Long Day

Tom said when he was getting a drink of water around 1 am an older man and younger boy came walking down the docks with nets. They were catching something from the docks and having a grand time discussing the pros and cons of what they were catching. Being that the low was 80 deg last night it seemed like a good time to go fishing off the docks for anything.

We decided to leave early this morning and get as close as possible to Galveston so we could cross the Houston Shipping channel early tomorrow. We made 70 miles and are just west of the channel in Hitchcock Texas. We were fortunate in that the Brazos flood gates were restricted to commercial traffic today which meant most tugs/barges were not going to be allowed to cross until 4pm. Pleasure craft (that’s us) had no problems, however we were asked by the lock master to ‘pass on a slow bell’ aka not cause any wakes since they were working from a floating barge on the south side of the west gate and there was scarcely enough room for us to pass. So throughout most of the day we barely saw another vessel. The radio was pretty quiet too with the exception of a sailboat “nightingale’ ahead of us by about 1 hour. This was the same boat that docked ahead of at Matagorda last night had already pulled out when we got up this morning.

At some point I was below making tea and coffee and noticed a very strong burning smell – panic mode sets in just as Tom yells ‘hey look out the starboard window the entire marsh was burnt and it’s still smoldering’. This burnt out area went on for a few miles. I can’t tell you how happy I was it was not aboard Refugio. (I checked the engine room just in case). As we approached the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuse (somewhere between the Christmas & Bastrop Bays) we were inundated with white butterflies, never seen so many. I did notice however, the place really stunk with a very old stale yucky stink.


Traveling along West Bay (off Galveston) we noticed about 12 bouys that had become detatched presumably during the last hurricane and just washed up along the shore.


We pulled into the Harbor Walk Marina just about 6pm to find none other than the Nightingale docked next to us. It was really nice to have a few extra hands to help tie us off upon arrival, especially after such a long day. They have a wonderful pool here so Tom and I enjoyed a quick dip after we secured the boat.