Monthly Archives: April 2017

Galveston was a celebration

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It was certainly an interesting show watching Matt get used to driving in a car, going over 10 miles per hour, in traffic.  He is normally the calm, cool, collected one, but in this instance he had a few choice words for fellow drivers.  We both needed a drink once we arrived at the hotel where the festivities were to being immediately upon arrival.  We were here to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of our good friends Donald and Ruth.  Yep, you read that right – 50 years together!  What’s equally amazing is that Ruth’s sister will be celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary in a few months, another couple had their 50th anniversary a few months ago, and another couple is going on 54 years.  It is such a blessing to see that type of love is still thriving in so many couples.  It gives you hope that your love can endure despite so many people throwing in the towel.  Donald and Ruth certainly set an amazing example of how it is done and they are an inspiration to us.   I just did the math, Matt and I will be 88/89 respectively when that time comes around for us so we are going to need to ensure we stay healthy!

Upon arrival, we checked in, dropped our bags and bee lined to Shrimp N Stuff, one of Donald’s favorites, where we met the happy couple and Ruth’s brother Gene and Annette.  Early Friday morning Matt and I headed out to run some errands to buy some “boat stuff”.  But first, we had to make a stop at Chick-Fil-A, my favorite and boy was it beyond scrumptious.


Afterwards, we hit Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up some kitchen supplies and a mattress topper (we’ve been sleeping on egg cushions on top of a typical boat mattress and although its fine for a few weeks, it is a little hard on the back after a few months).  Then we hit Target and Super Cuts where Matt got his lovely locks cut off by a sweet girl who fresh out of cosmotology school, complete with purple hair and nose ring.  We headed back to the hotel where we met Donald and Ruth in their room and shared stories as I went through our stash they so delightfully brought to us, which included some sundry articles easier found on amazon than in the islands.  I sent over 40 items ranging from courtesy flags, dry bags, ditch bag & medical bag replacements, new windlass remote, essential oils (from my sister) and of course tons and tons of mail from our mail center.  It was like Christmas in April.  Now I just needed to repack it all, in addition to our new purchases in such a way that we can check it all on to the plane.  Friday night a huge group of us headed over to Olympia for dinner which was a precursor to the fun we were to have next night.

Saturday we woke up to a day of fun.  Our hosts had a room blocked for breakfast and then snacks throughout the day.  After breakfast, Matt and I wandered around the historic downtown seaport area.  There are tons of shops, eateries and galleries.  After about an hour of walking we ran into Donald and decided to go to the Children’s fair which had just about every type of activity a kid could want – including Big Bird.  So our resident “Child” waited patiently for her turn in line.

Is Big Bird giving the camera the bird?

After the fair, we headed over to the Texas Seaport Museum (Maritime Museum).  What an interesting museum with information on Elissa the magnificent sailing vessel that we saw during Navy Days in Corpus Christi, to the history of Texas immigrants and more.  It was wonderful.

Matt and I dressing up as arriving immigrants.


Afterwards, lunch, Matt and Charlie headed to the Ocean Stars Offshore Oil Drilling and Rig museum.  Then Matt and I had to learn how to play dress up again, using a blow dryer, full make-up, panties, and heels.  Oh dear, I hope I don’t make a fool of myself in these things.  Everyone looked so gorgeous and happy as we entered cocktail hour. I designated myself the photographer (and sure wished we brought the nice camera) of the weekend and occupied myself by floating in and out of conversations, snapping photos and enjoying a refreshing cocktail.  Kathy and Kerri, Donald’ and Ruth’s daughters gave beautiful heart warming speeches that made everyone laugh and then put on a slide show reviewing Donald and Ruth’s life.  It was so uplifting and beautiful.  Of course, many guests chimed in with their stories and good times were had by all.

The weather had been absolutely perfect since we arrived, but it had to come to an end on the day we were leaving. I think Texas was just sad to see Matt and I leave 🙂  We were expecting a huge storm, with possible tornadoes so we got up early Sunday morning to ensure we made it to the airport in time.  We had to feed and return the car, hop on the shuttle and check all of our baggage.  We had plenty of time to spare.  We loaded onto the plane thinking we made it before the storm.  Pulled away from the jet bridge and sat….the weather had turned and we waited to depart for over 45 minutes.  Normally not a problem as AA had the individual TV screens and I was in the middle of a great movie, but we only had a 60 minute layover in MIA so it looked like we were going to miss our connection.  We landed in MIA 40 minutes late, sprinted to the gate (luckily it was in the same terminal, but the opposite end) and boarded on last call.  What are the chances our luggage made it?  We landed in SXM with no problems, and so did our luggage.  We grabbed everything, hailed a cab and met Contrary Mary folks at the SMYC for some late sun downers, would that be called moon uppers?  It was a whirlwind trip, but so worth it to be side by side with our friends as they celebrated such a beautiful milestone.

Galveston was a celebration of friends and extended family.   Celebrating the commitment and longevity that seems to be hard to come by these day.  Over the years we have learned tons from Donald and Ruth. Recipes, Sailing, Communication, Respect, and of course the Texas history as they knew growing up in Texas for so many years.  We were luck to be included as part of the extended family in their 50 years celebration.. Which is longer than either of has been kicking ourselves.  Inspiring and amazing.

Vacation in Galveston

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Who knew Galveston was a vacation destination?  All those years of living a 3 hr drive to Galveston and its now a 12+ hour airplane ride to where we would spend our first vacation from vacation.

Freezer burn and frigerator burn are the two biggest electrical draws we have on board – not counting the water maker as we only run that every few days.  The fridge and freezer burn the most electricity as they are always on.  Yeah, I know you’d think the internet was always on and sucking down bits and bytes – but that doesn’t compare to the electricity used to keep beer cold.  Yeah, I’m a prima donna.    

As we were going to be leaving for a few days, and even though the weather forecast looked light we needed to make a plan on where to leave our home while we traveled back to Texas even for a short weekend.  Seeing as we had pretty much depleted the frozen meats, those pork chops from Grenada had seen better days after almost 4 months in the freezer and going through 2 defrost cycles.  We were going to be leaving the boat on the hook, at anchor out in the bay and relying on solar to keep the electrical in balance and the hook to stay  stuck while we were away.   We had worked it out, to where there was basically only ice in the freezer and one last bit of shrimp which we had for dinner, the plan was to turn off the freezer while we were gone and thus remove one of the larger power suckers while we were away.

Our friends had agreed to keep an eye on the shack and also to give us a lift to land so that the dinghy wasn’t tied to dinghy dock for 4 days and nights.  That was so awesome, and then they also picked us up at the bar when we arrived as well.  Too cool.

The wind was forecast to be light but also shifting 180 degrees from the direction we anchored in.  We had found our normal spot, next to the beach, we set the hook and were comfortable, dove on the anchor it was set, but then thought about it.  Maybe we should anchor further out away from shore, get more swing room – we don’t need to hog the prime spot while we are not here, so we picked up the hook and moved further out.  Found a spot with lots of swing room, till someone anchored next to us later in the day – but they didn’t look like they were going to stay.  You can just sense these things sometimes.  Dove on the anchor it was buried in sand again.  Let out lots of scope and that’s where we would leave it.

Sugar Shack

Can you spot the shack in the middle of the pack?

Moved some of the last things in the freezer to the fridge after dinner and shut down the freezer.  5 am came pretty early, at 6 am our ride showed up, shuttled us to shore and we set off looking for a bus or taxi to the airport.  Was it too early, the roads were empty, we had an 8am departure, sure we could walk it and be there by 7am with the luggage.   Then a yellow school bus honked slowed and asked if we needed a lift to the airport. Christine and I looked at each other and said.. uh sure, okay.  We jumped on the school bus.  This guy knew his route and that school bus cornered like it was on rails – to borrow a line from Pretty Woman.  Honk Honk, what speed bump, wowzers how did we make that corner.  Was an E-ticket ride for sure, never came to a complete stop to pick up the passengers, and grinned when it was boys as he made it extra challenging for them – everyone seemed to enjoy the challenge too.

At the airport we got our tickets and settled in for a long day of travel to the north side of Houston, where we picked up a rental car and traveled across Houston in rush hour traffic,  After moving at 10miles and hour for 4 months – driving 80mph in Houston, in a strange vehicle was quite the experience.  2 hrs later after a stop at williams-sonoma for some cooking gear we finally made to Galveston and the vacation / celebration could commence.

La Semanna

Baie Longue, La Semanna – favorite stretch of beach on a good weather day.

Where should we go today?

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How about a vacation?   A vacation from permanent vacation?  Sounds like fun.

Hung in Grand Case for a couple of days longer, was running low on provisions, so we explored the long way to the super market.  Down the less traveled path that the tour bus had brought us on a month back or so.  Walked through the town, instead of down the main restaurant row.  Made our way to find some bacon and couple other sundries to hold us over till we left for vacation.

Back on board for a lazy day, beer supply was holding out fine.  Decided about time to head to Baie Longue, or La Semmana hotel and chili out there.   Decided to get up early and make a fishing day of it.  Dropped the lines in and motored over what looked to be good contour lines and I could have sworn I saw fishing boats out in that direction before.   No birds, no flying fish, nothing even tickled the lures.  I pulled em in to check on them, and there was some small sea week fouling the hooks – ugh.  That definitely does not help.  In the process I managed to do my finest macrame of the starboard fishing line.  Well at least that gave me something to do as we motored along toward La Semmana.  An hour of something to do that is.  Forgetting that I was in the sun, and neglecting the sunblock and hat, I got a little red but eventually got the line sorted out.  Only having to start over twice.

We got up to La Semmana and the waves were rolling in, wasn’t too comfortable and the WiFi wasn’t cooperating so decided to bail and head elsewhere for the day.  We had made plans with our boat buddies on Contrary Mary to meet at La Semmana, they actually raised sail and showed up right as we were getting set to bail.  We settled on Mullet Bay, maybe it was a bit more protected, nope – smaller bay, not much protection so Marigot was the call.  Back to almost where we came from.

On the way, they spotted Baie Rouge, a nice gem of a beach that is normally pummeled with waves and boats don’t often get to go there.  Given the conditions, there was one monohull up in there, and shortly 2 cats followed.  Perfect conditions for stopping there.  We got the explorer itch, as we hadn’t been there. Called on the VHF and got no takers on a beach walk, so we swam ashore, dragging money as there were 2 beach bars that looked like well deserved watering holes, Gus’s is where we stopped.   Didn’t take a camera / iPhone as it was a rather long swim and trusting a waterproof bag didn’t seem like a good move.  Swam a shore with mask/fins/snorkel/hat and sunglasses and the cash in a ziplock baggie.  Found a place to leave mask and fins while we wandered the beach.  Was a nice beach, a long hard walk as the sand was really soft.  Lots of nice houses on far end from the beach bars but we made the entire beach before turning around.  There was this large pelican sitting on a rock that would have made a great picture as the sun was behind him.  Oh well.

Baie Rouge

Gus’s Beach Bar close to where we anchored

Exhausted, plopped into the seat at the beach bar – it was happy hour, damn the luck.   That means 2 for 1 drinks.  Score.  Beers and Frozen drinks – you can guess who had which.   I wandered over to check on the mask/fins while Christine was ordering – all good still there.  Cheers, the table of Canadians next to us – super friendly but wasn’t sure she knew where Canada was.  Then in the conversation they asked where we were from and of course Texas is the answer, not USA – Texas, the big country of Texas.  And then the strangest comments, yeah, started with the political theatrics with our current president, but followed shortly with “You got Chevy trucks in Texas”, and me being the smart ass, replied, “Yup, we got Ford pick em ups too”.   Un-phased, the guy said he really wanted a short-bed chevy, used to own one and wants another and even follows a Texas blog about them.  Oh my. Would you look at the time?  They were on their way out, we finished our rounds of drinks.

The chairs were being piled high, the sun was getting lower, I went to get the gear while.  Found everything except my mask, the snorkel was removed and left but the mask was gone.  Was going to be a long swim with just a snorkel.  Looked everywhere, Christine asked the chair guy, and a couple others on the beach.  Nada, Oh well, I guess it happens.  But just an old mask?  Not the fancy flippers and why leave the snorkel.  Looked a bit more and then resolved to swim back to the boat with just a snorkel, as I didn’t bother with bringing my fins along.   Walked down to the waters edge with just the snorkel while Christine was looking under and behind the stacked chairs and then gathering her gear, and a guy comes running out of the water and hands me my mask.  He said he thought it was “abandoned”.. Uh-Okay. Thank you.  At least I had it back and the swim was much easier than keeping your head out of the water for that long.

Christine wanted a beach BBQ as there was secluded section, but we were low on something to cook and all, luckily we are boaters and schedules / plans are subject to change – our friends on Contrary Mary had us over for dinner while watched the sunset go down on another great day in a new anchorage.  Cheers.