Galveston Sailing

View of the bow. Mainsail is still covered.

I enjoy sailing alone. It’s less stress to me, it seems. If I mess up, there’s no one to blame but me!

For the ASA Bareboat Certification, we sailed a 42′ Pearson ketch. It was the biggest boat I’ve ever been on, yet, and I was surprised at how it changed from being a big confusing mess to a small and cozy ship.

Our sailing conditions varied widely, and I mean WIDELY, during the three-day course.

We left the Kemah Marina with the sun peeping weakly through the clouds. There was hardly any wind.
We motored out into the ship channel and suddenly the fog rolled in, so thick that visibility couldn’t have been more than 1/2 a mile.

We could hear the foghorns of the barges, but we couldn’t see them at all. Four warning blasts (2 seconds each) were all that told us where they were.

We had a depth meter too. And that was good, because visibility was so low, we couldn’t see from one ship channel marker to another. So, in addition to our instructor/skipper’s knowledge of the Galveston Bay, we used the depth marker to make sure we were still in the channel. It’s 50 feet at its deepest, and 4 feet at the edge. We had a 4-foot draft, so if we left the channel, we would have known.

Then the rain began. It POURED rain. I did Vanna White costume changes like crazy, as I had not started out wearing rain gear. I changed into my light rain gear, and then as it started to POUR cats and dogs, I had to go back down and get out the heavy duty waterproof stuff. Here’s a note to you all if you sail in heavy rain. Get a “neck towel” to keep out the rain that inevitably drips off your hood and into your jacket!!!!!! UGH! It made me wish I’d had a drysuit on the trip.

Then it began to thunderstorm. Lightning crashed all around us. That was really bizarre. A lightning storm while sailing is my biggest phobia. Well, now I can say I’ve survived a tornado AND a lightning storm while sailing.

The instructor said something interesting, and I don’t know if it’s true. He said, he was a sailboat inspector and repairman for many years, and he saw many boats that had been hit by lightning. All of them had been at dock and had been connected to a power source to recharge their batteries. Go figure. He never saw one that had been hit by lightning while at sea. (Was that because no one survived to tell?) He assured us we had more chance of being hit while at dock. We didn’t get hit. And I am happy.

Then the sky cleared up and the sun came out. It was glorious!

But also extremely cold.

Gloves and wool clothes are something I recommend when sailing in Galveston in December.

The Elissa (built in 1897) docked at the Pier.

We docked in Galveston, next to the tallship Elissa. We also docked at Moody Gardens the next night. We had intended to sail to the peninsula northeast of Galveston, but the weather was so bad, that our instructor decided to stay closer to shore so that we could do the navigational part of the course without getting too seasick. I am extremely grateful that the guys let me go first, so the chop wasn’t so bad when I was in the cabin doing the exam. The last guy to do the exam didn’t make it and puked. Hard. We all passed the exam though.

Traincrossing at a drawbridge on the ICW

Battleships or Barges?
Slate grey water. Battleships or barges in the distance?

I really liked the shipmates I had on this trip. I couldn’t have chosen a better group of people to work with. Good natured and really interesting people, who had SCUBA dived in many places. Flown planes. Seen and lived in other countries. I always meet interesting people when I am sailing.

This was a great trip. But I CANNOT WAIT TO GO SAILING SOMEWHERE WARMER!!!!!!!

Red Right Returning

Got stranded in the marina during low tide. Our boat had a 4-foot draft, and our skipper hoped that it would clear. But, it didn’t. So we sat in the cabin and made lunch while the tide came back in. Then we used a rope on a nearby piling to kedge our way into a deeper part of the channel so we could be on our way again.

I took the opportunity in the calm to take some pictures.

Boats at dock

Red right returning. It’s very helpful in the fog. . . . (GPS is good too.)

Texas City, Texas

We passed Texas City several times on our sailing trip. It is weird-looking, like the opening scene of “Bladerunner” or downtown L.A. on a bad day.

Gulls follow a barge.

Texas City refineries are blowing smoke in the distance, like some kind of creepy Atlantis on the horizon. The water is brown in the wake of the barges, because it is only 15-50 feet deep in the ship channel, and most of them are running in the 20-foot-deep section anyway.

Bummed in Indiana

Because I got a flat tire in Indiana, I didn’t get home in time to go to Chicago’s Strictly Sail Sailboat Show. And for that, I was extremely bummed, not because I was totally psyched to go sailboat-shopping after passing my bareboat charter exams, but because I’d already spent the $24.00 on the tickets. . . .

Matt had to work that day anyway.

McClenney, Florida

We saw McClenney, Florida and Osceola National Forest much more than we wanted to. Four times, to be exact. This story from my father-in-law kind of summarizes our experience.

Kennedy Space Center, Florida

I feel sorry for anyone who is subscribed to my Xanga site by “daily digest” because your mailbox is probably over quota at this point.

I might could have visited the Space Center in Houston if I’d been in Clear Lake, TX long enough. However, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is more interesting because it has the actual launch pads for the Space Shuttles.

Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A

Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39B
and the track for getting the shuttle to the pad

The Vehicle Assembly Building and the track for getting the shuttle to the pad

People gazing at one of the engines on display.

It was interesting to me that the original Mercury orbiter can fit inside the bell of that engine. Talk about some serious claustrophobia. . . .

Space Orbiter Controls

Rocket Garden

Kennedy Space Center Entrance + Full Moon

They are no longer launching the Space Shuttles, of course, and haven’t since the explosion of the Columbia last February 2003. However, we did get to watch a launch of a GPS. Oh well.

There, I’ve just saved you $39.00 and the cost of driving to Florida to see the Kennedy Space Center. You’re welcome.

East of Orlando

East of Orlando

I am told that everywhere you see a puddle, there is a ‘gator. We actually did see an alligator near the road at Kennedy Space Center. We also saw a Florida panther just before it disappeared into the trees. There is also a bald eagle’s nest at KSC, and we did see an eagle while we were there.

Downtown Orlando?
(Yes, that is duct tape holding my rearview mirror on. Red Green would be so proud.)

Florida — The Villages

Florida has some pretty sunsets.

Florida sunset

Florida has buffalo.

Florida buffalo

Florida has lots of parking lots FOR GOLF CARTS ONLY.

Florida golf carts parked

Florida has tons and tons of mossy trees.

Creepy mossy trees

More creepy mossy trees

More mossy trees

Spanish moss on trees

Southern Georgia and Waffles

I know my godsister’s boyfriend told me, “You can’t swing a dead cat in Atlanta without hitting a Waffle House.” That was totally true from about Kentucky onwards. Everywhere we looked, there was a Waffle House.

Waffle House (Not to be confused with HUDDLE HOUSE,
which looks similar but is red and white and serves burgers,
not waffles.)

If Steak ‘n’ Shake is typical of the Midwest, and Whataburgers are all over Texas, the Waffle House is ubiquitous in the Southeast. (JollyBee’s are the McDonald’s of Manila, by the way.)

We ate at this one.

‘Gotta have a hubcap leaning on your Waffle House,
or it’s not a real Waffle House.

I was kind of disappointed that they actually didn’t have a huge assortment of waffles to choose from at a Waffle House. Instead, they had the most enormous selection of hashbrowns types I’ve ever seen. Our waitress was pretty cool. She knew everyone who walked into the restaurant, and she even knew their pets by name, and she asked everyone about them. Matt and I shared a plate of waffles with blueberries and whipped cream and plenty of butter. Good waffles, but they really should be called Hashbrowns Houses.

(The same misnomer applies for Steak ‘n’ Shake. I was really disappointed the first time I ever went to a Steak ‘n’ Shake and discovered they don’t really serve steak!! Their “steakburgers” and shakes are pretty good, though. They should rename themselves Steak’ ‘n’ Shake.)

Soil.

Matt remarked how the soil in Georgia is an odd, deep red. It reminds me of the soil in Southern Thailand. It’s so red, that in places, it looks like the mountains are bleeding, in the places where they cut through them to build the highways.

Horses in Southern Georgia

Byron’s watertower

We saw tons of roadsigns for “papershell pecans.” And Cafe Erotica. We were interested in neither.