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CHAPTER 1
Houston, Texas
CHAPTER 2
Kemah, Texas
CHAPTER 3
Kemah, Texas
CHAPTER 4
Galveston, Texas
CHAPTER 5
Seabrook, Texas
CHAPTER 6
Seabrook, Texas
CHAPTER 7
At Sea - Gulf of Mexico
CHAPTER 8
At Sea - Gulf of Mexico
CHAPTER 9
At Sea - Gulf of Mexico
CHAPTER 10
At Sea - Gulf of Mexico
CHAPTER 11
Port Fourchon, Louisiana
CHAPTER 12
Cut Off, Louisiana
CHAPTER 13
Cut Off, Louisiana
CHAPTER 14
Cut Off, Louisiana
CHAPTER 15
Houma, Louisiana
CHAPTER 16
Houma, Louisiana
CHAPTER 17
Houma, Louisiana
SPINDRIFT - CHAPTER 16
Houma, Louisiana
July 2, 2003
We moved down Terrebonne Bayou to Rich's place. Now Rich came here from Iowa a long time ago on his motorcycle, had mechanical problems, met a girl, and stayed. He has a sailboat which he is rebuilding and very kindly rented us a space on his little dock. Rich interestingly enough was one of the members of the Everly Brothers (Wake up Little Suzy, Dream Dream Dream, etc.) for whom he played lead guitar. You never know who you will meet while sailing.
Lately we have been doing sundry tasks: washing the sails, replacing a packing gland (keeps water from coming in through the propeller shaft) and general boat maintenance (oil change, bilge cleaning, battery maintenance, deck scrubbing, brass polishing, cleaning at the waterline) while David and Heaven got themselves jobs at a local grocery store.
It sure rains a lot here. They say this is not normal, has to do with El Nino.
We are considering going the other way around now. That is, cross the Atlantic, through the Mediterranean, pass through the Suez Canal and Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Of course our major concern is the current situation over there. If we do this, we will have to first talk with fellow Amerivan cruisers when we make it to Europe. We have often found that as you get closer to a "hot spot" you are better able to fully assess its danger if any by talking with others who are there. You do not always get a true perspective from the media. We will have to see. If we are the least bit in doubt, we will not do it, thats for sure.
We really got to work on our website today and were surprised at how many photos we had taken! We began the long job of selecting, resizing, cropping, adjusting color on occasion etc. of them as the twins and Dad tried to come up with a logo. We also have to choose some kind of format so as to permit easy reading as well as easy updating of the site.
We are having to send in two of our handheld marine VHF radios for repair as one fell on the ground and busted the LCD, and the other all of a sudden just stopped transmitting, though it still receives. They are all brand new, oh, the marvels of modern science.
We will be having to replace the membranes to our water maker as the old ones are no good due to lack of use. A water maker is a very nice thing to have aboard, but it does require some maintenance. If you get the least behind you suffer for it. We are glad we got a Little Wonder though as tech support has been very good to us indeed sending us out new parts at no cost to us.
We are grateful now for our little excursion and mishap out there into the Gulf, as it really helped us learn a lot about our boat and equipment. We can not emphasize enough the need of a little shakedown cruise before undertaking something more significant.
We had un unexpected surprise the other day when an alligator came right up beside the boat! He was looking for a handout, which he didn't get from us as everyone around here had warned us to never do that. Seems like if you feed an alligator, he will come back, and might even surprise you some night or in the morning as you step out the dood, a very dangerous thing indeed. It was cool though to be able to see it so close up from the security of our cockpit.
We have been surprised by the number of animals we see here compared to where we lived in Texas. Just along the highway we have seen snapping turtles, racoons, armadillos, alligators, nutrias, opossums, skunks, snakes of various kinds, deer and rabbits. They say there are even bears here.
"The sea continues to feed our spiritual need for adventure into the unknown."
Robert Ballard