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!!  

Locking Through

Locking through,Traveled down the intercostal waterway along the Rigolets came upon what looks like a wall with a door, must be something for hurricanes or salt and fresh water intrusions.   

 We entered the industrial canal just as a storm wall was starting up lighting was putting on a pretty good show, winds picking up.  We went under the Florida ave.  Bascule bridge immediately after that we passed through Sebert “Claireborne Ave” lift bridge approached the lock contacted the lock master on VHF 14 had to provide boat name, length, draft and beam.   He then instructed us to tie up on the starboard side behind the Barge.  We were then told to hold as the barge opted to wait out the storm before going through the lock he backed out of the lock.  We were starting to get a light rain, we were then told to tie up just behind the light boat.  We later found out a light boat is a tug by itself.  The lock master tossed us down 2 lines; tied off and lifted about 6 feet to the height of the Mississippi river.  As the doors opened we passed under the St Claude bascule bridge.   As we exited the lock the lighting and rain was starting to pick up.  We closed up the isinglass as we finished getting the last one on the storm then turned to the north west of us.   From here we entered the Mississippi river just east of New Orleans.  We went 5 miles upriver where we had a full view of downtown New Orleans, French Quarter at Jackson square.  We saw the New Orleans ferry, cruise ship and an old paddle boat.  We closed up the isinglass as we started to get a light rain, the storm then turned to the north west of us.  

Arrived at the Harvey lock and hailed the lock master on VHF with no reply multiple times.  When he did finally answer he told us we were in a restricted area and needed to move 200 yards down river.  Told him I was sorry he said don’t let it happen again pretty sure he was a little upset with us.   We waited down river for 2 ½ hours in time out as barges were unloading from the east on the intercoastal.  Finally another light barge heading west approached the lock after another 30 mins we were called to load in the locks behind him.   We dropped nine feet when the doors opened we went under a small lift bridge controlled by the lock which started to close as we were going under.  A quick u turn and a sorry from the operator and we were on our way again.  We approached the Harvey canal twin bridges, then the Lapalco Blvd bascule bridge.  I was amazed to see the cars running around the closed gate to get across the bridge before it opened so we had to wait for them.  The operator was kind enough to call the local tugs and see if they knew of a safe area for us to anchor out due to our time out it was getting dark and we would not make our destination Boom town casino allows boats to tie up allow the levy.  We called and were told where to tie up.  Around 11pm we woke to the sound of the security guard knocking on the boat.  We had to move the costal guard regulation would not allow us to be that close to the casino boat.  Moved the boat had the supervisor come out and check to make sure we were good upon his approval we headed back to bed.