6-1-07

Friday, arrived at the boat after work about 11pm. Loaded the ice box with cokes beer and ice, got the fan running in the hatch and turned in.

6-2-07

 Saturday, got up about 8 am and made a run to West Marine where I got 3 open style turnbuckles and 2 turnbuckle covers. Got back to the boat and installed the turnbuckles. I now have all 4 lower shrouds attached with the open turnbuckles. The open style is easier to adjust with just a screwdriver and wrench. I installed the 2 covers on the forward shrouds so the jib sheets wont snag on the turnbuckles. I still need 3 more turnbuckles for the upper shrouds and the backstay and 4 more covers. But West Marine thinks those turnbuckles are made of gold so I will have to wait a while to buy some more.

Margie arrived about 1 pm and the weather is ok but looks like it could rain on us any second. We get the boat ready to go sail. We back out of the slip and head for the fuel dock and find it only takes 2 gallons to top off the tank. Hmmmm, guess we didn't run out of fuel last week, so now I need to figure out whats killing the motor. That's hard to do since it is running fine now.

We motor out of the marina and down the ship channel to the open bay, its really too late to cruise anywhere so we just sail around the north end of Galveston Bay. The wind is about 10 knots and the bay is smooth so its a really nice sail flying the big jenny we just sit back in the cockpit and enjoy the ride. As sunset approaches we head for the anchorage just north of the Houston Yacht Club and pull into protected area there and drop the hook.

We enjoy the sunset with some cool drinks and then fire up the grill and cook some nice steaks and vegies that Margie cooked on the stove. It was a really nice evening and the rain stayed away. We turn in for the night but this anchorage is a little bit rolly. I don't know where the wakes were coming from but probably the ship channel and I  woke up several times during the night with the boat rolling from side to side.

Alma Del Viento

6-3-07

 Sunday, at anchor near the Houston Yacht Club on Galveston Bay. We ate breakfast and then hauled anchor about 9 am. The wind was really light and I could only get 3 knots but we slowly sailed  around the north end of Galveston Bay and then on down to the Clearlake channel marker before we turned around and headed back to the marina. The bay was smooth and its was a nice leisurely sail back to the marina. We arrived back in the slip around 3 pm. After resting a bit with a cold beer we cleaned and scrubbed on the boat some and tried to get some of the scum out of the bilge. We called it good about 7pm and packed up and headed for home.

6-6-07

 We have joined a cruising association. The Texas Mariners Cruising Association is a fun group of folks that like to go to different destinations in the Galveston Bay area and get together and have fun and party. They have cruises and events planned for most every weekend and we plan to join them on several of their events.

6-8-07 -- 6-10-07

 Didn't do much on the boat this weekend. The winds were light and it was very hot so Margie stayed home and I worked on the boat electrical systems. I installed new blades on the wind generator and got it working. I didn't get enough wind to test it until late Saturday evening when the wind kicked up to about 10 knots for a short time. The guys walking around the docks said it sounds like you are ready to take off. It does whistle up a loud whirling noise in the gusts but it does have a stop switch to kill it. I monitored the battery voltage with my meter and then turned on all the boat systems and started the motor several times to drain the batteries down by one volt then I turned everything off and let the wind generator run and it only took a couple of hours to get the batteries back up to fully charged. I also got the fuel gage wired up and fully installed so now I know how much fuel is in the tank. I'm not sure what's up with the Link 10 battery monitor. I got it running for a while but it quit working just before I packed up and headed home so I guess I will have to work on that system some more. 

6-22-07 -- 6-24-07

  TMCA The "Ins and Outs Cruise to Freeport Offshore Sailing for New Hands and Old Salts (click here for info)

We arrived at the boat early Friday morning and got it ready to sail by noon. We backed out of the slip and headed for channel marker 2. The winds were light and it was slow going and the motor is still dieing after only running 10 to 20 minutes. We arrived late to marker 2 and the TMCA boats are already gone.

We sail on across the south boater cut and down to Baffel Point but with no motor and light winds it takes us all day to get there. I was only getting 3 to 4 knots, we arrived at Baffel Point around 10 pm and anchored up near 5 other TMCA boats. I tried to hail them on the radio but I guess they had all gone to bed.

I tried to be quiet but I wanted to find the fuel problem so I tore into the fuel system and changed the fuel filters and o-rings on the water separator. I didn't see anything obvious but hoped what I did would stop the air leak or what ever was killing the motor. It was nearly 1 am when I quit and closed everything back up. I had dripped a little fuel so I had to run the blower a while, I hope I didn't wake anyone up. 

We woke up about 5 am and Margie cooked breakfast of eggs and toast. At 6 am everyone was up and hauling anchor and we headed off towards the jetties. The motor was running fine and I was enjoying being in the pack of 6 sailboats headed off shore. But it was not to be, before we rounded the corner headed out to the jetties the motor died and would not start. I finally had to give in and make the terrible decision not to go on the cruise. I hailed the cruise leader s/v "Stellar of Course" and told him our problem and that we would not be going with them but would follow them out to the jetties.

I raised sail and still tried to get the motor running but we were getting farther and farther behind the pack. I had Margie go below and squeeze the priming bulb to see if that helped and it did get the motor going for a while. So I had Margie just stay down there and keep squeezing the bulb and that allowed me to keep going towards the jetties and we almost caught up to the pack at the end of the jetties.   Below is a letter I sent to the cruise leader when we got home about the rest of our weekend.

TO: Ron Eddleman s/v Stellar of Course

 I found my fuel problem and it wasn't my old stuff, it was a brand new part I
had installed a few weeks ago. I found it by having  Margie go
below and pump the primer bulb for the fuel filters to see if that would keep
the motor running, and it worked. The other TMCA boats had just rounded the jetties and I
tried to talk Margie into pumping the primer all the way to Freeport but she
wouldn't go for it Ha-Ha!!

So it appears that the ball valves in the brand new priming bulb are sticking.
We found a work-around by wedging the primer bulb in the hatch and gravity
would hold the ball valves open.

We sat at the end of the south jetty and sadly watched you guys disappear over
the horizon. We waited a couple of hours out there bobbing around hoping the
wind would come up so we could make a run to one of the nearby rigs but no wind
so we headed back to Galveston.

We took a trip through the harbor and took some pictures of the tall ship
Elissa then we look over our shoulder towards Texas City and we get to see a
tornado/waterspout. The bridge operator is announcing the tornado to the barge
captains. And one of the captains comes back on the radio and says "ok and do
what?" The bridge operator says "Run!" ..Ha-Ha! Luckily the tornado finally
disappeared into the clouds.

We finally ended up in Offats Bayou and spent the night on the hook near Moody
Gardens. The next morning we had a great wing on wing sail back to Bayland
marina.

Ins and Outs to Freeport Cruise Report

Elissa

Tornado/waterspout

Galveston Causeway Railroad Bridge

6-29-07 -- 7-1-07

 Friday, arrived at the boat after work about 11pm. It was hot hot and humid so I installed my new hatch board that I had made at home and it has a notch cut out for the window air conditioner. I installed the air conditioner and started getting the boat cooled off. It worked good and by midnight the boat was comfortable and cool. The only problem is the a/c leans inward due to the slope of the cabin and the condensation water drips in the boat. I will have to add a drain hose to the a/c to get the water running outside.

Saturday, tore into the fuel system again. Replaced the primer bulb with a new one and shortened the fuel line so the primer bulb lays with one end lower than the other so gravity helps it flow better and this bulb is larger so hopefully this will cure my fuel problems. I ran the motor for 30 minutes tied to the slip in full forward power and it ran fine and would idle down good also.

Sunday Margie cleaned the bilge of some old oil and gunk that had been floating around in there for several weeks. We use the manual pump to pump the oil into a bucket then we soaped everything down and filled the bottom of the boat with water and pumped that out with the electric pump. I guess for a bilge its pretty clean now.  We finished up about sundown, so we sat in the cockpit and enjoyed the sunset before loading up and heading home. 

Cruise Planning

7-14-07 - 7-15-07 TMCA Steve's Landing Cruise

8-4-07 - 8-5-07 TMCA Cruise to Smith Point (Bring bikes, binoculars, & bug spray) – Covered dish supper

8-11-07 - 8-12-07 TMCA Cruise to Bayland Marina with Dinghy Regatta in harbor

8-18-07 - 8-19-07 TMCA Gilligan’s Island Party at Marker 17 in Oak Island (Double Bayou)

8-31-07 - 9-3-07 TMCA Labor Day Cruise to Moody Gardens

10-25-07 - 10-28-07 21st annual Harvest Moon Regatta (offshore to Port Aransas)