panel into a pile behind the sole. 

They are removed, I will rough make new ones and dry fit them and then clean, sanitize and paint the bilge behind the bulkhead wall before putting the floor panel back in. 

Look at the oxidized coins I found under the teak flooring trip !

It feels good to start something and in order to track what I am doing I found a pretty cool Yacht Maintenance software package that lets you track the parts, cost and projects/maintenance done to the vessel.  Check out Yacht Management by OSO Software.  It does a lot more than what I posted here but you can get a free trial from their webiste that gives you 44 days of full usage and the cost of it is only about $50 if you like your trial.
I have now loaded it on the boat and also use it for keeping inventory of my spare parts, as well as locations of all supplies, tools, equiptment, etc.  For anyone that has been franticly looking for that "thing" whatever that thing is, this lets you name every storage location on your boat and document each item you have and where it is located.  It already saved me some time the other day when looking for heat shrink that I keep in a small baggy.  I was able to just pull up heat shrink in my inventory and see that I have it in the starboard settee back aft compartment.  Wire wrapped and sealed in about 10 minutes instead of taking an extra 20 minutes to find what I was looking for.

In the home stretch

We made a lot of mileage today and stayed at the Stingaree Marina in Crystal Beach TX.  We were able to slide in at low tide skimming the bottom to get into the slip.  We got electricity and filled up all water tanks which was nice.  Best of all was a restaurant and bar right on property. 
We had a nice dinner and went to sleep at a decent hour.  I feel asleep before Deb and she was dozing when she heard voices.  When she peeked out, there were a few people standing next to the boat on the finger peer checking it out after the bar closed.


We realized we didn't have a long trip the next day so we slept late (7am) and were out by 7:30am.  We passed one of the coolest Tugs we had seen on the whole trip.

OLD GLORY - Liked the logos and name of this one

We were in Galveston in just a few hours and then up the very busy Houston Ship Channel.  We encountered the largest ships we had on the whole trip here where the ships come out of Houston and down the Houston Ship Channel out to the Gulf of Mexico.  One cool thing is that the dolphins love to jump in the bow wake as they push all this water along.

Dolphin in Bow wake of a ship

Dolphin in Bow wake of a ship

We tried to stay just to the outside of the ship channel and decided to take a pit stop at RedFish island to check it out.  This will be one of our more common anchor out locations for a nice overnight or 3 day stay.  It is only a few hours away from our home port.

A couple of boats anchored at Red Fish island which has been rebuilt after being blown away in a hurricane

We sailed a bit, but there was very little wind to do so.  We always see the "BoardWalk Beast" which is a custom built speed boat that seats about 50 people.  It hauls but around the bay and gets everyone soaking wet.  It is always a bit of a cool site when she is pounding into the waves and those teeth are painted on the hull to look like a "bone in her teeth".

Bone in her Teeth - Boardwalk Beast

We motored past Kemah Boardwalk and into Clear Lake.  We skimmed along Watergate Marina realizing that it was recently dredged and pulled into our isle at Legend Point Marina.  We decided to back in to the slip and while we didn't do it quickly, we again made it look like we knew what we were doing with our new vessel (always a good feeling at the helm when people come up to the edge of the dock to help but then realize there is not much that they need to do).

We tied up and then enjoyed a long, long, long shower at home.

The trip is over, it was quite a bit of fun, and filled with adventure.  We really enjoyed it and are also glad it is over.  In retrospect we tried to compare this to our dream of cruising, and the one thing that was not like what we expect crusing to be is that we would get to enjoy a spot for some time.  We spent some time in some really cool anchorages and locations, and I would have really liked to stay in them for a few days or a week or so.  But that was not our goal on this trip, it was all about ensuring 50 miles per day to get home on time.

Our boat did well, in the end, we had an electrical issue and have some sail repairs to make, but I have been pretty impressed with our 35 year old engine that ran 12-14 hours per day for 13 days straight.  I was afraid to say that at any point during the trip but with the boat safely tied in the slip, I will verbalize how thrilled I am at that fact.
I also have a slight diesel leak to repair, and I think it is coming from the secondary 2 micron fuel filter but just didn't want to dig into that project yet.

Since returning, I have cleaned the bilge and I must say it was a disgusting brew down there.  I found 4 screwdrivers, 2 metal scrapers, an old bronze thru-hull fitting, a bunch of electrical tape and about 20 cut tie wraps.  It is cleaner, but not clean yet.  As soon as I can dig out all that old sludge crap, I will be painting the bilge with a new coat of white paint, but I figure I won't waste the time doing that until the bilge and engine is cleaned.  Sadly, this ole' Perkins leaks oil so I have to get a bit more creative than just a bilge sock down there, so I may make a removable tray that fits under the engine with wire wrapped oil absorbant pad, so the water in the bottom of the bilge is just water.

Way up there

This morning we traveled to Sabin channel this has been one of the deepest ones so far.   We passed through the Port Arthur lot of ship work going on watched a couple of guys climb around a large crane type barge doing some repair work.   

As we went under the bridge that was also have some construction done on it as well.    

Pleasure cove was the next area we came to this is the spot for the RV’ers they have a camp ground that was packed full.  It also has a large Coast guard pressense, we passed 3 boats coming in and parking lot full of boats on trailers.  Time to remove the magazines.

 After going under the Port Arthur Bridge we entered into the 62 mile run through both marsh and pastureland with oil pumps on both sides.  It has been reported that you can see alligators swimming or basking on the shores we did not see any.  They have gator holes and crawls set into the shore and banks.  We passed through Taylor Bayou outfall canal one of the anchorage’s we talked about staying at we have made such good time we reached here earlier morning.  When we came to the East bay canal it was very swallow and narrow, we had to wait behind a barge to let Eastbound empty barges go through.  The current and winds were blowing them around the captain said it was like a large sailboat.  The Sylvia barge which we had been following for many hours called and ahead to a couple barges coming eastbound that he was waiting on to see if it was safe for us to pass.  He told us to go ahead of him; the other barges said it was good to go.  This saved us hours of waiting.  The current was ok we were able to get through it.  There is dredging operations going on throughout this canal.   We arrived at Stingaree Marina at 7:30 got tied up filled the water and got settled for the night, there is a restaurant right at the marina so we went in and grabbed dinner.  Around 8:45 the Sylvia barge finally passed by.  I am so glad he let us go ahead of him!!  We headed back to the boat Gil charted our course for tomorrow looks like we are only about 32 miles from home!!  

Texas Baby!!!

We just crossed into the great state of Texas!!!

Early Sunrise

Woke up this morning at 4:30 to the smell of fire they were welding on one of the large platforms by the ship yard.  At 5:20 we started to untie, a couple was just coming up to set up to fish we talked with them for a few mins while getting things ready to go.  They ask if we had met the “pet” yet, they have a 12 gator that hangs out at the pier and can be seen most days by the fishing cleaning area.  We headed to the lift bridge passing a lot of traffic both small fishing boats as well as large barges.  There were many barges that had run around to spend the night so it was hard to tell with all the light which barge was moving.   I was on bow duty with the spot light until the sun came up just after the lift bridge.  We are pretty sure this is the last bridge we will need open to get home, Texas has all 73 foot bridges.  We ran down a 20 mile stretch of a long narrow waterway dead into the wind.    This is the path that leads out of Louisiana and into Texas we can almost smell the lone star.

Fishing pier delight

Headed to our second anchorage that had reported 12 depths hit bottom twice their as well in a bit of desperation heavy barge traffic at 9:45pm we tied up at the Calcasieu point landing a local fishing pier.  We need to set up a appointment for the Eleanor lift bridge with at least a 4 hour notice so we called in for a 6am opening.  We figured we would get woke up with the office at the fishing pier opened at 6 anyways.  The night watchman came by and talked with us said they would have to move in the am but for now he would let us get some sleep.  He also said the fisherman started coming in around 5 so to watch the boat for hooks etc from them.  We set the alarm for every couple hours to check lines with the tide.   

Shell Morgan

Gil woke up at 4:30 to tighten up the 12 volt negative bus which had come loose again, this time is was a  5 mins fix he was back in bed by 4:40.  Gil was up at 5:15 got ready and left the docks by 6am there is a lot of supply and crew boat traffic in the area.   I was having a hard time waking up note to self don’t take that medication again.  Approached the Leland Bowman locks at 6:25 we waited about an hour while waiting a small gator about 3  feet long was crossing in front of us then headed right up to the boat he got about 4 feet away after a few mins he swam away.  I think he I was waiting for us to feed him.   

We locked in with the Roger K tug he was kind enough to have us tie up in front of him so we could get out first.  The thrust coming off the back of the tug when they throttle up to leave the locks can cause us  to rock and bounce up against the walls of the locks.   The Leland locks help prevent intrusion of salt water into the farming areas of Mermentau basin we drop 1 foot today.  After going throught the locks I headed back to sleep for a much need hour sleep. 

A  9:15 got up fixed breakfast today we had scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes.  The ICW is long straight and narrow today it is losing the swamp marsh look as we are starting to see more farm land along the way.  Our intended stop today is Bell City drainage canal.  Intercostal was unbelievably shallow today must under 10 feet.  Arrived at our plotted anchorage, there has been apparently some shoaling going on we hit ground 2 trying to go in.  We then continued our travels to Grand lake pontoon bridge then traveled onto the and the Black bayou bridge and into the Calcasieu locks it is almost sunset so we will be looking for a good place to anchor for the night.