Well we started out by doing the final preparations to leave. Like testing out the chairs in the redneck front yard. Of course along with a cold beer and lots of stairs from our neighbor boats. Hey it works good.
Then it was time to load all the critters on, one bird, 4 cats and 2 dogs. Wow..... Now that's a lot!!!
So now we have the following on board, Missy an Umbrella Cockatoo, Hilde a Black Lab, Sacha a long coat Chihuahua, Fancy, Sonic, Tails, and Squeaky are cats. I think I need a bigger boat.
Once loaded our friends Jim B, Thomas, (Real) Bob, were there to see us off. Motor running, all lines released, we were under way. As I was backing out of the slip, Elaine was walking backwards and trying to push the boat away from a pole when she missed the step down and fell hard on a stanchion and the life line. The fall was very painful and gave her a good injury. I was almost out of the fairway when we pulled back into the slip so we could access her injuries. After about an hour and still in pain, Elaine told me OK lets go ahead and head out. I told her we could postpone the trip to see how her injuries were. But just like a seasoned sailor she looked me in the eyes and said very sternly "No if we stay we will have to give back all the rum we were given as going away gifts." Well now the rum will be used for medical purposes.
So we threw off the lines again and headed out. We passed two more good friends, Maxine and Steve. Maxine took these pictures and sent them to us. Thanks Maxine.
We headed across the bay and entered the ship channel. We turned toward Galveston and caught an outgoing tide. We made really good time and arrived to the Island ahead of schedule. The fuel dock was already closed and we had a severe storm heading our way, so I decided to head to Offats Bayou and Moody Gardens.
We arrived at Moody Gardens and tied up to the T-Head slip about an hour before the storm hit. I put out extra lines and fenders in anticipation of the storm. They were predicting wind to 60 mph, lightning, and lots of rain.
Once prepared, we took Hilde and Sacha out for a potty walk. Once business was completed we headed back to the boat and battened down everything.
The storm did not disappoint the weathermen. It was just as they predicted. It was dark driving rain with lots of lightning strikes everywhere and we have a 58 foot lightning rod attached to the center of the boat. We were lucky and had no strikes to mess our day up.
But the wind was really wild. It was coming out of the South and about 90' when we docked. But when the front hit the temp dropped about 15' and was straight out of the North. It started out at about 45mph and then built to above 50mph. We had the bow of the boat pointed North so the wind was not much of a factor at first. Then it moved to N/W which put the wind on our beam, pushing Barefoot Babe into the wooden pier while heeling it over about 5 to 10 degrees. The water level dropped and combined with the heeling action pushed our fenders below the dock. So I spent most of the severe part of the storm on deck using my feet and legs pushing the boat away from the pier and adjusting fenders to ensure we did not get any damage to our boats teak cap, toe, and rub rails. An inspection after the storm showed all the efforts paid off. No Damage!
We now have a beautiful day and we checked into the Moody Marina for Friday night. And they are offering us Saturday night free if we would like to stay. We will just have to see what Happy Hour will bring.
Fabulous.
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