Last Tuesday we left the marina around 10am or so. Cruised over to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel and headed for the Galveston bay. The winds were pretty minimal, but once we got out there Joe raised the sails in hopes we could do some sailing ....no such luck! We even tried to motor sail, but there still wasn't enough wind, so he dropped the sails and we motored all the way to Laguna Harbor. It was a good lil' trip and we saw quite a few dolphins on the way, which always makes me happy!! (they were too quick for me to snap a picture, but I posted a video I shot of them on our facebook page)
Once you make it down to Galveston, Laguna Harbor is roughly one mile inside the ICW {Intercoastal Waterway aka 'the ditch'}. When we arrived, there were already six or seven boats docked for the night. To the left there was enough space for 2, maybe 3 boats to fit and then to the right there was an open spot big enough for only one boat, but it was kind of in the corner and would've been difficult to dock there. Naturally, we chose the bigger, easier option and had the fenders out on our starboard and were ready to tie up on that side. Trying to make the most of the limited space, the other tmca'ers radio us and tell us they want us to dock our boat in the spot big enough for only one boat. I don't even parallel park in a car, much less a 36' boat, but lucky for me hubs was at the wheel, so all I had to do was scramble to move the fenders and lines from the starboard side over to our port side. That was fun....I had six people on the dock yelling at me to, "hurry up" "move the fenders lower" "throw me your line".....by the time I had a chance to look up Joe had parallel parked our boat like it was something he'd done a hundred times before!!!
That's Irie tucked right in there between that big, beautiful (& did I mention, very expensive) power boat at our bow and another Catalina sailboat at our stern. Hubs did an excellent job docking our boat!!! Laguna is nice stop if you need to split up your trip, but without a car, there's nothing to do. The good thing is, it's all free of charge while they are still developing the houses. We enjoyed the evening, just hanging out talking to new and old friends.
We got up the next morning at 5:30, checked the weather and talked to the boaters who were planning to go offshore. The winds were predicted to be 15 knots with 2-4' seas, we automatically added a little to their predictions, because you know, they rarely get it right {meteorologists have the best job security}! I was a little anxious at the thought of going offshore for the first time in our boat, but we both wanted to get out there, so we decided to head out with the three other boats that were going that way.
We left at 6am and took the ICW back towards Galveston. Wanting to save a little time, we cut through a ship anchorage instead of going all the way over to the ship channel. Let me tell you, our boat becomes incredibly tiny when you come up along side this guy....just wow!
We made it to the jetties shortly after sunrise and that is when our story really begins!!
We've been told, sailing through the Galveston Jetties is like sailing in a washing machine. It was absolutely insane getting through there! The waves were coming at us from every direction (think the agitation mode in the washer) and they were between 10' to 12' high....this went on for awhile. I was sitting at the lowest spot in the cockpit with my back on the companion way doors and facing Joe, who was at the helm. He said, "this is fun!!" so I got up and looked one time and sat back down....looking at those wave motions must've made him delusional. We both thought, I would be the one to get sick so I tried not to watch the waves head on. Once we were past the jetties, the waves were only 6' to 8' high and the wind was 18 with gusts up to 24. Hubs actually was the one who got seasick...poor guy! I kept looking around wondering who was going to captain the boat now, and guess what, it was me, white knuckles and all! But we managed somehow and I'm really proud of how well our boat did in those conditions. It was an incredibly tiring day, and after fourteen long hours at sea we arrived at Pleasure Island in Port Arthur. It was still a bit breezy when we docked at the marina, but with the help from a few people, we got the boat tied up and were thankful we had made it. We both took Benadryl and went to sleep!
Thursday came with a great news when my doctor called to tell me the biopsy I had had the week before came back benign...Yay, no cancer!!! What a relief!! ...The winds continued to increase so Joe and some other volunteers spent the whole day helping other boaters dock as they came in.
Friday evening was a Hawaiian themed dinner so we dressed in our best aloha/island looking clothing and despite the rain and cooler temps, enjoyed a nice meal and luau!!!
The winds became increasingly worse all day and by Friday night we had sustained winds of 32 mph. One of the guys down from our boat clocked a gust of 52 mph from the top of his mast. The boat was rocking so much at this point we couldn't even sleep. I heard a loud pop noise on the outside of the boat, jumped out of bed, went and looked to see what it was and found that our spring line had snapped in two. We were lucky that only one line broke, but all of them are so chaffed and worn down, we will have to replace all our dock lines. This is what the snapped line looks like now.
Joe and I, plus about six other guys from our dock stayed up all night watching the boats, tightening the lines and replacing lines as they broke. By 4am the winds started to shift a little and we were not getting hit as badly. We had triple lines at our bow & stern and one long line from our port beam about 60' across tied to the next pier over. We finally went to bed at 5am and got a little sleep.
Saturday was pretty uneventful, but we gladly took that after the week we had been having! We actually got to relax a little and start having fun....
The Pirate Picnic was Sunday afternoon after a brief memorial service that morning! Against his will, I convinced Joe to dress up like a pirate with me so we could enter the pirate costume contest. I found a Spanish pirate costume online for me & he agreed to wear a white shirt and a hat...so, I did a little diy'ing and mixed & matched a few things and he took home the 'most authentic pirate' award, while I got the 'sexiest pirate' award!!
Monday we woke up early to head back home. We left at 6am and decided to go via the ICW this time around so we could experience both routes. It was definitely a slower route, but it gave us time to enjoy the trip and see the sights, which were mainly cows and barges, but hey, we were ok with slow and steady this time around. Our friends captured this photo of us on our boat as the sun was rising behind us....isn't it just gorgeous?!
It was another long day back but we made it safely back to our marina around 8:30 that night and felt relieved to be back home....even though technically our home was with us the whole time! 😉
There's something to be said about a safe, protected harbor and boy, do we ever appreciate it now!!!
And to think we thought, parallel parking the boat was going to be our big feat of the trip! Now I understand what people mean, when they say they need a vacation from their vacation!! It wasn't the most restful, relaxing vacation, but we did have fun! I'm glad we had the experiences and no, it doesn't make us want to sell the boat and move back to land {sorry moms}!
