Tuesday, October 4

Spring 2011 Texas trip

While I do prefer to remain in the shadows on the Internet, I now feel thrust into this other realm. Our one month sail down the ICW (aka GIWW) last spring with our clan of four was far more than I imagined, and staying connected to TMCA made it bigger than us.

Beginning with our niece's first destination sailing trip to Moody Gardens for Easter where all the TMCA participants helped to make her Easter a great memory that she will reflect fondly as I remember visiting Cape Cod at her age. After passing her off to her mother, onward we traveled to Freeport staying at the disappointing Bridge Harbor, got stuck in massive amounts of seaweed, and returned to wonderful new Surfside Marina for the night where we really felt catered to. There the dogs discovered dolphins, and both species interacted for hours (the dogs get so excited when "dolphin" is said).

Onward to Sargent tied up to the shallow bulkhead, played in the Gulf, and with an about-face fished in the ICW unsuccessfully reeling in a big fish. 


After a lackluster sleep with the barge traffic, we headed onto Matagorda through rough waters and 22 knot winds. Staying the whole weekend, my beloved rented the last car in Bay City and drove over four hours home for a special event while the dogs and I stayed on the boat. 

We met a lovely live aboard couple who have sailed quite extensively. The wife invited me to the oldest Episcopal church in Texas which I had wanted to attend being my denomination. With a small congregation the Father interacted with the parishioner during announcements, something that I have never seen; a very warm and inviting church with everyone so lovely and outgoing.

Upon my beloveds return, we tried Spoonbill restaurant in Matagorda located in a beautiful old home, but the food and wait staff were pretty piss poor. Our waitress kept going outside to her truck and talk on her phone, and the water boy cared for us. Never did she ask how our food was. Answer see above. Remember that the chef and owner is trained from Houston culinary school. Well they were out of fish, even though there is a fish store and the bay next door. So I ordered the shrimp dish with a cream sauce. Yuck-- try overly melted oily cheese and butter sauce with a few little shrimp. Should have stopped with the fried green tomatoes which were good- but overpriced. The wine was also overpriced for the area- but good. If we ever talked to our waiter again, I would have said something. But we had to walk too far back to the boat to wait for her. Horribly disappointed. To leave on a positive the restrooms were clean and modern.

With the desire to see new shores, we headed out to Army Hole on the allegedly deserted Matagorda Island State Park through more turbulent waters on Matagorda Bay paying close attention to the new channel route from the latest NOAA charts downloaded on the laptop. Finally we made it to Port O'Connor where the baby dolphins were playing and swimming in formation.


Next onto Army Hole where we felt so remote and deserted for about 20 minutes. We tied up to the west side of the bulkhead by the old ferry landing. Coming around the bend was the first sailboat seen since Galveston, and another couple with their dogs doing their first trip to Army Hole. A super sweet couple from Palacios stayed the night which we met up with again at Serendipity Marina. By the following morning we were alone. The depths of the slips were unknown so we stayed at the bulkhead for only four days using the generator to watch TV (20+ channels), make coffee, and charge up the batteries (since the refrigerator battery was bad).

I kept hearing that the only way to the island was by boat since the ferry caught on fire back in 2003, and no longer was a state park. At 10 am two tractors, one lowboy with a port-a-john and truck, and one USFWS extended cab truck pull up, out jumped three tall men and one short stocky woman in uniforms. 


They ate lunch and loaded back into the extended cab and headed back over the hill. Where did we come from, where are they going, and why did they leave this equipment here? None of these questions were answered.

Another sailboat had arrived, and this couple were the ones who literally wrote the most recent book on traveling the Texas ICW which we used for this trip. They had a solution to our looming problem, ice, by using a portable ice maker powered by the generator, which is a must for our next trip. When we ran out of ice at Matagorda Island, then it was time to go.

Nightly Margaritas were our staple, perfecting the drink every night. Fresh lime juice, Grand Marnier, agave syrup, and good tequila were the 4 main ingredients for the best margaritas. Cases of canned Fat Tire and boxed wine kept our minds lubricated after each thrilling rough pass across the water.

We walked and rode a bike (until a cactus popped the tire) less than 3 miles to the beach on the Gulf side. The beach was very dirty and apparently the bees loved my yellow windbreaker.

After quickly removing the attraction, we walked the beaches and debated when to leave. Too darn far to walk and only stay for hour-- was my input, but the dogs were low on water so back we went. The lighthouse was farther away, but I heard very glowing reviews of the site from other visitors. Maybe next time.

Our top concerns before arriving were trash disposal and lack of bathrooms at Matagorda Island, but luckily two gigantic dumpsters near the bulkhead solved those dilemmas. We did conserve water by using small amounts of water to bath and rinse. Thank goodness that it was cool at night since our generator is too small to start the air conditioner on the boat.

More fishing boats arrived (one from Fort Worth), catching flounder like it was going out of style. We were never lucky at fishing. We took the inflatable dinghy out but the oyster beds were too shallow, and rarely used it the whole trip. The super loud snapping shrimp kept us out of the bow in the daytime. Never saw any raccoons or alligators, but had to hold the dogs back from rabbit (hare) hunting. The pink feathered spoonbill birds flew over our boat as we made our egress.

With Spring Fling less than a week away, we headed east with a detour to Palacios. Following the channel to Palacios, we saw a beautiful sailboat with full sails outside of the channel where the chart showed shoals. I guess that it was deep enough. We pulled into the marina, and dozens of clean red, white, and blue shrimp boats for HEB were docked. As we maneuvered around to find our slip, everyone on their boats yelled and greeted us to Serendipity Marina. One of the workers helped us into the slip which was rare on our trip. 

Never would I have imagined the hidden treasures that lie within this marina. 

The first man who was deaf to solo circumnavigate the globe was from this marina, his Tartan-- Island Time, who I unfortunately never got to meet. The owner of the boat next to us was building a smaller replica of La Salle's boat that was found in the Bay near here. Recently we even met one of the men who built this steel marina. And I could go on... We met up with the couple from the island, and drove us to the grocery, showed us around Palacios, and treated us to a delicious Chinese dinner (Tran's Restaurant on Henderson). We had already eaten at PMR (Palacios Mexican Restaurant) the first night, and loved their homemade salsa and margaritas, so good! (barely got a tv channel in this marina, but had Internet)

After enjoying the pool and meeting all the people with dogs in the marina, we unfortunately had to leave before the big storms blew in. Most of the locks were being worked on that kept the barge traffic down. But we were always able to get through fairly quickly. Finally back into Matagorda Harbor, we stayed for 2 nights versus 1 due to the SE winds blew us against the bulkhead, and the rub rail got rubbed out of place. Thankfully the marina did not charge us for extra night. So the next morning with great help from the other live aboard couple we got out. We made it straight to Freeport Marina which the last hour seemed like the longest, especially when we were trying to beat the monster storm. 


Warning of the eminent high wind and rains, family and friends gave us a play by play of the storms location and action. TMCA members helped us slide into the slip just before the sky opened up. Thank you all again.

The Spring Fling was an immense joy especially for me to meet the infamous Bob "Bitchin" Lipkin whose Latitudes and Attitudes TV show we watched. He was exactly how I imagined him to be, but I never imagined myself that much shorter than him. Fun concerts, enlightening seminars, delicious food, great walking areas for the dogs: too bad that there were not more stores in beautiful downtown Freeport.

Throughout the trip fresh vegetables, homemade sauces, nuts, fruits, breads, pasta, and recently purchased meats were our main entrees and snacks. Rarely did we dive into our load of canned vegetables. I had practiced cooking everything healthy from scratch before leaving- fresh guacamole, salsa, marinara, hummus. We were very lucky to find people at the marinas to take us to the grocery store. We had planned for the worst case scenario-- with abundance of canned foods, but instead met the nicest people in the world taking us around town. From one live aboard I learned a new way of baking on the boat with a Nuwave oven without heating up the boat, and enjoyed her delicious healthy cookies. We walked to many of the restaurants in Matagorda and Palacios, but many times the businesses were closed or renovating.


For dog owners, remember to bring extra antibiotics for your pet in case of an infection, since we had problems finding a vet. Luckily we had human antibiotics, and the on call vet told us the correct dosage-- which worked. Bring extra dog food, because our dogs burned a lot of calories each day. Extra leashes were a must since ol' Neptune took one early on our journey so rope had to be used. Most of the ground covering has stickers and thorns which creates a three legged dog, so strong booties for all four paws are a must. 

After the hike to the beach, one naked paw was red and agitated. Upon returning remove the booties and dry them off, since rocks and debris can get in there. Salt was everywhere on the boat and us and made the dogs' coats stay soft.  An occasional quick bath wash available at the harbor to wash off the salt. Head lamps were a must on the island when we walked the dogs and watched out for wildlife ie. coyotes. The Matagorda Harbor was the only place with mosquitoes since they watered the lawn every night, and the dogs were up-to-date on their heart worm preventive.

Each night especially on Matagorda Island we would study the stars, as we listened to the salt popping and crackling around the boat. We would unfold our chairs and stare out into the night sky, but still the lights from inland towns could be seen.

We had a most splendid trip, never a harsh word, and a very romantic time being just the two of us plus the pups for most of the trip, our little Eden on the water. After returning to shore bizarre and unsettling things began happening around us, and I quickly wanted us to get back on our boat sail away to saner pastures...

US Coast Guard rescue demo, Spring Fling 2011, Freeport, TX

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