Return to The Virgin Islands

What better way to get this blog rejuvenated than to post about our recent trip to the US and British Virgin Islands? We've been in Texas for 4 months and really missing our floating home. When Steve and Deb invited us to spend 10 days with them on Alternate Latitude in the Virgin Islands, well, how could we say no?

We went with some of our other sailing friends from Kemah so we dubbed ourselves the Kemah Krew and hopped a plane and headed to the islands.

The notorious Kemah Krew consisted of Troy and Deana, Cory and Tammy, who live on s/v Menestheus, Capt. Rick Weiler and of course, our hosts, Steve and Deb on s/v Alternate Latitude. Alternate Latitude is a 44 foot Voyager Catamaran so there was plenty of room for us all and we had a fantastic and fun filled 10 days of sailing, snorkeling, swimming and just plain having too much fun.

Kemah Krew

Alternate Latitude

The Virgin Islands are fantastic cruising grounds. Easy sailing from one beautiful island to the next. White sand beaches and turquoise waters make sailing there a dream. We have been there on Storyville twice and spent several months cruising those islands. One thing that was noticably different on this trip was that we were there in the off season. When we were there on Storyville every anchorage was full with charter boats and mega yachts everywhere and sometimes, depending on where you were, you had to hope that there would be a mooring available. During the off season there are so many fewer charter boats and many full time cruisers are further south waiting out hurricane season. It was strange to see the empty anchorages, but nice to have them all to ourselves at times.

We flew into St. Thomas and sailed to Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Peter Island, Norman Island and St. John. What a fantastic trip and just what we needed. Some time on a boat, on the water in the beautiful islands. Oh how we've missed them. We couldn't have asked for better hosts or better friends to spend the time with.

Panoramic Views of The Virgin Islands

Swimming With Turtles

Perfect Beaches

Flying the Spinnaker down the Sir Frances Drake Channel

If you are looking for a vacation that you will never forget, think about chartering with Steve and Deb on Alternate Latitude. They can show you all the cool spots in the Virgin Islands, whether you want to party at the best beach bars or kick back on a beautiful white beach or snorkel with sea turtles. So click on the link to find out how to have a fantastic vacation, and be sure to tell them that Storyville sent you!

One of the coolest things we did was swim with the turtles at Buck Island. They were so cool and we loved every minute of watching them calmly swim and eat sea grass. Here is a video.......

Buck Island Turtle Video from Deana Jones on Vimeo.

Hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky, let your soul and spirit fly, into the mystic. ~ Van Morrison

 

 

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Feeling Left Out!

Troy is in St. Martin/Sint Maarten with Storyville while I am back in Texas with my mom and family. Since we made the decision to stay in Texas for the next several months, it fell on Troy to make sure that our boat/home finds a safe berth for the upcoming summer and fall. That's hurricane season and a dangerous time for an unattended boat to be floating around in the Caribbean.

After weeks of talking to other cruising friends and sending many emails to boat yards and marinas, we decided that we would leave Storyville on a mooring in Grenada. Troy and our friend Damon will make the crossing next week and then Troy will spend the next couple of weeks securing a mooring and making sure that Storyville is ready for whatever may come while she is there all alone. Fortunately for us, many of our cruising family will be spending the summer in Grenada and will be able to keep any eye on Storyville for us.

It's killing me to see Troy and Storyville set out for the open ocean without me. It just doesn't seem right. Since the day we bought Storyville Troy and I have crewed her together. We've never made a passage without each other. After cruising for 2 years and making many overnight (and sometimes longer) passages, I can say that I'm never worried or scared. I trust Troy and I trust Storyville and I enjoy the time that we're out on the water. I think this will be the most worrisome and scary passage for me - the one that I'm not on. I won't have contact with Troy for several days and I will be keeping up with him though our SPOT device.
 
Why Grenada? Well, we had intended to spend hurricane season there anyway, because it's a beautiful island with many fabulous anchorages. The biggest advantage is that is considered to be south of the "hurricane belt". Having said that, Grenada has been affected by hurricanes in the past and, undoubtedly, will be hit again. The most devastating being Hurricane Ivan in 2004, when the 130 mph winds (Category 3 hurricane) decimated the islands nutmeg trees and therefore the nutmeg industry and 90% of the islands homes were lost to the storm, which killed 39 people on the island. Interestingly Grenada had not seen a hurricane in 49 years prior to Ivan.

Looking at the statistics, it is clear that Grenada is more likely to be affected by tropical storms than by hurricanes. We can't be sure that we're doing the best thing for our boat and home, but we are trying to make sure that she's in a secure place while preserving the cruising kitty so that we can get back to her and resume the cruising lifestyle that we love. 

Never a ship sails out of the bay
But carries my heart as a stowaway.
~Roselle Mercier Montgomery, The Stowaway

Mack Packs

Before I get started, let me apologize to my non sailing friends. This post probably will be pretty boring to you, but we are really excited about how easy this will make our sailing life and it might be interesting to our sailing/cruising/soon to be cruising friends.

Since it looks like we will be in St. Thomas for the next week or so, we decided to order new Mack Packs for Storyville.  We've been wanting a stack pack system for a long time and since we are planning to do a lot of sailing once we get past St. Martin, and head south, we figured this would be a good time to make it happen.

We put all new sails on Storyville before we left two years ago (Wow - two years ago, hard to believe) and at the time we had the chance to add stack packs. We decided not to do so because we were worried that it would affect our sail performance. Sail performance, that's a laugh. We haven't done near as much sailing as we had hoped to do. The reason for that is that we've spent most of the last two years heading east into the prevailing trade winds. On the few opportunities that we have had to sail, we realized what a pain it is to use our main sail. Mostly because we are a center cockpit boat and it is impossible to reach the sail in order to stow it away properly and get the sail cover on.  It can be a 45 minute to an hour job that takes both of us to accomplish properly. After a day of sailing the last thing you want to do is spend an hour and a half putting away two sails (the main and the mizzen), so as a result, we tend to sail without the main. If we have sufficient wind, that usually is not a problem, but it will be so nice to have the option.

We ordered our system from Mack Pack and it will be shipped here next week. Click the link to learn more about their system. 

UPDATE: We received the Mack Packs and have them installed.  It took about a day for each one as the sails had to be removed and there was a lot of drilling and tapping in order to attach the packs to the masts and booms. Troy made it all look easy. Mack Pack sent a great instructional video and written instructions. There were a wonderful company to work with.

Here is a picture of Storyville with her new Mack Packs.  We think they make the boat look great:

To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not lie at anchor - sail, not drift ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Gunkholing

Yes, we are going gunkholing tomorrow and we can't wait! "What is gunkholing?" you might ask.  Wikipedia defines gunkholing as a boating and sea kayaking term referring to a type of cruising in shallow or shoal water, meandering from place to place, spending the nights in coves.  We are looking forward to exploring some anchorages along the southwest coast of Puerto Rico this week.  We plan to spend the night in some beautiful places with clear water and sandy beaches.  We want to swim, snorkel, kayak, dinghy and hike.  These are the things that I dreamed about back when we were planning on going cruising and we know from experience how much fun it will be to get back into the clear water and beautiful beaches that we missed all summer in Luperon.

 Some of the places that we will visit are La Parguera, Gilligan's Island and Isla Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island).  I don't expect to have Internet connections in most of those places, so we will be off the grid for several days.  We can't wait!

Of course, you can always see where we are by clicking on the "Where is Storyville" button on the right side of the page.  I promise to take lots of pictures!

This looks perfect for gunkholing!

I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts! ~Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Luperon to Boqueron

Looking back at the protected harbor of Luperon.
You can't even see the entrance!

Storyville set out from Luperon to sail (really to motor, or if we were lucky, motor sail) to Boqueron on Wednesday, November 7th at about 7:15 AM.  We figured that it would take us 48 hours if we didn’t run into any trouble, so we planned to make Boqueron by Friday morning.  There were five other boats with us, Pipe Muh Bligh, Island Dream, Illusions, Mojo and Hornblower Too.  It was a beautiful and calm morning, the seas were flat and there was almost no wind, just the conditions that we were looking for in order to have a smooth trip to our destination.



Some of our buddy boats on a smooth sea

The water was deep blue and beautiful, the sun was shining and we were feeling great just to be back on the move.  A small Marlin even did a dance just for us, leaping out of the water over and over again, at least 10 times!  That inspired me to get the fishing gear out and try to catch something (hopefully not a Marlin, that bill looks sharp!).  I had been trolling a couple of lines for several hours when we heard from our friends John and Barbara on Mojo that they had reeled in a Mahi Mahi , then not long after, they announced that they had caught a Tuna.  Now John was just bragging!  I started changing out lures and getting frustrated, we got a couple of hits but nothing on the line that whole day.  The next morning I set the lines again and several hours later, I finally got a hit and a fish was on the line!  It took about 10 minutes to get my beautiful Wahoo on board.  Unfortunately he got tangled in the other line that I was trolling and he was pretty cut up by the time I got him on board, plus we had a nice mess to untangle while dealing with a flopping, bloody fish at the same time.  We persevered and managed to get him aboard and filleted in no time.  He was a nice fish, but the only one that I caught on the whole trip.  Oh well, better than nothing.

Wahoo!

After all that fish excitement, I needed a nap! I had a good couple of hours sleep and the first thing that I saw when I woke up and poked my head out of the companionway was a large pod of dolphins.  We decided to circle Storyville around and have a closer look as they were all hanging out on the surface.  When we got a closer look we realized that they were much larger than any other dolphins that we had ever seen and from what we could see of them, they were shaped a little differently.   They also were behaving a little differently than dolphins, just hanging out on the surface.  We could see that there was a baby in the group.  After we got back underway, we started talking about how big they were and different from other dolphins that we have seen.  We have a book on board – The Sierra Club Handbook of Whales and Dolphins.  It really came in handy for a little research, it didn’t take us long to realize that we had just seen a pod of Pilot Whales.  Cool!

 

Best photo I could get of the Pilot Whales

 



Pilot Whale - Not my photo (taken from internet)



Kamakazie Flying Fish!

On my second watch on the first night, it must have been about 2:00 in the morning.  I’m just sitting in the cockpit minding my own business.  Keeping watch for ships and other boats, when suddenly, something hits the back of my arm.  I start looking around only to discover that I have been hit by a flying fish!  There he was just flopping around in the cockpit, gasping for air! I managed to toss him back overboard and he left me his fishy, slimy smell as a reminder of his presence.  We saw many flying fish during the day and not one ever hit our boat, but it’s a different story at night.  I guess they can’t see so well.  I think we ended up with five or six of them on board.  Some we saved and some we didn’t even know were there until they surprised us with their stiff little bodies the next morning.  One even landed down in the galley and flopped around there until I managed to get him back overboard!  Flying fish are amazing to see.  It’s incredible how far they can literally fly over the waves.  It’s awesome to see a school of 30 or 40 of them appear out of the water and soar over the waves only to disappear back into the ocean.

Beautiful sunset on in the Mona Passage

At this point we were about 12 hours from Boqueron and everything was looking good.  We watched a beautiful sunset while we ate a nice dinner in the cockpit. Just one more overnight and we would arrive early in the morning.  I went below at sundown for some sleep before my first night watch.  I think I was asleep for about an hour when I hear a sudden drop in the RPM of the motor.  I know that this cannot be a good thing and I spring out of my berth to ask Troy what happened.  At that point, he wasn’t sure, the RPM dropped dramatically and his first thought was that we had picked up something with our prop.  Of course, this had to happen at the worst possible time.  It was early in the evening and we would not be able to figure out what our problem was until daylight, at least 9 hours away.  I managed to hang over the stern of the boat, hanging on by my toes and I could see that there was definitely something around our prop. We were fortunate at the time as there was a little wind and we were able to sail towards our destination and continue to make about five knots.  That lasted for an hour or so and the wind died and we were left drifting. We spoke to our buddy boats (at that time Pipe Muh Bligh and Mojo were the only ones in radio range) and we all agreed that Pipe would stick with us in case we needed assistance and Mojo would go ahead to Boqueron.  There was a pretty good swell and you wouldn’t even notice it if you were making way, but try sitting there not moving and you could definitely feel it, not bad, just a little uncomfortable.  We hove to for a while (for our non-sailing readers, that means that we adjusted the sails so that the boat pretty much just drifts with the current, it’s the closest you can come to stopping the boat while at sea) and then, we eventually just sailed (in the wrong direction) at about two knots for the rest of the night.  It was a long one and we were just hoping that we would be able to resolve our problem with the morning light.

Morning finally arrived and at first light we set out to figure out how to get Storyville going again.  Troy is great at taking care of Storyville and of me, just click on this sentice to take a look at this past post and see what I mean.  Having said that, diving and swimming is just not his strong suit.  We had discussed this during the night and I was planning to be the one to go into the water to try to free the propeller.  As I was getting ready Troy informed me that he wanted to try first.  He said that it felt like the right thing to do.  As soon as he got into the water and saw the situation, he decided that he would give me a try at it! 

We are so fortunate (thanks to prior planning by Troy) that we bought a Hookah rig recently, in fact, this was our first time to use it.  And no, that doesn’t mean a bong like apparatus that you smoke through, it’s a scuba regulator that is attached by a long hose to a scuba tank that you leave on deck of the boat.  I got all hooked up and climbed the stern ladder to take a look at the situation. 

The seas were fairly calm but there was definitely a swell that had Storyville see sawing up and down.  I saw a great big ball of fishing net wrapped tightly around our prop and, to be honest, at that moment I didn’t think I would be able to clear it.  It was just so big and the boat was moving so much, not to mention that there was about 1,500 feet of ocean underneath me.  That did freak me out just a little.  It’s such a big blue nothing down there below us.  Then I just decided that I had to put my big girl panties on and get the job done!

This is what our propeller looked like

Of course, that was easier said than done, but I was determined.  At first I couldn’t find anything that would work to cut the line. I tried a sharp knife and then I tried a machete (even using the saw part of the machete) but it just wouldn’t work.  Finally I settled on my small pair of kitchen shears and just started cutting each strand, one or two at a time.   It was long work, especially with the surge and the boat moving around so much.  I had to wrap my legs around the rudder and hang on while cutting the net and trying not to get my head banged up against the bottom of the boat.

This is the wad of net that I removed

It took about 20 minutes of work, but I am proud to say that I got the job done.  Of course, the next day (and even still today) I feel like I went a couple of rounds with George Foreman and then ran a marathon and then got into a fight with a cat.  I have cuts and bumps and bruises, but I got Storyville back underway and we made it into Boqueron with about a seven hour delay.

We are so thankful that Pipe Muh Bligh stayed with us.  We didn’t end up needing any assistance from them, but we sure felt better knowing they were there if we needed them.  Thanks a million Rene and Stacy!

What a Crossing!

Troy and I have made the crossing between Luperon and Boqueron three times now and this was by far the most interesting crossing yet.  I am still getting my thoughts together and thinking about how to put them all down on the blog, and of course, there are photos to be edited.

We are safe and sound in Boqueron after a 54 hour crossing.  We got here at about 1:00 pm yesterday (November 9th, I think).  We got checked in, and headed into town for a hamburger and a couple of beers with the other vessels that had arrived at different times during the day, and then, back to Storyville for the night. We thought we got plenty of rest along the way, but apparently not because we both just slept for 12 hours straight.  It was a great weather window for heading east so there were five boats that arrived from different places in the Dominican Republic.

A few of the highlights of the crossing:

• Caught a nice size Wahoo
• Saw a big pod of Pilot Whales
• Saw a small Marlin jumping
• Got bombarded with Flying Fish during the night
• Fouled our prop on a fishing net causing a 7 or 8 hour delay

Be sure to check back for the story!

Damon and Marcie Become Sailors

We were very fortunate to meet some really good friends by accident.  Well, maybe not accident but more just by surprise at the time and place. You never know when you will meet people that will become lifelong friends.  One of the things that I love/hate about the cruising life is the people that you meet along the way.  I love it because we meet people from all walks of life and spend time getting to know such a diverse group of people.  I hate it because sometimes you have to say goodbye before you want to.  It's more of a blessing than a curse though, 'cause we get to meet so many awesome people along the way.

I will let Damon tell you the story about how we met.  Here is a guest blog from Damon and Marcie, friends that came to visit us in the US and Spanish Virgin Islands:

Marcie and Damon chillin' at Mamacita's in Culebra

Little did we know that a trip to a Dominican Republic resort would change our lives. It started innocently enough: While lying in our cabana, soaking up as much of paradise as we could, we kept seeing the same group of friends whooping it up in the cold tubs on the beach. I nudged Marcie and said, “We gotta get to know those people, I overheard them talking about living on their boats.” It sounded like a fantasy life, and we had to know more.

We invited ourselves in the tub and made quick friends of the whole gang; Troy and Deana, Rene and Stacy, Patrick and Darnell, and Ivy. We were fascinated by our new friends, and we just didn’t stop the barrage of questions about the lifestyle and their idyllic life on board their floating homes. All of our curiosity and Deana’s southern hospitality added up to an invitation to spend time with them on Storyville. What a gift!! It took us a couple months to work out the details but we met up with Storyville in St Thomas in May. 

Growing up on an inland lake in Michigan, I love the water, but neither Marcie nor I really knew what we were in for. Would we be comfortable on a boat for ten days? Would Troy and Deana be our kind of people? Would we fit in with the “boat people”? If they got sick of us would they make us walk the plank? Well, it all worked out well. Storyville is a beautiful and comfortable boat, and Troy and Deana could not have been more hospitable. They made sure we felt right at home.

A cuttlefish see on a reef at Culebrita

We set sail out of St Thomas on a beautiful day. It took us only a few hours to reach Culebrita. The uninhabited island is only accessible by private boat so the only people we saw during our visit were other cruisers.  The small protected cove is exactly what you see on brochures for Caribbean vacations: beautiful bright blue water, a pristine beach and snorkeling right behind the boat. I think we were in the water about three minutes after hooking up to the buoy.

Can you see Troy waiving?

The only structure on Culebrita is an ancient light house built by the Spanish Crown in 1886. It took us about an hour to hike to the peak and take in breathtaking views of the entire island and Storyville below. If you look real close in this picture I think you can see Troy waiving from the cockpit.

One of the best evenings we had on the trip was Mexican pot-luck night. We made a couple of dishes, grabbed a couple of bottles and dingy’d over to Island Dream for an evening of getting to know your neighbors. What a blast! I can certainly say that the boating community is very warm and welcoming. At least this group of sailors is. It was great to get to know the rest of the cruising armada Rene and Stacy, and Pat and Darnell, and also to experience each of their floating homes. A big thank you to all for their hospitality.

The ten days seemed to go by in a blink and we were not ready to leave when the time came. Our hosts had effortlessly made our adventure an amazing and memorable one. One thing is for sure: our lives have been altered forever. We have a three-year plan to become cruisers. Thank you Troy and Deana!



Damon was even brave enough to go up the mast for us!

Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. ~Rod McKuen, Looking for a Friend

Memorial Day - Offats Bayou

We spent the Memorial Day weekend anchored out on Storyville at Offats Bayou in Galveston. Troy recently finished installing our new windlass. That is a device that pulls the anchor up and down and helps set the anchor. We previously had a manual one that I call Troy! Windlass Troy complained a lot about how heavy the anchor is and how muddy it is when he had to handle it himself. Our new windlass did not complain one bit (and neither did Troy). Between the new windlass and our great new anchor, I have a feeling that we will be spending a lot more time on the hook.

We decided to head out on Friday night and anchor out wherever we found a good spot. The evenings have been very calm with very little wind so we figured we would motor out and anchor somewhere around Bacliff. Well - no sooner did we get out of our slip and into the bay before the wind picked up and we could see lightening in the distance. The bay was white capping and the wind picked up to 25-30 knots for a little while. We were lucky that we never got any of the rain, just wind. We motored into it for about an hour and then headed over to Bacliff and set anchor for the night. Our friends Cory and Tammy on s/v Menestheus were with us. You can see that they were catching air:

Troy was up and working that new windlass at sunrise. We headed out to the Houston Ship Channel and towards Galveston. We had quite an incoming current that we were fighting against and not much wind to work with. We motor sailed all the way to Galveston. It was a very nice trip though, shrimp boats working and lots of dolphins playing in the wake of the tankers in the ship channel.

Shrimp Boat working the Houston Ship Channel

Dolphins playing in the bow wake of big tankers in the ship channel

To get to Offats Bayou you have to pass under the Galveston Causeway Bridge. The bridge is lowered for oncoming trains and, when no trains are on the track, the bridge is raised for boat traffic. Just our luck, we had to wait on a train. We just drifted around for about 30 minutes until it was our turn to get through. It sure is funny to listen to the bridge operator. Depending on which one is on shift, you can get a really cranky guy that doesn't want to get out of his recliner (and will be happy to tell you so), or a younger sounding guy that is really nice and willing to help out in any way. I will point out that it is not the bridge operators job to help recreational boats get back and forth under the bridge. His job is to make sure the bridge is down for trains. It was quite amusing to listen to the old curmudgeon griping to the tow boat operators about all the recreational boats. Guess he doesn't like anyone out having fun while he is at work. Can't say that I blame him too much for that!

We were just waiting on a train

The weekend was way fun and relaxing. We anchored out near 61st Street in Galveston with Cory and Tammy on s/v Menestheus and Trey, Kat and Anne on s/v Dawntreader. Saturday in Offats Bayou was really busy with lots of boats anchored out and lots of jet skis and skiers and wake boarders. We spent the weekend swimming, relaxing, partying with friends and just having a good time in general. The weather was perfect and so was the company.

Storyville at anchor in Offats Bayou


Dawntreader at anchor in Offats Bayou

Menestheus at anchor in Offats Bayou

Cory going for a swim

Anne came to visit Storyville

The only problem was that the weekend wasn't long enough. We all weighed anchor and headed back up the ship channel on Monday - back to reality.

Dawntreader headed back to the ship channel -time to go home :-(

Monday was Memorial Day, a day to honor our veterans, particularly the ones who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we can be free to enjoy the freedoms that we have today. I am definitely proud to be an American!

And I'm proud to be an American,where at least I know I'm free.And I won't forget the men who died,who gave that right to me.~Lee Greenwood

Lookin' for Lunch!

We Went Sailing!

Finally, at long last. It was the first time we have had a chance to get Storyville out of her slip this year. We've had a really cold winter and between Troy working on the house and working his real job, there hasn't been much time for any fun.

This weekend was a little different. I don't recall any work, just lots of fun, and it was high time for some sailing and some fun. We led a TMCA cruise to our favorite cruising destination, Double Bayou. There were 12 boats on our cruise and because of the strong north wind, there wasn't much water in the bay. Double Bayou can be a little tricky getting into with a sailboat, especially when there are really low tides.

If you sail you know the saying - if you ain't been aground then you ain't been around. Trust me, this weekend, we got AROUND. Us and the other four sailboats that were with us! Nothing serious, just had to feel our way up the Double Bayou channel.

We had a decent motor sail over on Saturday, got all the boats situated, put our dinghy in the water and opened our first beer of the weekend. Ahhh, sunny weather, a cold beer, a dinghy and a bayou. Life doesn't get much better than that. We had a wonderful time that night with our TMCA friends and our friends at Channel Marker. It was Ernestine's birthday and there was a DJ at the bar and lots of dancing and having fun.

TMCA Cruisers and Cruise Leaders!

Sunday dawned bright and clear and we shared a great breakfast aboard s/v Waltzing Matilda. About the time we headed out for home a nice east to southeast breeze was blowing. After feeling our way out of the channel again, we set sail and headed back to Kemah. It was a beautiful day and the wind cooperated to create a perfect sail all the way home and into the Kemah channel and past the boardwalk, all under sail. Just wonderful!!!

Troy had great news from his doctor last week. The PET Scan was all good and he received the coveted NED (No Evidence of Disease). His doctors seem to feel like the three year mark is a milestone for him and we are very glad to hear that. He will be back for another PET Scan in June.

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens

Thanksgiving / French Picnic

I do realize that this post is long overdue so to make up for it I'll make it a long post. It's been a really busy time for us. We leased our house so we had to move the last remaining "stuff" and give it away or put it in storage. My office moved to a new location after being in the same office for 15 years - that was "fun"!!! Plus we had be get ready for one of TMCA's big events of the year - The French Picnic!

The French Picnic is held annually on the banks of Double Bayou. We sailed (or I should say motored) over on Thanksgiving Thursday and our plan was to fry turkeys on the bank of the bayou. We left our Thursday morning and were quickly enveloped on fog. What an eerie feeling. It's kinda scary to hear a fog horn and know that it is coming from a huge container ship in the Houston Ship Channel.

Patrick and Krista on s/v Esprit Libre

Krista and Patrick - Ready for Fun!

s/v Anchor Management - In The Fog

We enjoyed our motor sail over to Double Bayou with Patrick and Krista on s/v Esprit Libre and Steve and Colleen on s/v Anchor Management. There were a couple of boats already there and a couple of boats behind us to we had about 8 boats there for Thanksgiving and we fried 3 turkeys and had a great Thanksgiving meal and a nice fire to sit around while everyone told lies!

Frying Turkeys on the Bank of Double Bayou

We had several days of great weather and it was lots of fun to dinghy around and just relax in general. There was a fire every night and new stories were told (some of them were even true). I helped Colleen hide a Geocache while we were there. The name of the cache is "Pirates Booty" in case you want to look it up. - http://www.geocaching.com/ - that's the only clue you get!

Saturday was the day of the French Picnic. We had wine and cheese and a good time. The fire was bigger than ever. I don't know if that applies to the lies that go with the fire, but I suspect that it does! We had a really great time and Troy played his guitar and sang for everyone. It was lots of fun.


Boats Along the Bank Double Bayou - Ready for French Picnic


The Campfire Gets Abandoned - Food has been Served!

TMCA's Cruise Captain for 2009!

Storyville on Double Bayou

While the weekend was a blast and we were all thankful to get away from the real world and get away from the aftermath of Hurricane Ike that many are still dealing with, we were reminded that the wonderful people living in Oak Island and Double Bayou are still trying to cope with Ike's aftermath in a very real way. Some are still living in tents as they wait for FEMA trailers to arrive. Our friends Jimbo and Ernestine (owner's of Channel Marker 17) are working to rebuild the bar / restaurant that we love so much. We spent our last night tied up at what is left of the Channel Marker 17 dock. It's really sad to see so much devastation but it is wonderful to see a community pull together to get through it all.

What Remains of Channel Marker 17

Oak Island Baptist Church - free water, food, clothing and ice with hot meals served daily

In case I stay true to form and don't post for a while - Troy has a PET Scan scheduled for next Tuesday (December 9th). Please say a prayer for him. We are expecting good results and it will be a relief to hear the doctor say what we already know.

I love this picture of Patrick's dinghy in the fog

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars. ~ Henry Van Dyke