Saturday Sail

A few weeks ago, we did a weekend trip with a few other friends at our marina! We hadn't really planned too much, other than to get away from the dock for a night or two. Friday afternoon we pulled out of our slip and went towards Redfish Island. This was our gorgeous view of the sun setting over Kemah!!

We arrived just after sunset and decided to anchor for the night. There were three other boats there with us, for the night. We all took our dinghy's over to Tom's boat and ate & hung out before heading back to our own boats to go to sleep. 

There's something great about being anchored and feeling the boat move with the water versus feeling little to no movement while being tied to the dock. I miss this more than I can say (at least in the daytime, when I can clearly see that we are not going to hit anything). 

There were no bugs out and the weather was cool, but not too cold, so hubs and I decided to sleep in the cockpit. Around 3:37am the wind picked up more than what was forecasted and at this point I was awake. Mostly, because of the headache that woke me up, but also because I'm always too worried that we we are going to drag anchor, I'm sitting up every few minutes and making sure we are not closer to the surrounding boats and so I can't really get any good sleep. It's like whenever I take a roadtrip with anyone. I cannot fall asleep for nothing, even when I've been awake for thirty-six straight hours, I just can't do it. I feel like I have to be the lookout person, at all times. About three hours later though, I decided Joe could be the lookout person for awhile and I went down below to catch some Zzz's before our day sail! 

We slept in a little bit and then I whipped us up some oven French toast!!! Yum :)

I felt like a real-live cruiser, complete with my collapsible tea kettle, heating the water for my coffee in a pour-over coffee maker and the toast about to go in the propane oven. I think I'm getting the hang of this no electricity needed, way of life!! 

After breakfast and a quick cleanup, we pulled up anchor and radioed over to our friends about the day's plan. We were going to go with one of the boats, that had anchored with us the night before and sail to Galveston for the day, but they decided they wanted to hang out in the bay instead. It's all good, we thought, were still gonna go, because we could, so we did! :)

We stayed just outside the ship channel and sailed all the way down to where the cruise ships come in and out of port. We kept seeing flares shooting up into the sky, followed by a thick cloud of orange smoke.

There were no distress calls heard over the radio, so we figured it had to be some sort of a training or an authorized removal of expired flares. Sure enough, we later realized, that was being done at the Coast Guard Auxillary Station and all was well. 

We cruised around a bit and got up close and personal with World War II history! Seawolf Park is a memorial to USS Seawolf, a United States Navy Sargo-class submarine mistakenly sunk by U.S. Navy forces in 1944 during World War II. It is located on Pelican Island, (29°20′03″N 94°46′45″W) just north of Galveston. You can read more about the submarine and ship here. 

We then sailed back to Kemah...

We went no where in particular and it took us all day to get there and back, but that's just one more thing we can say we did on our boat. Plus, you gain experience each time you take your boat out. And well, isn't that what everyone should do? 

Weekend raft-ups and more!!

My apologies for the super long gap in blog posts, lately! With me going back to work, life has become a bit more hectic than I was used to. Gone are the days where I wasted the day away, lounging by the pool, soaking up the sun and where the only work that was being done was, me, working on my tan!! Truth is, I was ready to go back to work. Not only do I enjoy contributing to the income, I also want a bigger boat and that my friends, is what I work for, everyday...well, three days a week, anyways! What a novel idea?? "If you want something, you work for it!" Someone should clue in the millenials with that fine wisdom!! 

Labor Day weekend was a lot of fun and an extra long weekend for us. I had five days off work & Joe wound up using a vacation day so he could get four consecutive days off and it was like a mini vacation!

That Friday, we slept in, then got the boat ready to go anchor out and met up with new friends. We rafted up with two other boats (we're in the middle)  as you can see we have our "project" dinghy upside down on the bow. We were basically given the inflatable, but it needs a lot of work. But you can't complain when it's free (another piece of advice for those millenials). It's exactly the type of dinghy we have been looking for and we're not afraid of a lil' work so that is why I have affectionately dubbed it as, 'Project'! In fact, that may very well become its name! 

This was our wonderful view for a couple of days!!! We had never really rafted up for more than a few hours before, but this was great!! Being able to just step aboard your friend's boat and hang out was pretty cool!! 

And, I broke my own rule about only swimming in clear water, where I can see what's beneath me. Ahh well, it was worth it and I only felt something brush past me once or twice...it was probably better that I couldn't see what it was. 

We had planned to stay there for two nights but the winds had picked up and I doubt it would have been a comfortable night on the hook, not to mention that we don't have a generator on board, so it would've meant another night with no air conditioning. So, we opted to go sailing and head back to the marina. It was a good sail and we even saw a couple of dolphins! I don't know what it is about those magical creatures, but I never tire of seeing them!! 

On Monday, we headed back out with a different dock neighbor and went and anchored out in a nearby cove. The water there is a lot cleaner and less salty...still can't really see what's lurking beneath, but we did a little swimming there as well! 

All in all, it was a good time and we can't wait to do it again!! 

Last but not least, here's hubs showing off his mad docking skills....yes, he's driving the boat backwards, literally! One of these days I'm going to video how we dock the boat, seriously impressive how good of a job he does with "parking" our thirty-six footer!!! 

Our first overnight anchoring!!! :)

For the first time in I can't remember how long, Joe and I found ourself on the cusp of a great weather weekend and we both had off work!!! It was the perfect trifecta!!! 

At about 8pm on Friday, he says to me, "you want to go out on the boat?" To which I reply, "sure! most people probably go out before sunset, but yeah, let's go!!" So, we untied from the dock, motored out into the channel, watched the most amazingly beautiful moonrise and decided to do a little night sailing!! It was perfect! Our first night sailing experience and we were blessed with a gorgeous full moon....it was so incredibly peaceful and I wasn't near as nervous as I always presumed I would be sailing at night!! It was so great out that night that we decided to drop anchor and spend the night out in the bay. 

        Sorry the photos are so grainy. :/

Everything was going great, Joe cooked us some dinner, we watched a movie out in the cockpit and then around 1:30am we decided we were ready for bed. But wait! I was having so much fun on our spur of the moment sail/anchor idea, that I forgot to get in my exercise challenge. (Ugh, why did I wait all day?) Squats are hard enough on land, but there I stood in our salon, trying very hard to keep my balance while at anchor & did all 112 squats for that day....I think I deserve extra credit for pulling that off. Next, it was my daily dose of ab workouts & I was done. I crawled into bed, and thought I was going to get some sleep. But because we just anchored out in the middle we were not protected from the big rolling waves each time a ship would pass by, therefore the trampoline effect began to happen. We laid there for a few minutes and both sat up about the same time and said, "this isn't going to work!" For any non-boaters reading this, sleeping in the vberth usually is not a great idea because the movement of the boat can make you quite nauseous. We thought about sleeping in the aft, but it wasn't much better so we pulled up anchor and motored back to the marina. We got the boat back into our slip at 2:25am and we're finally back in bed at 3am....what a night!!

The next day, we went out in the afternoon. Of course, there was no wind at all on Saturday, so we put down the sails & cranked up the engine and motored all the way out to Redfish Island. 

We made it there about 4 o'clock, dropped anchor and just relaxed a bit. I laid out while Joe took a nap. Then I cooked us up some oven nachos and we watched this incredibly gorgeous sunset take place!! 

I absolutely love how this looks. And     no, it was not photoshopped to be half color/half b&w

Obviously, we were awake in this next photo, but after two attempts with a super bright flash, we decided to show you, how great "sleeping" in the cockpit can be!! 

We took some interior cushions and made a makeshift bed and slept outside! It was an absolute wonderful feeling sleeping under a blanket of stars with the moon shining down on us! It was a little bit of a tight squeeze, but we made it work. And I am so glad that we did because this was the first thing I saw when I woke up:

I jumped up and went and got my fancy-pants camera and spent the next 30 minutes capturing one of the most magical sunrises I've seen in a long, long time! There's just something about a sunrise over water that will make me set an alarm to make sure I'm awake for!! 

These clouds were just phenomenal to look at

We also saw quite a few ships pass by us. Being this close to something so big & mighty, sure makes a person feel small!

And, I wouldn't be my geeky, sailor self, if I didn't get at least one shot that included a winch. I don't know what it is about that big hunk of metal, but man does it ever look good!! :)

We plan to do a lot more night sailing as well as anchor out more often!! After all, that's half the fun of living on a boat and we don't have to spend money on a weekend getaway!!

Where have we been?

This last week, the crew of Irie {i.e. hubs and I} flew to the Bahamas to see our friends and fellow sailors, on s/v MiJoy!!! It is good to have friends in pretty places! :)

And oh, what a pretty place this is!!!!

We first met Mike & Joyce when we moved to Kemah and quickly became good friends, really more like family! 

It was so very nice of them to share their boat with us.....and yes, we still want to go cruising ourselves! 

We did so many fun, new & interesting things....I'll try and recap everything from the last ten days! 

Let's see, there was, 

• Ocean/transom showers

• Swimming, standing with stingrays

 

• Island hiking 

• Attended beach church with sandy toes 

• Explored a deserted island 

•{attempted to} blow a conch shell & picked up a few other shells, as well

•Played lots of beach volleyball 

•Slept on a trampoline {at least that's what it feels like when you're at anchor and there's strong winds}

•Sailed to Lee Stocking Island & back to Elizabeth Harbor

And saw some amazing sunsets

 And even a moonrise (I don't know why there's not moonrises & moonsets)

 

Yep! I'd say it's safe to say, we had an unbelievably incredible trip and can't wait to go back! Maybe our next visit will be on our own boat....that's the goal, anyways!

 

Who wants to come see us, when we're out there cruising the islands?

1st Time on the Hook!!

Well, we can officially say, we have anchored out now! .....Although, being anchored out while waiting for TowBoatUS to come and tow us back in to the marina is not quite what we had in mind for the first time we were at anchor. :/ 

The day started good, but the 'just my luck, story of my life' quickly took over... My sister, BIL & my newest niece {she's 8-weeks old & oh so cute!} had come in for a visit. We had planned to take them out sailing, but the weather had other plans. We waited & waited and finally decided we would at least motor out and show them around a little. We made it out to Kemah Boardwalk and, albeit briefly, the sails did go up.....and that's about when  the bottom fell out, so to speak, of course! 

The wind wasn't really blowing, we were all hungry and they needed to head back soon so we decided to go back so we could go out to eat. As we were headed back from the boardwalk, Joe noticed there was no water coming out of the exhaust and the engine was getting a little warmer than where we like it to be at. 

Joe went down to investigate and I stayed at the helm and slowly steered us back toward our marina. I quickly became the idiot in the channel going far too slow and in everyone's way. I guess it had to be someone....maybe next time I won't be so quick to call that person a moron. :) 

Joe said there was no water coming up to the engine from the through hull. So, he dropped anchor while I made the dreaded call to TowBoatUS. {NOTE: it was only a dreaded call because we had yet to become members(I was planning on signing us up the following week)...isn't that how it always works??} and it was going to cost us a boat-load{no pun intended} of money for the tow and then the cost of repairing the engine. 

After 30 minutes or more of waiting and still no sign of the tow boat, and with a storm headed our way Joe couldn't sit still any longer and went down to see if he could repair it with the parts we had on the boat. He found a plastic bag covering the water inlet. After removing the bag, water started gushing up inside the boat{good thing he didn't tell me (& our guests) until after we were back in our slip and they had gone home} All was fixed,  so I called TowBoatUS back and cancelled the tow. 

So glad it all worked out and yes, we are now members of TowBoatUS....just in case there's a next time!! :/