Thursday dawned bright and early and a tiki tour was called for. Waz had administered some 'Salt Away' to the dinghy motor a few days previously and then flushed the motor thoroughly. This was a great opportunity to give her a run.
Anticipating that all would be well (you know the rest of this story already, dont you?) we set out..well sunscreened, watered (in cooler) and in fine spirits, if not a bit hot already, at 9am. The sun was vicious, and threatened to be another 95F + day.
Hazy Hot!..there's those lovely colored chairs again:)
Well, the photos are a little backwards, so I will go that way too...this next photo is where we ended up 1/4 way up Clear Lake. The little dock with the white ramp...thats where we tied the dinghy.
Hmm...how did we get there??
We were doing just fine and then the outboard started making 'funny' noises...(I'm not the motor person, so dont ask me what was wrong!)..then it stopped...and didnt start again. We were close to this marina, so paddled...yes, me in front paddling right, and him in back paddling left...would have made a funny movie, and Im sure someone looking on would have wondered 'what the heck'!!!:)
Unable to start motor, and about 2 miles (at least) from home...being the big boat...and waz didnt have any shoes on, or we would have walked (yeh right!), we went in search of peeps to ask if it was ok to leave the dinghy there.
Yes, it was, and we went into the Marina office to see if we could call a cab...we were told someone would drive us back to the marina...and it ended up being the Marina Manager...Steve...thanks Steve from Endeavour Marina...these boat peeps stick together!!! We took him a bottle of Kiwi wine later:)
So, back at the big boat. Prepare her to run back to the Endeavour marina to pick up the dinghy. All but one line cast off, and ready to go...
This part is pretty embarrassing....
Rule #1.
No matter who ties her up, ALWAYS check ALL the lines!
The detailers had added an extra line (rope) when they were working on the boat, which wasnt at first obvious to us. Soooo...we thought we had cast the boat off, and she wasnt going anywhere....we can see the funny side of this now, but it was pretty disconcerting to be trying to go backwards and not doing so.
Ok..you can laugh now!
There was a decent wind blowing, so that didnt help things either.
Extra line cast off and away we went to pick up the dinghy.
Not having been up that way before, we didnt know the channel into the marina. We watched other boats going in, but from another direction. The depth sounder wasnt registering ANY depth, and we looked to be churning up mud. We were going VERY slowly at this stage.
We didnt bottom out, thank goodness, and because the old paddle steamer in the photo goes in and out of there we figgered we could too.
Picked up the Dinghy and got out of there safely. While we were out, we thought we might blow some moths out of the girl and we headed out into Galveston Bay.
Here is Waz at the flybridge helm:) He is sitting on the extra cushion because with the new Eisenglass installed, he cant see sufficiently well without it.
Looking out off the fly deck into Galveston Bay.
As we were passing, I thought I should take a photo of the Outrigger Restaurant that we wont be going back to.
The ladies in red are staff and were doing the Macarena!lol! The music was VERY loud.
Lots of seafood restaurants on the pier.
The wooden Rollercoaster and gardens. Very pretty!
More rides
These fishermen are typical of those who fish (not 'sposed to) in and around the marina. We think the main past-time around here is 'fishing'. Almost everyone does it, and whole families will spend the WHOLE day (in blazing hot sun) out fishing...from shore and boat of every kind.
After all that....
We made it back into the Marina without any further drama, and now have to figger out what is wrong with the outboard. Another job for Waz to do. This may require stripping it on the very table I am sewing at...hmm..there goes the sewing room!!
Dont you love it? Airconditioned sewing room with a view...cockpit deck.
By the way..the NZ flag does double duty...keeping the natives guessing at whether we are Aussies or wot? and keeping the sun off the immediate back deck (cockpit) in the afternoon. That pm sun is vicious and we now have fabric etc to make a 'blind' that will go right across the back of the boat for shade...it is 95% UV protection. Amazing how cool this keeps the boat, and the aircon inside has an easier job.
More coming...
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