Our friends Jeph and Amy joined us this weekend for the 5-hour tour along the Houston Ship Channel to our home for the night at The Galveston Yacht Club.
Here is our route as tracked by our Spot GPS tracker
This mini-cruise was intended to hone our navigation skills in a channel with very big ships, to give the motor a test after last weekend’s cooling system rebuild and to have some fun with friends. We easily accomplished this and the motor had even more run time as there was little wind so we motor-sailed for virtually the entire 10 hour roundtrip.
Both days began with an early start in hopes of avoiding the mid-day heat and getting to Galveston with some time to explore. After our first encounter with a huge container ship, the rest were quite benign and not as intimidating as we were expecting. The motor-sail down was fairly uneventful, though we were treated to a playful dolphin escort into Galveston. Some even swam right alongside Kaleo! After arriving, we checked into the marina, tied up at our assigned slip, showered and promptly took a long nap in the A/C.
After recharging our batteries, Christie’s aunt Cherie, who is staying in Galveston, was kind enough to pick us up at the yacht club and drive us to The Strand, Galveston’s tourist district. After some serious sugar at LaKing’s Confectionery, Cherie lent us her car to explore the island where we toured the historic homes along Broadway and drove along the Seawall. We wrapped up the evening with a great seafood dinner at Gaido’s and a family visit at Aunt Cherie’s beach house.
Sunday was the reverse of Saturday but a lot warmer and Matt brought home the sunburn to prove it. We cruised past the largest ship of the trip, the Nassau Spirit, weighing in at 810 feet long! It was a fantastic trip which helped us learn that sailing harnesses are a must, even on calm days, big ships aren’t so bad if you stay out of their way, and confirmed that we really enjoy sailing to and exploring new destinations.
I love your blog and gave you a shout-out on mine. I didn’t realize that you cruise the same same place I learned to sail with my wife Alice. We lived in Houston and kept a little Cape Dory at Watergate Marina on Clear lake. You might enjoy this post http://bit.ly/bF1aD6
Keep up the great work
Adam aka Messing About
It was fun to see you mention a couple of familiar places. We live in New Mexico but I grew up in South Texas and have cousins in Houston and Clear Lake. I’ve also sailed a few times on Galveston Bay.
Thank you, Adam! We truly appreciate such a warm shout out from a former Galveston Bayer. We really enjoy your posts on Messing About and look forward to keeping in touch.
Kind regards,
Christie and Matt
What a treat to hear from you, Pat. Looks like you’ve been having fun adventures sailing in New Mexico (great Desert Sea blog). Sounds like we’ll have to wave at our respective neighboring cousins as yours are close to our marina and I have one in Alamogordo! We look forward to keeping in touch.