Off We GO!

My experienced Captain and his wife (Brother-in-law and Sister) arrived in Fulton yesterday, sooooooooooooooooo we took the boat out, got some go juice and did some dock "touch and goes" probably about 3 hours worth. This morning we sit down, do the final planning of the route and it's off we go heading NE from Fulton Tx up the GICW towards Houston...I be EXCITED ! Probably run about 8 hrs today since we can't leave until after we've turned in the rental car about 0900...I'll keep you all posted and my still and video cameras are primed, charged, and ready so you'll be getting LOTS of pics!

Looking forward to the pics. Have a safe and enjoyable trip!

Cool. Want to see the pics.

Im excited for you. Wonderful to enjoy the first outing with family.
We expect lots of pictures!

Hey Kev, FINALLY!! You have some great weather for it also. Have a great trip and see ya in Kemah.

Good luck! Have fun and learn a lot.

Bon voyage! Get ready to be on the super highway to learning!

Got a kinda late start...10:30, cruised approx. 65 miles, finished with engines 2130 hours. Tied to mooring buoy on the south side of the channel just west of Oyster Lake..Approx. mile marker 465. Great weather, good day...fair amount of tugs and LOTS of speedy runabouts near the little towns...all in all, a pretty good day!

Departed mooring buoy at 0730.....nice day, GREAT weather. For you guys that haven't been on this part of the route, not a lot a scenery, but, it makes up for it in challenges....2 flood-gates at the Colorado river, which are a little fun in between a couple of fully loaded tugs! Then, up through Freeport which is a MAJOR staging area for tugs/tows all trying to tie up to mooring buoys while dodging the plethora of little speedy boats...LOTS of fun (really, it was) and we made through it all none the worse for wear. After that, we bumped it up a little and made the Galveston Yacht basin about 8pm and tied up to a transient dock, ate some dinner, and now going to bed. Real good day today, 13 hrs, right at 20 miles....Should be home in Kemah tomorrow about noon...I'll download and post the pics in my final post on this cruise tomorrow. So far it's been a great learning experience, the boats running GREAT, and we're all having a wonderful time!

Sounds like you are doing great! Winds are forecasted at SW 5-10 so the bay should be calm for your trip in. Will be coming to Kemah later this week and will hopefully get to see your baby!

Well, we made it

We left Galveston Yacht Harbor on an again perfect day....Left about 0600...wandered across the bay with NO WIND....and had a very pleasant cruise. We did bump it up a little and made it to South Shore Marina (WE'RE HOME!) at 0930.....here's a couple of pics, and I'm sure you can figure out what they are.

Great write up and photos! Looks like it was a fun trip. Funny how we all want to go and take a trip where the other guys are!

Thanks! And yeah, it was a good work-up trip for my "new to me" boat...Loved every minute of it. In Disguise performed flawlessly! Now we're planning a couple of overnighters in Galveston Bay to do some fishin, relaxin, and just plain enjoying our boat!

That's what it's all about! We are heading up north to visit our lonely boat. Moving it over to bellingham this weekend. Just hangin while the admiral takes a course.

Good Deal, Gbonas! My USCG son was stationed in Bellingham for a bit...Nice area up there, but it do get it's share of "liquid sunshine" lol.

Well now. Once we made it up here, we had a slip leased at South Shore Harbor Marina. When we'd made the arrangements a month or so ago, they allowed liveaboards...now they don't so we've moved over to the Watergate Yachting Center marina...A little more expensive but a LOT nicer..People here have made us feel more than welcome. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and say "HOWDY"...or if you prefer, "AHOY THERE".

So it only took you 24 hours to get run off by South Shore and this is the marina that allows Baker to stay! When you run out of marinas in the greater Houston area, you can always come back to Beaumont and rough it with us. Will try get down for a visit next week but will call you first.

LOL! Yep....I still have a few I can go thru here....then there's Baytown, Port Arthur, and THEN I may have to rough it, lol! Looking forward to your visit. Jennie's and my prayers are with your Mom, hope it all works out.

We tried South Shore for a week after buying Compromise. Some guy trying to board our boat in the middle of the night and the ongoing all night parties decided it for us, not our kind of place. Ended up in Waterford, again.


Bob

BobH said:

We tried South Shore for a week after buying Compromise. Some guy trying to board our boat in the middle of the night and the ongoing all night parties decided it for us, not our kind of place. Ended up in Waterford, again.


Bob

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Yeah, that was starting when we left. This morning, we called them and told them we had left and were not coming back.....THEN they said that they could give us a live aboard slip...Told them it was too late. Watergate is a much nicer marina and they actually welcomed us and are glad we're here. Totally different attitude and well worth the slight increase in price. Of course, the South Shore Manager in charge of refunding our money (we paid a month lease + a month deposit and were only there 3 days) is gone for the weekend. Imagine that!

wyoboater said:

Of course, the South Shore Manager in charge of refunding our money (we paid a month lease + a month deposit and were only there 3 days) is gone for the weekend. Imagine that!

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It always gets me and shows something when the manager of a recreational business which has it's greatest volume of business on weekends, doesn't ever work weekends. Same with retail and managers not ever working their biggest day, Saturday.

Couldn't have said it better myself BandB

Coincidentally, the trucker with Xanadu is in Des Moines right now and he'll be at our home marina on the Missouri tomorrow morning - but the marina service department is closed on the weekends, when lines build up at the lauching ramps and 90% of the slipholders who take their boats out will cast off thier lines. If it were allowed, I could pull up a boat repair van at the lauching ramps and fix minor things all day long as boaters launch and haul out. Never made any sense to me whatsoever that a marina service department is closed on weekends.

Good luck with the deposit. We had the police out there and witnesses about the drunk climbing on board our boat but when the police showed up nobody saw anything. I wrote a bunch of letters but we never did get our deposit back.


Bob

wyoboater said:

Couldn't have said it better myself BandB

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It reminds me of a manager in a distribution center that worked three shifts, 24 hours a day. When I was young, I found myself there at 9 pm observing all sorts of things. Then curious, I returned at 3:00 am. Wasn't a pretty picture then. I asked the manager the next day the last time he'd been there at night. He said he worked the day shift. I then said, "Then we should demote you to shift supervisor, since Manager is responsible for all shifts?" Much of management is not rocket science. At 9:00 PM I observed the majority of that shift taking a 2 hour plus lunch break and all work stopped. At 3:00 AM I observed three employees returning from a trip outside the building, all three reeking of alcohol. Oh and at about 10:00 pm I observed someone in the rest room an extra long time and checked when he left to find the soft drink can he used to smoke crack. He happened to be the son of the security guard.

BobH said:

Good luck with the deposit. We had the police out there and witnesses about the drunk climbing on board our boat but when the police showed up nobody saw anything. I wrote a bunch of letters but we never did get our deposit back.

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Hope you have put that in Active Captain.

Donsan said:

Hope you have put that in Active Captain.

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Last week I left a negative (but fairly mild) comment on activecaptain about a pretty gross marina bathroom and they deleted it. I wonder if they'll allow a note about this situation.

So if you're cruising and decide to stay put for a month the marina calls that a livaboard? Seems to me that's just an extended stay, thank you for the business.

mbevins said:

So if you're cruising and decide to stay put for a month the marina calls that a livaboard? Seems to me that's just an extended stay, thank you for the business.

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Different places, different marinas, different rules. There is no universal definition of what a liveaboard is. I know some that limit you to as little as 3 or 4 nights.

kthoennes said:

Last week I left a negative (but fairly mild) comment on activecaptain about a pretty gross marina bathroom and they deleted it. I wonder if they'll allow a note about this situation.

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ActiveCaptain deleted a negative review?

-Chris