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Tropical Cyclone Bill - Expected to hit Texas Coast tonight

We have been watching the tropical disturbance forming in the Gulf of Mexico now for a few days and yesterday it started to organize late in the day.  The barometer was dropping to about 1007 millibars and NOAA was flying a hurricane hunter into it for observations.
Seems that it is has organized and went from a tropical disturbance and now formed into a tropical cyclone.  That threw me for a bit not knowing what the difference is between a tropical depression and a tropical cyclone (especially in the Northern Hemisphere).

I did a bit of research and in the end, cyclone, typhoon and hurricane are all the same darn thing.
That said in all my time on the gulf coast, I don't think I have heard them referenced as Cyclones, but for some reason Tropical Depression Bill is being reported that way.

Deb and I are really carefully watching this storm, mainly because it is going to hit the Texas coast tonight or first thing in the morning.  The challenge is that we can't really leave DreamChaser alone because I expect the water to continue to rise even here in Louisiana and we are not a floating docks, but rather fixed piers so we are needing to adjust lines as the water rises from the wind pushing all that water up from the gulf into the bays, lake Pontchartrain and ultimately up the Tchefuncte river.

That leaves the question of Last Affair.  She is berthed in Galveston Bay right now.  She is secured well and tied on floating docks in a very secure marina.  The issue is that with sustained winds at 40+ for 24 hours straight, it can start to cause havoc on things.  Luckily we still know a lot of folks in the area who have checked on the boat for us.  She is tied secure and still riding out well.  We have added some additional security to the sails being secured by taking a few extra wraps of the jib sheets around the roller furling up half way.  An additional tie around the lower portion and cleating all of those lines well in hopes that the sustained winds don't start to grab that sail and work to unroll or tear it from it's furling.

The main is covered and secured tightly with sail ties, and cover secured well.  Someone also went
over and ensured that the bimini was closed up very tight as well.  I didn't want to ask someone else to take it all off of the boat, but the thought is that as secure and solid at is it (Rigid frame and not webbing to hold certain parts in place) she is a very secure frame.  With the side flaps all zipped tightly it won't allow wind to get in and lift it like a parachute.

I have been watching the newscasts for how the weather is starting to effect the Galveston/Kemah area.  Right now the water is up higher than the highest we have seen it since moving there.  It is already starting to rise above Toddville road.  The Kemah Board walk is already starting to see some breaking waves hitting the dock itself.

Typically when we would walk that back part of the boardwalk, the water is 6-8 feet below the dock even at the highest of tides, so this is certainly up quite a bit and I suspect it will continue to rise at least until the this thing is 50+ miles inland.  Given the counter clockwise rotation of the weather systems, it is going to keep pushing water north and then as it hits landfall South West of Houston, that water will continue to drive that way even after landfall as the wind starts forming as westerlies.

Deb and I may need to split responsibility and have one of us go to check on Last Affair while the other stays here to manage and monitor the lines on Dream Chaser.  Even here in Louisiana, we are up about 3 feet already and we have had to let some line out to accommodate the drift.  Another foot to foot and a half or so and the water will be going over the dock surface.  Our living blocking board is rigged up between posts so even if the water were to go high above the docks, we will still have a good surface to keep us from moving toward or over the dock.   (Thanks Rat for the nice rig and setup you left in your slip when selling your boat.  Rat had the slip we are in before us and let me know what he rigged up and how he set it up.  It works well and he even took a step to automatically adjust the blocking board to rise up and down on blocks in relation to his boat so it would go up even if he was not at the boat.

Below is the weather forecast from Houston showing the details about the disorganized system and what the hurricane hunter plan was reporting on the North and East side of the storm.  Just over 50 mph.  I was looking at Bouy data and ship reporting and there are some reports of 19 foot seas and 54 knot wind gusts out in the Gulf tonight.

Matagorda to Freeport

When we arrived at Matagorda city Marina, The crew from Nightingale came over and assisted with the lines, which took quite a bit of patience because I was having a heck of a time backing into the slip I was attempting to get to.
I finally made it, but not before seeing all of the mud churning up from how shallow it was, no wonder why I couldn't rotate into the slip, I was likely plowing some mud with the keel.

After tying up, getting everything in ship shape and checking the water intake strainers for any mud, we were set to relax.  Deb fixed dinner and we had a bite to eat and then went up to the bar/restaurant at the Marina for a couple of drinks.  While we were there the crew from Nightingale came up and offered us a round of drinks, on them, for coming back and helping them get ungrounded the evening before.  I thought it was a really nice gesture, and certainly not the reason we did it, but it was nice either way.

Karen making Coffee

We had a good night sleep, and I must have slept sound because when I got up at about 6:45, I noticed that the shrimp boat that was docked 10 feet off my bow was gone and I hadn't even heard it leave.
We showered, fueled up, restocked a few beverages and were off the dock good and early in hopes that we may be able to make good enough time to make it all the way to Hitchcock.

As we started out into the next open body of water, it became apparent that we were NOT going to be making it all the way to Hitchcock.  This whole week had been filled with winds at 20-35 knots and today was no exception.  It was slow going slogging into the wind and waves for several hours which put us behind schedule a bit.   We decided that the best place to stay was going to be Freeport.   If you would like to see some video of the slogging into the wind, go to this link on Youtube for the Video.  Link to "Slogging up wind in the open Bay"

Mid afternoon, we happened to notice Nightingale coming up behind us.  They were making a few
knots faster than us and we talked on a radio for a while as they were passing.  We got some good pictures of their boat and sent them via email.  I am hoping they have some good ones of us as well and can send them our way.

They were also staying in Freeport but not at the same Marina.  I was concerned about a fixed bridge near the Marina they were staying at so we stayed at Seaside Marina (mainly a large fishing boat Marina for offshore fishing yachts).

At some point during the trip, I decided to troll a lure for a while.  I certainly didn't expect we would catch anything on the ICW since I was still rigged up for offshore fishing in deeper water.  I figured what the heck and we did troll for a little while but then pulled it back in when coming up on some more barge traffic.  What I certainly did NOT want to catch was the prop shaft of a tug boat.

We ended up going through a set of flood control locks on this leg of the trip as well.  We didn't have to wait too long, but the water coming down the

Brazo's River East Lock (on the ICW)

river was flowing at a pretty good pace into the ICW and had about a 3-4 knot current.  It felt like forever before we made it through that lock at about 1.5-2 knots over the ground.  When looking at the water, it looked like we were cruising full speed, looking at the locks we were crawling.  We went through the first lock and then had to circle in the river a few times to let some other traffic go through, they were heading West on the ICW and going north up the Brazos so we had to stay on the down current side of the intersection until he passed.  Once through, we were able to go through the second flood control lock and continue East on the ICW.


Tonight, I wanted to go out and grab a bite to eat rather than stay on the boat.  Last time we were through this Marina about 6 months ago, we stopped and had one of the best burgers ever at a little place called "Castaways" and I was determined to go back to this place.  We walked over for dinner and drinks and in a bout of crazy small world stuff, we met some folks there.   One of our guests/crew posted on Facebook that we were in Freeport.  Someone she went to high school with happened to reply to that post and said, I have 4 crazy aunts that are down there on vacation.  Sitting at the table next to us were 4 older women having the time of their life.  They were toasting drinks, dancing with each others and other people in the bar and Deb, in only the way Deb can, Goes over and asks if there is any chance they know "So and So".  As it turns out, that was his "4 crazy aunts".   The night went down hill from there.  Deb and Karen joined their table and next thing I know there were trays of shots and drinks, etc going that way.  

Jim, Kenny and I had our beers and just watched the girls have a great time.   While we were there, there was a gentlemen at the bar that had drank more than he should have to safely drive home.  The owner of the bar insisted he not drive.  This man was on a motorcycle and very worried about the safety of his bike leaving it out front.  The owner helped him wheel the motorcycle into the
bar/resteraunt and then got him a ride home.  That, in my book, was one really cool move.    I must admit it did allow for one photo of Karen on a Motorcycle :)

So now it was time to head back to the boat.   I am not sure what it is about my lovely bride, but when she has a few drinks, you never quite know what she is going to do/say.   On this particular day, apparently she thought she should talk in a British  accent the rest of the evening.  So the whole walk home, she rambled on in a perfect (or maybe it just sounded perfect to me after a few beers) British accent.  She even used the English words for things rather than what she may normally say, referring to the bathroom as the Loo and the elevator as the lift.  I do have some rather funny video of this, but I decided that I would not post it, but I must admit, I just had some pretty good laughs going through them all again while writing this blog.

So off to sleep for the night and tomorrow we are headed to Hitchcock.  That is going to be as far as we can get because the Waterways around Galveston, Houston Ship Channel and the ICW are all closed on the other side of Hitchcock due to the Oil Spill.  (At the time we were sailing through (on March 24th) not at the time this posts)