11/26/01

Kemah TX

Finally left the dock! I thought this day would never come. We saw dolfins on our way out of Galveston Bay. I'm going to take that as a good sign for our travels. We are going through the Intercoastal Waterway for the 1st part of the trip across the Gulf. The seas are rough & the wind is from the East so this way is better.

11/27-29/01

We are still motoring the Intercoastal. It is beautiful through some places. We are just ahead of a cold front so the mornings are very cold & rainy then we get ahead again & it gets warmer in the afternoon. We are having trouble charging. The alternator is not working & the (new) Generator quit running after about 10 minutes.

Houma LA

We are stopping here for repairs. Bill Ellender who met us at the dock with a care package welcoming us to Houma runs the downtown Marina. That is just the beginning of the nice things here. Everyone we have met here has been so nice! The folks at Anchor Marine took me over to get an extra chart we thought we needed. Allen was carrying deisel cans to fill & another man asked if he needed a lift. He waited while Allen filled the boat & took him to fill all of the cans in his truck. Then when the new alternator was broken during the installation we thought we were stuck, Friday afternoon, how would we get it fixed? Bill to the rescue! We went to his house & called around until we found a repair shop & they said they would stay & fix it that day. Bill took us over in his truck & stayed until it was fixed & brought us home again. He and Velma (his wife) were great people, I spent quite a bit of time talking with them & when we left they sent us off with a pan of fresh baked rolls.

11/30-12/03/01

We left Houma through the Houma Channel & sailed across the Gulf to St. Petersburg. I had my 1st, & hopefully last, experience with Mal de Mer. From now on I will try drugs if the crossing looks rough. It was a bit of a rough passage, no problems but a lot of bruises (mostly on me). We need a few changes in our rigging but for the most part all went well. We arrived at St. Pete after dark, not a good plan. We had a bit of trouble finding the entrance to the Harborage Marina although in the daylight it looks so easy!

12/03-10/01

Lady Lake

We spent a week with Allen's Mother in Lady Lake FL. It was great to get into a real bed & let Madalyn & Terry spoil us for a few days. I think I washed every bit of clothing, towels, & sheets on the boat! Everything was wet from the condensation from the cold, wet weather. W had a great time, relaxing & washing the first few days while they were busy with their golf outings & parties. Then we were all able to spend some time together the last few days. Allen & I helped out at the Austin Education Center Carriage Festival where Madalyn is volunteer coordinator. It was really a sight to see. The museum itself is unbelieveable but the show was even better. There was a parade of many differernt types of carriages then a parade of differernt horse breeds. It was a beautiful day in a very relaxing week. As usual Madalyn tried to fatten us up with wonderful cooking & Terry helped with wonderful drinks!

12/10/01-01/15/02

St. Petersburg

Back to work on the boat. Madalyn lent us her car for the week & we burned up the road between here & the West Marine store. As luck would have it a young girl without a driver's licence hit us from behind at a stoplight. It really turned comical as three different ambulances turned up then the police. The girl could not have been nicer or dumber. She did have insurance, but it turns out that doesn't matter in Florida since it is a "no fault" state. That means Madalyn & Terry will have to sort it out with their insurance, what a pain! They, of course have been great about it, we did ply them with a pleasant sail, drinks & dinner though.

Mark & Sharon came down to visit for NYE & we had a very nice week with them. Unfortunately the weather that week was the worst we have seen here, but we managed to have fun anyway. They stayed out on the beach & we played shuffelboard at sunset several evenings. Yes, I guess we are getting old, three of us actually had sore muscles from it! We had a great day out at Fort Desoto Park, well worth the visit if in the area. Congratulations on their marriage!

We replaced the entire autopilot system on the boat. We did have some problems & Allen took it apart & finally found the problem, in the wind gauge (after almost a week of looking). Even with that fixed he did not trust the old system so now we are carrying a complete back up autopilot system & wind gauge.

We must get out of here. We have been hitting the great reataurants way too hard. The best are almost anything on Central Avenue including Fusion Bistro (my favorite), The Garden (Med.garden setting), Ovo, & the Oyster House (great oyster stew, otherwise OK). We also enjoyed Columbia at the Pier (Cuban), and of course Buddy's (fish).

(updated 02/19/02)