SO MUCH FOR THE BEST LAID PLANS....

Thursday, November 17

Well, just after our last post we found out that sailing buddies Daren & Nancy were to be further delayed so we decided, what the hey, let's beat feet.  Unfortunately, we didn't decide to leave Costa Grande (just south of Port O'Connor) until 8:00a.m. Monday, leaving at approximately 9:00.  Encountered a wild wind-against-tide wave action exiting the Port O'Connor channel that had us motoring through 10-12 foot waves.  Roller coaster stuff.  Wahoo!!!  After making it through the channel, we had a delightful full day sail offshore to Freeport but, unfortunately, our late departure from Costa Grande put us into Freeport after dark.  Never again!  Since we had been to Bridge Harbor marina in Freeport several times in the past, we felt fairly comfortable entering the Freeport channel at night. However, we were entering from the south and had always entered from the north before, so it was a little different.  No major problems were encountered but your heart is nevertheless in your mouth a few times; night sailing is much tougher to get your bearings than day sailing and we have resolved to be in port prior to sunset from now on.

Thunderstorms came rolling in the next day so we stayed at Bridge Harbor, leaving there for Galveston Wednesday morning.  We sailed offshore (gorgeous day!), arriving in Galveston at around 5:00p.m. and immediately went to the fuel dock to top off our fuel tank and where we were met by our wonderful employee, Ernesto, who brought us more Mountain Valley for our trip.  Ernesto then ran Sue over to the local grocery store to pick up some fresh veggies.  The plan was to then anchor out overnight and take off early in the morning for Port Arthur.  Problem:  While Sue was at the grocery store, the wind (which had been forecast to increase "late" at night) came roaring in at 30 mph and pinned us to the fuel dock overnight (which is where we sit right now at 7:00a.m. Thursday).  Unfortunately, the wind isn't forecast to drop until late afternoon so if we can't find some kind soul to tow our bow off the dock, it looks as if we may spend the majority of the day here.  Yuck!  Al has just gone ashore to see if the fuel dock folks have any suggestions (or demands, such as "We don't care if you damage your boat.  Just get it off our dock!).  We'll see.  Not the best of situations...but not the worst either.  Eventually, we'll be on our way again.  We'll keep you posted.

Update.  Al just came back to the boat.  Fuel dock folks were great.  Said boats get pinned to the dock here on a regular basis and not to worry about it.  Just sit here as long as needed.  Nice!!!  We'll probably head for Bolivar (just north of Galveston) late today so that we can get a jump on tomorrow's rather long sail to Port Arthur.

Today may be the day that Al figures out how to transfer our photos to our blog.  If so, we'll let you know.  Thanks for being our friends and wanting to keep up with our voyaging.  We wish we could take all of you with us!

More later.