Tuesday August 12th
9:54 AM This morning around 8:15 SYL filled back up to the brim with gas at the “Fishing Capital of the World” fuel dock / cleaning station….. she took 76 gallons. The trip home from Venice to Kemah is almost 100 miles closer and should be down current so we have plenty gas because we filled up every can. We left Venice about 9AM and are headed down the mighty Mississippi River toward the Gulf of Mexico. I found Venice very interesting. After we docked and guy named Dave walked over and welcomed us. He and his wife Susan have a nice houseboat they use on weekends tied up in the harbor. After meeting him and his dockmate next door Bob, we noticed there are many houseboats and barges with houses built on them all thru the harbor… apparently it’s a popular thing to do. Dave has a Hydrosport fising boat they go out harvesting with and bob has a large sport fishing yacht. He and Bob invited us over for a fish feast last night. The meal started out with fresh yellowfin tuna sashimi (I brought the wasabi) Even Russ who has never considered eating raw fish loved the fresh tuna. Dave fried up some deep water fish, then Bob put some lemon pepper and olive oil on more fresh tuna and pan seared some steaks. OMG my brothers….. we ate good last night. All protein, all delicious.
I made up a couple pieces of sea glass and let Dave’s wife choose the one she wanted and gave Dave a signed Bahamian 1 dollar bill. She chose a nice white piece I double wrapped with half round gold. There was a lot of aaAAAAhhEEE!’s and LSU purple colors embracing us as friends last night and after the long passage…. the invitation and loving treatment was readily and graciously accepted by the crew of SYL. Thank you to our newest friends in Venice.
10:19 The Mississippi is giving us almost 2 knots of help as we drop out of Louisiana into the gulf. We got some fishing tips from our hosts last night so we might give it a try later on today. They convinced us to take the main delta exit (the SW Pass) as we headed out for Texas. It’s 20 miles to the end of it so we will be “inside” for 3 more hours. We have two speed indicators, one is a paddle wheel under the boat that measures our speed on the water, the other is the Global Positioning Device (GPS) giving us ground speed. The paddle wheel was stuck this morning so while we were in the river I jumped over and cleaned it. I didn’t drink any water but the bit I tasted on my lip seemed fresh, no salt water. I understand the salt water is in the depths and any fresh water stays on top. That makes sense to me… salt water is much heavier. Our water speed is 5.6 knots but our ground speed is 7.4. Jono has been fixing his cell phone, last night the batteries went dead while he was skyping and his phone got into a boot loop so he reset the whole operating system. We are about a mile from our turnoff into the SW Pass.
11:23Tuesday: The SW Pass is a busy place…. we have met 2 ships and been overtaken by another. We put our sails up with winds over the beam and picked up nicely. We are bumping 9 knots ground speed, 14 miles to the end of the pass. I keep remembering those tuna steaks we ate last night… man they were awesome. Completely chilled and fresh in the center with nicely seared surfaces laden with wonderfully light seasonings….. dang that was good. The SW pass is making us sail at a very good angle to the wind. Unfortunately when we enter the gulf and we angle off 45 degrees to the right, the wind might be back on our nose a bit too tightly to fill the jib. The main sail will make power at 20 degrees so hopefully we can still have that tool in our arsenal of speed. (“speed” being a relative term on a sail boat) The word “progress” might be more appropriate. Early this morning (6:00ish) we had a light rain shower in the marina. Right now skies are 40% cloudy, sun is coating our photovoltaic panels nicely. The men of SYL voted unanimously to leave today and do another crossing. Our systems are tuned to 3 hour intervals and last night all of us got over 8 continuous hours of air conditioned quiet sleep.
Noonish: A friend calculated travel distance for us if we come out of the delta and go direct to Galveston… versus heading up Vermillion Bay into the ICW around Shell Morgan then taking the ditch home. The results are 280 miles direct, 340 miles via ICW. With the current behind us offshore and about a million wooden pilings in front of us in the ICW we opted for offshore. Additionally…. we can’t travel the ICW 24 hours a day, its not a good idea to go around dark corners at night… you might be facing a 10′ tall high barge bow! Plus we want to catch some fish…. not that we will, but theres more opportunity in blue(ish) water. 6.65 miles to the gulf (still in the SW Pass) still bumping 9 knots ground speed. We are making 5.5 with the motors, the sails are making 2 knots and the rest is current. I expected more current, like it was in New Orleans proper, but I guess multiple passes divert the main flow in several directions… and the tide may not be rolling out at full speed right now either.
2:12 in the afternoon: The current outflow from the Mississippi is our best friend right now. If we keep heading offshore we get a boost. If we turned directly toward the target we only have .4 kts of good current, this way we have twice that (.8 kts) and the wind is such that we can gain a knot or better boat speed. If we turn to the target it’s dead to wind. I’m hoping that as we get offshore a ways the current goes more East to West. If that happens we will tack toward shore and watch our VMG (velocity made good) Our present VMG is 6.5 kts. Boat speed is close to 6.8 knots, and we are at 7.8 knots ground speed. VMG and hull speed are very close, and that amazing because our direction of travel is 40 degrees from our target. The answer to the trigonometric riddle is.. we have good currents pushing us toward the target so VMG and boat speed are close.
7:00 PM: Fish ON! We have caught 4 fish and two got off before we got them to the boat. unfortunately…. they were all a fish called a “little tooney” they stink horribly and are almost useless to eat, you have to fillet them just right to make sure the strong flavored meat isn’t in the pan. We kept the first one to make sure what it was… when we identified it ,it went overboard. The next 4 we released right off the hook once we got them in. Just now (7:20) we got a heavy strike that started ripping line off the reel. That had to be a big fish because the 10 pounder we threw back didn’t do anything like that to the tackle, the fish chewed the hook off and we lost it. We are in about 80 foot of water 16 miles offshore directly out of Fourchon. Jono is manning the reel and I just finished my shift so Russ is the captain at the moment. I lit the radar and got him set up for night work….. the sun is low on the horizon but the full moon will light the night sky and the water in front of us. About 6:00 we found out we were in a restricted area… a supertanker loading zone. This boat came up blowing his horn so I turned on the radio and found out I was “interfering” with mooring a supertanker some ¾ of a mile away. I hope my big wakes didn’t disrupt their operations so much that it knocked large chunks off their 1000 foot supertanker. I started to offer to come repair any damage I may have caused… lol.
FISH ON! 7:33. It doesn’t look that big tho….. Jono reeled in a Frigate Mackerel, which looks a lot like the Little Tooney, except there aren’t any dots on it’s belly, and the lines on their backs are longer. Caught…..and released.
8PM wind is on the nose, all sails are down and we are a motorboat. We are putting medium power on so our progress is 5.4 knots dead into 2 to 3 footers. The sunset is gorgeous though…. orange and fuchsia streaks fill the Western sky. So the first 11 hours we had good progress, hopefully the night will give us something better than we have right now. We have been tacking around to make our best VMG but now its just motor toward the target because the wind is on the nose and not enough to break off and go fast to make speed. There seems to be no current bad or good in this area so what we make is what we get.
3AM Wednesday – wee hours: I’ve been on since 1AM, before that we have been struggling to maintain 5.5 VMG for hours. The sea state was against us, current was against us at ½ a knot and we had no wind other than what we were making. Just before 2AM I started dodging thunderstorms… the best part is they gave me some wind. I’ve successfully been going above them as they come offshore. They made enough wind to sail up and around them. I’ve been holding 7 kts VMG for an hour and a half. 30 minutes ago I took one motor offline so we are holding almost 7 on one engine.
4AM The wind slacked up quite a bit. Still able to hold 6 to 6.5 with the one motor. Just before Russ came on shift we went ahead and added 10 gallons of fuel….enough to hold us over until daylight when it will be easier to do. We are approaching our 20 hour mark and wanted to ensure we didn’t run out. By 4:45 Russ had to start the other motor just to maintain 5 to 5.5 VMG. Quarter after 5 the sails came down. The wind was completely gone. Motored on towards the target at 5.5 knots. Russ decided as the darkness started to fade into light, (around 5:30) he would put a lure in the water and see what happens. Hoping for Mahi or Tuna, but knowing, if anything does strike, it will probably be something much less desirable due to the shallow waters we are now in.
Almost 7AM and the winds are starting to pick up a little. Not really enough to justify raising the main just yet….but enough to move the muggy stale air around. Jono will be coming on shift in about 20 minutes….maybe the winds will continue to pick up.
9AM Wednesday: We passed the Houma area a while back. About that time we got a bit of wind and better than that a good current behind us. The wind started shifting to the North (or more from the North) about 4AM and has been slowly shifting that way all morning. It passed North earlier and is now a bit behind us from the NE. The sails are set all the way out and we sometimes catch a wave just right and surf to over 8 knots. Average VMG speed is probably in the low 7’s at very low power settings so we are happy with that. We passed the 1/3 point sometime last night, presently (9ish) we are 173 miles to the Galveston jetty. That being said we should be half way from Venice to Kemah around noon today. Currently we are seeing 2 to 3 foot waves (a bit confused due to the wind shift) off our starboard quarter, speed now in the mid 6’s as wind has dropped off a bit.
10AM Wednesday – Well, our speed hasn’t been too snazzy for the first half of the trip. So far we averaged 5.7 knots. The waves are becoming more regular after the wind shift, not so confused so that’s nice. Not much wind to speak of tho… so it’s all on the motors right now, bumping over 6 kts but barely at 10:26. If your watching spot, our track has been very irregular, there are several reasons we have altered course. The number one reason is “Velocity Made Good”. We are constantly aware of how fast we are moving toward our target, sometimes that means bearing off to take advantage of a wind flow. You can motor straight at the target at 5 knots but if you bear off 20 degrees and can go 7.5 in the wind… even though it’s not directly at the target your “VMG” might be in the high 6’s so you will get there faster. The second reason is to hunt current. A half knot of current either way is a nice percent of your total travel speed. Thirdly, we alter course to avoid large “cities” of drilling rigs… especially at night. Another reason we have changed course is for ride comfort. If waves are right on the nose or right on your beam not only is the ride rough.. waves right on your nose will slow you down dramatically. Veering off 10 degrees may help the boat ride over approaching waves. So you spot watchers.. as you can see we have been trying hard to optimize our arrival time.
11:31AM No wind…. descent current tho. I found out that if I go outside the weed line (the open water side) we lose our good current. Nice find. I found about .6 or .7 knots of help inside that weed line. For those that don’t know… weeds and floating junk build up in clumps and lines where the tide changes. Apparently the good tide is closer to shore heading West. I attempted to run the AC for a while to dry out the boat and cool us down but the batteries need charging first so thats what is happening now. With a following wind that is non existent it’s really hot and humid here on the boat…. welcome to Texas huh? Boy I’m glad to get the boat back to Texas… In the Bahamas hurricanes seldom get to a category 2… now…. here in Texas we get category 4’s pretty regular…. glad to have ‘er home and safe huh? SYL has attained her Gulf of Mexico mustache…. the bows and aft steps have a chocolate coating we didn’t get in the Bahamas…. this brown water leaves a marked trail on a white boat. Again.. glad to be home………
12:02PM The AC is up and running. It already feels bearable inside after 2 minutes of cool dry air. Or at least that it’s going to be bearable shortly. Last night on my shift the pre-frontal showers came off the shore. In front of every Northern there are always pre-frontal showers. They weren’t strong or many of them. I was able to dodge 3 cells by heading behind them to the shore side as they passed by in front of me marching offshore as far as their energy will bring them before playing out. We got sprinkles from the last one but nothing that wet the boat.
12:12 PM Wednesday – 153 miles to the Galveston Jetty, boat is cooling and drying inside. Russ and I filled the main tanks earlier so I’m feeling good about how much gas we have. Opposing currents can use it up, but we may have found the seam of good current toward Texas… inside the weed line in 60 depth or less. If your going offshore to Florida, get outside the weed line… coming home….. inside.
4:28AM Thursday No wind since noon yesterday…. we pretty much just burned gas and chased good currents until we finally got some wind from the stern (East) about midnight. Predictions were for 7 knots, that’s probably what we have with some gusts to 10 or 11. I ran the AC for a while yesterday, it dried out the boat nicely and each of us got some AC sleep. After the light Norther we got the humidity went down in the 60% range so keeping the boat dry has been easy.. the cushions still feel nice and dry to the touch. Before midnight it was pretty uneventful… but the new day changed all that……. Otto decided to spill his guts (the autopilot came apart) I was off duty asleep but the boys did what they knew how to do but needed help so I got up. The belt looked pretty bad so I decided to change it, I couldn’t find one of the new belts I have so I replaced it with one I had previously taken out of service. It promptly broke when I put it all back together so I went back to the original belt. We were still having problems.. it would turn right but was having trouble turning left….. after removing the wheel pilot several times I took the wheel to see how it felt. There must have been a weed build up on the rudders because I couldn’t turn it left very easily by hand either. After a couple hours and trading parts I have Otto back on line, but not at his best, it still slips a little when turning left. While I was working on the autopilot the left engine died…… We diagnosed the issue quickly it was out of gas… lol. Russ put 10 gallons in each tank, that should get us very close to Kemah. We have 4 more full cans in reserve.
5:25 AM 50 miles to the Galveston Jetty. I have a fairly large rainstorm in front of me,,,, I’m heading North to go around it. Successfully rounded the storm, the next one I skirted closely to see how much wind was in it and there wasn’t much so the third one I went right thru it. I got the boat washed but the price was widely varying wind directions and speeds from zero to about 12 kts. All in all it was lumpy and a bit slower to go thru than to steer around it, I could have kept a better pace driving around the big ones.
7:53 AM 35.9 miles to the jetty. It sure looks good on the chart to see how close we are to home plate. My boys have learned a lot and have become very capable sailors. I’m very proud to have had them with me on this voyage. I’m just plain proud of my boys. The weather is still pretty rainy looking. Nothing severe, just not shiny and hot. From the Galveston entrance we still have 4 hours of travel to get to Waterford Harbor in Kemah. Arrival at the jetty is showing about 1:30PM, so we might arrive at the slip before 6. Last night the boys and I did some star gazing from the front of the boat before the moon came up, it was glorious to see. We probably saw 10 satellites and 3 or 4 shooting stars. It’s 8:05 I think I’ll help Russ dump the sea grass off the engines one more time then take a nap.
9:22 AM After a nice doze on the salon seat I woke up to better weather. The skies have cleared to some extent, seas are still 3 to 4’s behind us and some useable wind. We are bouncing between 5.3 and 6.2 kts as the waves catch us and roll under the boat from the stern. We can’t see Galveston yet…. but man we are close. We are still motor sailing of course… its a shame we didn’t get better sailing winds… but we did enjoy the low wave crossing. Russ has been dodging clumps of sea grass like I was on my 3 hours shift. I thought it was a tide line but apparently there is just a lot of sea grass floating on the open water this time of year. Last night I reminded the boys that this was our last night on the open sea, As glad as we are to get here it was kind of sad too. The sunrise was pretty this morning, as we get closer to home the colors are a different red. I understand pollution does that, the more smog and chemicals there are in the air the more vibrant the colors of the sun as it shines thru the maximum amount of atmosphere.
11:21 AM WooHooo…7 miles to the jetty. Jono is driving as we pass all the anchored ships waiting in line to load or offload in Houston. Land HO! We can see the taller buildings of Galveston thru the field of ships. We count 30 ships visible at one time. I’m getting the boat ready to leave at the marina…. sort of… I changed the peat moss in the toilet so that will be fresh. The new kind of Moss I’m using is tons better than my original brand. This is also Sphagnum Moss, but it’s large leafs of it rather than being ground into a powder. We tear up the “leaves or branches” of this new coarser material enough so our Natures Head can aureate it into mulch. Once we enter at Galveston and get in calm water I’ll start packing a bit. I’m not taking much off the boat right away, but I will need my electronics, special pillow, crocs, a couple hats and my toiletries and all the dirty clothes.
DOCKED! We docked SYL in her old slip at 5:15PM Thursday. Linda and Erin were waiting….. it was nice to have such a warm reception. Inside the Jetty on our way to Clear Lake we came across a sunken sailboat with the sails still up…. I have to think it happened very recently because of the look of the sails. I’m sure we will hear that story at the club. We did find a good sailing wind.. finally…… from the end of Bolivar Peninsula to Kemah we sailed at 7 knots or better without the engines. We sailed with a couple other boats as we approached the Kemah channel so we weren’t out there alone on a Thursday evening. My first request when I hit Texas was some Taco Bell food… Linda had a cheesy gordito crunch for each of us in the car when we arrived! Michael showed up after work and he helped us load the car.. we did that in short order and left to bring the boys to their car in New Caney. Linda and I continued up highway 69 and made it to the lake house around 9PM. I hadn’t driven a car in quite a while, I got tired and Linda drove a while then I finished up when it got close to dark. It was very nice to get home to fresh sheets and a cool non-moving bed. I sleep good on the boat, but it’s nice to not have to deal with waves at night or during the day.
So far at the lake I haven’t done much, but there is plenty to do after being gone half the year. I have been in the easy chair most of the time, only accomplishing one small project. After two days of doing almost nothing, I started grilling every day. I’ve grilled 2 kind of ribs and my stand up chicken, today we will have left over chicken and I’ll roast some corn on the grill for a 2:00 meal.
Our plan is to go back to the boat the end of this week to clean it out, we intend to set it up for weekend cruising, we’ll remove 90 percent of the food and long term sailing gear. I also have an appointment at work I need to make while in the Houston area.
Sea Yawl Later Rusty