Do not allow the title of the following article to deter you from reading it.
What it is not, is a day to day chronology of a cruise. With full fear of offending, I have never understood why so many cruise dialogs will have, "We left at 0800.", So what? Anyway, I do, of course, relate certain aspects of our little 1,000 + miles escapade, but I have made a conscious effort to avoid "detailed chronology". Anyone headed to "Trawler Fest" in Clear Lake, Texas (Houston) or traversing the Texas coast should find helpful hints.

Corpus Christi Cruising

The Wife, Pat, and I decided that we needed a nice, long, leisurely boat trip after the angst of building the house and dock. Several other factors entered into this trip equation. I had installed gas refrigeration, I already had a gas freezer, and more importantly, this would be The Wife’s first extended trip as we anticipated being gone 3 weeks or more.

This is being written on day 17 and everything is copasetic. Corpus Christi, Texas was the destination, some 500 plus miles west of Patterson, La., via the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). I started the boat prep (1981 CHB P/H 45) and marshalling the charts, etc. We purchased a new RIB and a 15-hp motor, as my 7 hp would not push it. Of course, it ain’t that simple. My old dinghy was carried on the bridge and the RIB would not fit. Weaver swing up davits for the swim platform were ordered. Another problem, a large rubber applique was on the pontoon exactly where the Weaver davit receiver had to be mounted.

Subsequent to a number of telephone calls to the manufacturers, I was instructed on how to remove the offending applique with a heat gun and acetone using these on a new boat was not comforting at all- real easy to screw up! Fortunately all went well. The dinghy was mounted but I needed a block & tackle to swing it up. This was engineered and put into place. Oh yes, had to stencil the numbers on the boat it seemed to never end. Then two bits were mounted on the stern cap rail to which the dinghy was tied in the swing up position.

By the way, The Wife prevailed upon me to get iunsf latabl,e belt type PFD’s that are really nice and comfortable when in the dinghy. Subsequent to getting all the supplies on board we left on January 7, get this, with ICE on Bayou Teche !! The next day rain and for the 11 days it took to get to Corpus Christi we had 1 of sunshine! We only went to Morgan City the first day so that we could vote before leaving town. The next night was spent at scenic Intracoastal City among the indigenous fishing craft with names like Do Thrang; Duc; Ha Trang. For those of you headed for Trawler Fest in Clear Lake (Houston) this is a good stop, Shell Morgan Fuel Dock. Fuel is cheap and the bulkhead makes a fine tie up. Note no electricity, the charge is $20.00.

Fortunately there are no war stories along this stretch except the fact that the reported anchorage in Bayou Choupique at the Calscasieu River is no more. It is well silted in to the point that not even a skiff may get in! Since this was a planned stop we had to resort to Plan B tie up to a barge for the night. In all of my years passing this point I never had the occasion to stop here. Port Arthur was the next stop, so I called the USPS Port Captain who directed me to a marina that not only didn’t exist never did! We had a bit of a time locating a tie up. I did not want to anchor in Taylor Bayou, the accepted place, as fierce thunderstorms were forecast for that night. We found a likely tie up in an industrial canal. For the first time ever, we were told to leave - by a backhoe operator! Ended up tying up to an abandoned dock further up Taylor Bayou. The poor weather continued with freezing temps and rain. Ice on the deck the next morning and the starboard engine would not start. This was a first in the 15 years that I have had CC Rider. I bled the system and nothing. There was an air leak in the fuel line where it entered the lift pump. Fortunately it took only a few minutes to find it and a single turn of a wrench to fix. Bled the system again and away we go.

From Port Arthur it was on to Galveston and a real (read that expensive) marina. Did I mention that the cell phone failed? Rode the bike to the cell phone store 5 miles one way down Seawall Boulevard to get a new charger at home we have 2. Back to the boat and that was not the problem. Some boating friends from Galveston were meeting us that afternoon so back we went for repairs. That was not the end of the problem only the beginning. Suffice to say the problem didn’t go away for 5 more days and three trips to a store in Corpus Christi.

I wanted to go into Offats Bayou on the other end of Galveston so the next day, Joe and Gaylynn Brikha of the Houston Power Squadron went with us. The channel into Offats is narrow and shallow, we scraped twice. We spent the night at a marina just across from Moody Gardens. Moody’s rate is $2.00 per foot and the Landings Marina is $25.00 period (electricity included). The slips are kind of narrow, 15 feet 3 inches and CC Rider has a 14 foot 10 inch beam. No pun intended, but we slipped right in with no problem. Did I ever give you the definition of a "Bow"? What you do after a particularly good docking maneuver. Shortly after docking a man came over and introduced himself and told us that we had loaned him our car several years ago when he was passing through Morgan City on his boat. Small world.

Our next stop was a dock in Freeport, up the Brazos River, not the hooty- tooty Yacht Club right on the ICW, but Mitchell’s Pleasure Pier ($20.00 with 20 amp electricity, $15.00 without) right in the downtown area. Please note, this is dock and not a marina. A fine restaurant, (The River Inn) is within walking distance as well as a 100 year old hardware store that is not to be missed. This is home to over 100 shrimp boats so this store carries a large selection of marine supplies. We spent over an hour and a half there.

We planned another short day to Matagorda where there is a fine municipal marina right on the ICW. It also has a diver in residence. Again a very good restaurant within walking distance, the Sea Breeze. We did use our bicycles to tour the village. The Brazos River Flood Gates are immediately west of the marina and caused us a delay of 1 ½ hours due to a surly lock keeper, in addition to waiting for the fog to lift. I installed a 24-mile, 3 kW radar not long before the trip, but didn’t yet feel that comfortable with it in that much traffic. On our return trip we tried a different tact when we approached the floodgates. The Wife called them instead of me, and we were ushered through with no delay, hmmm. These floodgates pose a serious and expensive delay for the towboats as they can generally only push one or two barges at a time through the gates. Some boats
must make as many as 4 to 6 trips to get their tow across the river. To add insult to injury, there is another set for the Colorado River a few miles down the canal. Speaking of lock keepers, the man on duty at the Calcasieu Lock near Lake Charles, La. could not have been more helpful. He advised us of the situation at hand and kept us apprised of what to expect and what we should do. Simple, efficient and courteous. By the way we wrote a letter to the Lock Master letting him know about his employee.

We were "warned" that this next stretch ( back to Texas) of the trip was long and boring, but we found an abundance of birds, lots and lots of cans, white and brown, Rosette Spoonbills and quite a few Whooping Cranes that tourists pay big bucks to see. Since we saw so many white and brown pelicans we noticed the boat could get within a very few yards of the brown pelicans but the white ones took off 40 yards or so from the boat.
On this stretch of the ICW is the Caney Creek pontoon bridge. We were going slow surveying a very nice bulkhead near the bridge as a possible place to tie up for the night when the bridge tender opened the bridge, WITHOUT request! I did not want to tell him that I was not going through so we continued on. Later, I learned from Drew and Sonya Haugan of the M/V OFFROAD that it is an excellent stopping point.

Next stop Rockport. We managed to get there on a really cold and rainy day and the bay was rough. The wind chill was 21 degrees, and we were docking in a high wind. Nice marina, no services but it’s priced right and is in town. A big grocery store is across the street with restaurants, shops and two really nice museums (one art, the other marine) practically on the docks. By now it was time to do laundry, this was my first experience with using a washateria since college not good! We were weathered in for an extra day as the visibility (fog) for the next two days was 1/8 mile or less.

Corpus Christi was only 3 ½ hours away from Rockport , when we finally arrived, on tthhe d 1a1y and 500 miles into the trip it was early afternoon, still cold and raining and the bay was very rough. The next day was 32 degrees and get this, on that same date the year before the temperature had been 85 degrees. Who planned the weather anyway ? Corpus Christi has a fine municipal marina in a great setting, again right in the middle of town with several museums, civic center, etc. nearby. Price is right too. The staff could not be more helpefull. We had boating friends stop by, the Bordins, Jim and Selena and their guests from Canada, Mary and Bruce, all TWL listees. We all went out to dinner, another great restaurant, I could feel the fat coming on!

War Story. On the short leg from Rockport to Corpus Christi, the Loran would not put us within one mile of our position, the GPS quit as did the starting battery. Remember the cell phone was not yet fixed. West Marine and Garmin replaced the antenna without charge it was exactly 26 days out of warranty! There is a Delco battery dealer 1 mile from the marina so both of those problems went away fast.

We rented a car and spent the next few days touring the area marinas, Mustang Island, Port Aransas and Aransas Pass, etc. We ate at a first rate Tex-Mex restaurant "La Bahia" in downtown Corpus Christi, across the street from the Cathedral. Don’t miss it as it has the feel and look of a restaurant in Mexico. The Wife says that you know you’re in a good Mexican restaurant when the wait staff takes your order in English and tells the kitchen in Spanish.

On leaving Corpus Christi we had some long, uninterrupted stretches so I ran a few tests, logging exactly how many inches of fuel we burned per hour at cruising speed, it was 7/16 of an inch. Another is that the cruising r.p.m. I had been using, 1800, gave me only 3/10 to ½ m.p.h. over 1700 r.p.m. The reduction of 100 r.p.m. saves me .85 g.p.h., 4.86 rather than 5.71 and that is total for both engines (Perkins 135 h.p. N/A).

On the return trip we wanted to stop in Port O’Connor as we had by- passed it on the outbound leg. We went to the St. Christopher’s Marinad, on’t you do it .They charged $42.00 with no electricity. The owner said "$1/ft with or without electricity, Take it or leave it!!" He also told me the marina is under new management, no kidding. Compare that to the friendly reception we received at Matagorda, Corpus Christi and RockpoMrt unicipalM arinas.

Our next stop was Offats Bayou again to take in Moody Gardens and the Imax Theatre. Unfortunately, all that was playing was, ugh, the Simpson’s, scratch that idea. Anyway, we followed the channel in just as we were instructed by the Brikhas with no problem and into the same narrow slip at Landings Marina.

The next day on approaching the ICW, coming out of Offats Bayou right in the channel I started dragging bottom once, twice, then the third time the boat listed to the starboard side but I kept pushing and then veered, uncontrollably to starboard. With the wheel hard to port, the port engine pulled back and the starboard engine sped up I was still moving toward a day mark! Passed really close to it while listing but I knew if we lost momentum we’d be there for a while. We listed so far over that the cooling water intake for the port engine was apparently not fully underwater as The Wife advised me that the port exhaust was "steaming". Within much less than a minute, which seemed a lot longer, we made it over the shell bank none the worse for wear. Later that morning the Coast Guard made a "Security" broadcast that the tides in Galveston were one to two feet below normal
and mariners should take precautions. Remember this is January and the tides are LOW when normal.

Back in La. at the Calcasieu River we decided to detour up to Lake Charles and on approaching it, a conversation was struck up with another trawler. Noting that we hailed from Patterson, La. He asked, "Do you know Charles Culotta?" Another TWL listee! He was Charles Ware and he offered the overnight use of his slip as he was headed for Houston. We accepted. Lake Charles turned out to be one of the nicest areas of the trip, two different people asked if we needed help finding a marina. Also, the lock keeper at the Calcasieu Lock was extremely courteous and professional as before.

At one point on the ICW I saw a 50 foot Hatteras motor yacht coming up behind me as he was passing a tow boat pushing a long string of barges (about 800 feet). The Hatteras was throwing a tremendous wake. Of course he thought his wake could not affect those large barges. Wrong! The tow boat captain let him know in no uncertain terms , you might say that he put it into words that even the Hattaras captain could understand. In this case the barges were empty and a large wake could make them rock and break a cable not a pretty sight. I slowed down to idle speed for the Hatteras to pass me and he picked up speed again digging quite a hole. That is no planing boat and I can only guess his gallons per hour! He was not making much more speed than we, but his dollars per mile were a lot higher.

There is a section of the ICW in Louisiana that passes through "The slands", Forked (this is pronounced Fork-ed) and Pecan mere settlements, not anything like the Bahamas. We eased on hrough without stopping. This is also the home of the "Boat Store" as it is still called, but its’ formal name is "Talen’s Marine Fuel". It used to sell groceries, gas and diesel but now only diesel. If you get caught out here needing a place to tie up,just ask.
But, it will be to a rusty sunken barge so have a lot of fenders. By the way, my bow was well up on the mud! Cruising the Louisiana portion of the ICW is somewhat "rustic" as compared to, say the Gold Coast of Florida or as The Wife says, "It’s the Ying and Yang of Yachting".

As I pen this portion we are at the end of Day 22 a long time for us- not- yet- fully -retired self- employeds, tied to a rusty foam filled barge. Foam filled because it has rusted through and is being used as a dock for serviceable barges. The Wife refers to such a tie up as a B and B, not Bed and Breakfast but a Boat and Barge. For those reading this as a cruising guide, it is in the Charenton Canal at 123 WHL. That is "West of the Harvey Lock" which is mile "0" on the GIWW and is at New Orleans. We are now merely 44 miles from our home dock but will pass within 2 miles of it but still have a 27 mile horseshoe to round. Been home now for several days and the house feels so LARGE. The Wife said we should have taken this trip BEFORE building the house it would have been built a lot smaller!

As I logged the engine hours I noted that I have 3999.3 hours on CCRIDER. When I purchased her in Nov. ’85 she had 1343 hrs. I guess that is a lot of hours that I have run up but I wish I had put on twice that but be grateful for small favors.

There it is folks, see you at Trawler Fest.