IKE! (Yikes)

I don't even know where to begin this blog entry. Ike really dealt us a terrible blow here in the Houston/Galveston area with a direct hit. Troy and I feel so fortunate because Storyville came through with just a few scratches. She's a tough boat and we are thrilled that she is OK. Troy's shop and man cave (as designated by Darryl) didn't fare so well. Almost all of his big saws and woodworking tools are gone. Here is a link to some of the pictures that we have taken over the last week: http://imageevent.com/deanaj/hurricaneike?n=0

We are staying at our house in Spring right now. Thank goodness we haven't put it on market yet. We had several of our friends from our Marina and/or the Kemah area come and wait out the storm with us: Steve and Colleen, Jim and Kitty, Philip and Annette, Patrick, Duffy, Rick. We all watched the weather sites obsessively and worried about our boats. I couldn't have imagined spending the time with anyone else. We were "all in the same boat"!!! Thankfully, every one's boat made it through just fine. That is amazing considering how many boats in the Kemah and Clear Lake area are sunk or in a parking lot!

We are hoping to get back down to our boat as soon as possible, but for now the house is more comfortable with water and electricity. We did lose the tops of some trees in our yard and, unfortunately, Patricks 40' travel trailer parked in our driveway took a hit and was totalled. Everyone was so helpful in getting all the debris cleared from our yard.

We are starting to hear awful stories of friends who have lost their homes. Our friends Jimbo and Ernestine that own Channel Marker 17 at Double Bayou lost both their home and business as did most of our friends in the Oak Island Area. We are just so sad about all the losses suffered by everyone and hopefully in the coming months we can do what we can to help out others.

Hurricane Central

What Happens When Sailors Worry About Their Boats

Patrick and Troy

Jim, Philip, Annette, Kitty, Patrick, Rick, Steve

Trees Down in Back Yard

Patrick's Trailer

Cleanup Begins


The first rule of hurricane coverage is that every broadcast must begin with palm trees bending in the wind. ~Carl Hiaasen

Moody Gardens

We had a great time at Moody Gardens over the Labor Day weekend. We were planning on staying until Monday, but with Hurricane Gustav barrelling into the Gulf we decided that it would be smart to get back to our home base on Sunday in case we needed to prepare the boat the possibly evacuate. Fortunately that didn't happen. We did enjoy getting out on the water. I got to get some great dolphin pictures as they swam along with us for about 20 minutes in the ship channel.

Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much...the wheel, New York, wars and so on...while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man...for precisely the same reason. ~Douglas Adams