M/V ILLUSIONS                             EARLIER CRUISES            

1996 LOCAL CRUISES Cedar Bayou, Harbor House, Double Bayou, Harbor House, The Landings, Trinity River, and Gatorfest      These short trips will give an idea of cruising in the Galveston Bay area, places to go, and things to do close to Houston.  I estimated these seven trips covered about 500 miles. Cedar Bayou Cruise, February 17 - 18, 1996      On Saturday, February 17 we left South Shore Harbour Marina for Cedar Bayou.  That was not a really popular destination because all that is there is an anchorage in an old sand pit.  There were no marinas, fuel stops, restaurants, or entertainment for the boater.  The bayou enters Galveston Bay near Morgan's Point in the northern portion of the bay.  It drains Baytown, TX; large boats would be stopped by a bridge at State Hwy. 146.  Actually, there is also a bridge that limits sailboats downstream of the anchorage; but powerboats can pass under that bridge with no problems.      We left about 1pm and arrived about 3:30, so it was a 2.5 hour trip for us.  The bayou itself is deceptive and unmarked except for a few buoys near the bay.  You need to "read the bank" to know where the deep water is, generally on the outside of bends.  There was often some very shallow water on the inside of those bends, and you could go aground quickly.  There was soft mud on the bottom, usually.       We dropped the jet boat and ran it up the creek as far as we could go.  We wanted to get some gasoline for it but found no place to get fuel.  The possible exception would have been to lug a gas can over to a 7 Eleven and back.  We didn't have a gas can.  We found another boater who gave us some gasoline.  The photos show the dinghy lift on the back of the boat.  We don't recommend this - it caused us some problems later: but that's what we had back then.      We grilled steaks and enjoyed dinner and a couple of informative videos on board.  The lack of anything else to do was very nice.       On Sunday morning the little boat wouldn't start.  We had a lot of maintenance with that jet boat.  We loaded it up on the lift and pulled up the anchor about noon.  By 2pm we were back at the Clear Creek channel in the area known as "Restaurant Row".  We visited with some friends we saw, ate hamburgers on board, and returned to South Shore Harbour Marina about 4pm. Harbor House Cruise, Galveston, TX, February 24 - 25, 1996      We left South Shore Harbour Marina with our friends, Marc and Cindy on M/V NORDIC, about 11am on Saturday, February 24, 1996.  Temperatures were in the 60s; winds were 15 - 20 mph out of the NE and E.  We ran out to the Houston Ship Channel and down the channel to the Port of Galveston.  Harbor House was a small hotel with a marina for a maximum of 11 boats.  It was small and hard to get into.  The photos will give an idea of the size and layout of the small marina. On Galveston Island at that time there was only that marina and the Galveston Yacht Club for transient slips.  The Landings, an apartment complex near Moody Gardens, had some slips, sometimes, maybe, and usually with inadequate depth and/or shore power.      We ate lunch on the patio at Willie G's Restaurant, which bordered one side of the marina.  Angela was trying to get me to wear hats, which I normally don't care for.  She looks good in hats, but wearing a hat has never seemed natural to me.  The photo shows our boats in the background from the restaurant.      After lunch we walked to The Strand, famous downtown area of Galveston, where old buildings have been restored and converted to modern day uses.  That several block area is the most decorated area in Galveston for festivals like Mardi Gras and Dickens on the Strand.  We liked to visit the Discovery Store in those days.  I could usually find some interesting videos there.  After walking and shopping a bit, we walked back to the boat and had a nap.  About 7:30 we walked to Nash D'Amico's restaurant and had a nice meal.  We visited on NORDIC for a while and then turned in.      On Sunday, February 25, we had breakfast with Marc and Cindy on their boat.  One of the attractions of Harbor House to some boaters was the possibility of room service from the hotel to the boat.  We weren't doing that; we had a good breakfast prepared on board.  We left the marina at 11am.  The weather was high 60s, winds SE at 10 mph.  (After a cold front blows through, the winds have tracked around from the prevailing SE to W to N, then they come on around in a clockwise motion to NE and E and then back to SE again.)  We arrived at South Shore at 1pm and filled up with gasoline.  It took just over 100 gallons; mileage was about 50.  We spent a few hours after that cleaning the boat.  It warmed up to the high 70s; and the winds picked up, as they usually do in the afternoon, to 15 - 20 mph.  In the Houston area during January and February, and to some extent March, temperatures range from freezing to about 80 degrees F.  You have to pick your time to be out in it. St. Patrick's Day Cruise to Double Bayou, March 16 - 17, 1996      That was a TMCA cruise across Galveston Bay to Double Bayou, a regular destination for boaters on Clear Lake.  We left South Shore at 8:30am and filled up with fuel at Lakewood Yacht Club at 9am.  The price of gasoline then was $1.439 per gallon.  We entered Double Bayou about noon and ate sandwiches while making our way upstream to the anchorage.                    Actually, we tied to the trees on the bank so we could step ashore from the boat.  The bayou was so narrow that a very long boat would have blocked the bayou for others.  Its remote location and lack of wakes and noises was part of the appeal of that destination.  Also, groups like TMCA had learned they could get together in the field, which was a cow pasture, and build a bonfire and/or engage in other group fellowship activities, such as meals.  The downsides to the location included shallow entrance channel, heavy mosquitoes at certain times, no fuel or services, and cow patties.      We tried to get the dinghy (jet boat) started, but it would not start.  We used the portable battery charger I kept on the boat for that purpose, and we swapped batteries, all to no avail.  We had traveled slowly across the bay, content to let S/V OTRO MUNDO be our Cruise Leader and arrive ahead of us.  That was hard to do, as Blaine's 30-foot sailboat was notoriously slow.  Ed and Marion had a sailboat then; we visited them on S/V GREAT KETCH, a 41-foot Irwin.  We cooked and ate dinner on board our boat, and then we joined the others around the bonfire on the shore.  We all enjoyed hearing the singing of Irish songs, led by Sam from S/V SORCIERE.            On Sunday morning we ate breakfast about 10am with Hank and Sue, and Bernie and Irene, aboard M/V GRANOLA II.  We had eggs benedict with all the trimmings. Sue dressed up for the occasion, as usual.  The food and the company were excellent.      We cast off our lines about 11:30 and motored slowly down the channel.  We turned right at the main creek, having been in the south fork of Double Bayou overnight.  Always interested in what was around the bend, I turned upstream and we explored the north fork.  It actually didn't go very far before our way was blocked by a low bridge.  Also, we picked up a floating tree, which caused us a few minutes of irritation as we tried to dislodge it from the underside of our boat.  Between the tree and the bumping the bottom on the way into the bayou, we had some vibration on the way home.       We went slowly to the west and Clear Lake.  On the way into the lake, at Restaurant Row, we passed M/V ANNTICIPATION and got a good photograph of her heading out into the bay.  We bought fuel at Lakewood Yacht Club; we generally try to keep the fuel tanks full to prevent condensation.      Later in the week we found we had a bent prop on the port side and a bent shaft on the starboard side and some missing zincs.  The bottom in that area could be hard or soft mud, shells, or manmade objects, like engine blocks.  Trees, logs, and pilings, exposed to the surface or somewhat submerged, also took their toll.  We took the jet boat to the mechanic to have it worked on so it would start.  The maintenance costs were high for that weekend. Harbor House Cruise, Galveston, TX, April 20 - 21, 1996      We left South Shore Harbour at 9am in company with M/V NORDIC.  Our goals were to spend the night at the marina at the Harbor House Hotel, and to ride our bikes in Galveston on the seawall.  We bought fuel at Galveston Yacht Basin for $1.64 per gallon and arrived at Harbor House about noon.  Harbor House is located next to the Texas Seaport Museum at Pier 21, where the iron barque ELISSA is berthed.  For tourists or boaters who haven't yet seen it, the ELISSA is worth the time and effort to see and tour.  It was built in 1877, is 160 feet long, and has 19 sails in a square rigger setup.  A lot of volunteers spend many hours restoring the ship, which occasionally does leave its berth and takes to the sea.                We had lunch with Marc and Cindy on their boat.  Then we got our bikes ready.  For Marc and Cindy, that meant retrieving them from under the forward bunk, unfolding them, and hooking everything up.  For us, we had to bring our regular bikes from home, load them on board, and get them off the after deck and down to the dock.  By 1:30 we were on our bikes and headed for the seawall.  The marina was on the north side of Galveston Island; the seawall was on the opposite, or south, side.  After the big hurricane of 1900, Galveston was built up at least six feet; and the seawall was 15 or so feet above the surf at the Gulf of Mexico.  A lot of the fill material came from Offatts Bayou, which is why it is so deep now.            We rode down the seawall until we reached the San Luis Hotel, where we stopped and had a cold drink.  They have a pool in a raised section overlooking the Gulf, and it's a pretty spot to look out and relax.  We worked our way back to the marina by going through town, rather than backtrack on the seawall.  Eventually we came up The Strand, which is the center of the restoration effort for old buildings in Galveston.  At the Discovery Store I found some unusual videos I liked, so I was able to add to our collection.                At 5pm we ran the dinghy for a while, and then we rested for about an hour.  By 7:30pm we were showered and changed for dinner.  We walked right next door to Fisherman's Wharf, waited for a table, and had a good seafood meal.  I believe it's sometimes possible to tie up a boat while dining there, but not to stay overnight.      On Sunday we ate breakfast aboard NORDIC with Marc and Cindy.  Once again we got our bikes off the boat and rode to the seawall.  At noon we toured The Bishop's Palace, one of several old mansions available for tour in Galveston.  It was interesting and very pretty.  At 1:30 we had lunch at Willie G's, within sight of our boats at the marina.  We left the marina at 3:30 and arrived back at South Shore about 5:30.  By 7pm we were home taking a shower after a delightful cruise to Galveston. Cruise to The Landings, Galveston, TX, July 3 - 7, 1996      July 4 was a Thursday and a holiday, so I took vacation days on Wednesday and Friday.  We left South Shore about 9:30am, after Brian finished cleaning out the air conditioning water lines.  That has to be done periodically around here since algae can grow inside the pipes.  We arrived at The Landings around noon, got into a slip, and hooked up to the available 30-amp power.  The Landings is an apartment complex with occasional slips for transients, but never enough power and often not enough depth for some of the larger boats from Clear Lake.  We usually tied up bow first so we could launch our dinghy, but the larger boats tied up bow first at The Landings because there was so little water close to the shore.  Sailboats with deep drafts often anchored nearby in Offats Bayou and dinghied over to The Landings for activities and fellowship.  Jim and Gerda Witt were there on M/V SEA STAR, a 43' Hatteras cruiser.  Marc and Cindy came down on M/V NORDIC, a 43' Carver cockpit yacht.      A friend of mine, Robert, came by to visit.  He lived in Houston but his family had a house on Galveston Island at Jamaica Beach.  We found out how to get to his place by dinghy and agreed to come by over the weekend.  We ate sandwiches on the boat, lubed the moving parts on the dinghy lift, and swam in the swimming pool.  The Landings also had a party room the TMCA used several times a year for functions associated with the cruise to that area.      At 5pm we took a ride on our dinghy, and at 7pm we ate dinner on board the boat.  Then we visited with Tim and Sharon aboard their powerboat, ST. WAVES.  They had a nine-year-old girl with them named Carlie; she was a sweetheart.  Tim and Sharon were anchored in Offats Bayou; we took our dinghy out to see them.      On July 4 we slept late, ate, and visited, first with Jim and Roni on S/V RENAISSANCE and then with Marc and Cindy.  We went by dinghy to Moody Gardens and signed up for an annual pass ($40 each) to attend their functions, such as the IMAX movies, rides on the COLONEL paddlewheeler, and tours of the Rain Forest pyramid.  Nine of us attended the 2pm IMAX, which was titled "Across the Sea of Time".  I think I liked it better than any other IMAX I've seen, and I'm a big fan of IMAX movies. At 4pm we took a ride on the COLONEL, which was very nice.  Then we returned to the boat via dinghy and ate cheese and crackers with Jim and Roni.             At 6:30 or so eight of us rode in Jim Witt's truck to a restaurant in Galveston, Guido's, for dinner.  Jim was retired and used to bring a vehicle down the night before a cruise so we would have some transportation, which was very nice of him.  After a good meal, about 9pm, we walked outside to the seawall.  The fireworks show that is traditional for July 4 was being performed from a barge out in the Gulf, and we had a good place to view it.  We were back to the boat by 10:45pm.      Friday was a lazy day of sleeping late, swimming, and riding in the dinghy.  At 3pm we rode the dinghy out to Jamaica Beach and visited with Robert and his family.  Marc and Cindy rode out there with us, and it was a little windy and rough at times.  "West Bay" is shallow and full of oyster beds, so boating there is limited to "local knowledge" and shallow draft boats.  There was a poorly marked channel heading due west from Offats Bayou, but it was not adequate for newcomers.  By 6pm we were back at the boat, taking a shower and getting ready for the evening.      We went over to Jim and Gerda's boat for Happy Hour at 7pm.  By 8:30 we were all cooking out on the grassy lawn of The Landings.  They had a picnic table and charcoal grill we could use, plus some people brought their own grills.  Tim and Sharon and Carlie came in and joined us.      On Saturday we left The Landings on our bikes about 11:30am.  We made our way to 33rd Street and saw some friends.  Then we went to the seawall and rode to a Wendy's, where we ate lunch.  Then we went to the Moody Mansion, another of the old Galveston mansions available for tour. It was probably over 100 years old, as was the Bishop's Palace.  We enjoyed our tour and returned to The Landings about 5pm for a swim.      At 6pm we showered and changed for the theatre.  Our friends, Judy and Richard, came down from Houston to attend the outdoor theatre, and they invited us to go along with them.  It was very nice.  Angela and I have been surprised that the heat and humidity wouldn't ruin such a venue, but the times we have been there it has always been cool enough due to an offshore breeze.  The play was "South Pacific", and we enjoyed our outing with them.      Our last day was Sunday, July 7.  We had a lazy beginning and left The Landings at 12:30pm.  We bought fuel at Lakewood Yacht Club about 3pm, and were back at South Shore at 4pm.  Then we ate lunch and packed up to go home.  We had generator problems and a couple of leaks to repair, but no great big problems, thank goodness. TMCA Trinity River Cruise, July 27 - 28      We loaded the boat on Friday night, July 26, and spent the night on board.  On Saturday at 9am we were to meet our Cruise Leader, Don Thomson, at Marker 2 in the Clear Creek Channel.  We were up at 6:30am and filled up with fuel at South Shore by 8:30.      Don had a friend, John Cheeseman, who was a guide on the Trinity River, which entered Galveston Bay in the northeast corner of the bay.  The entrance was well marked with buoys, but often there was a bar there which could cause grounding of deeper draft boats.  Don and the guide had worked out the tide and the approach, and he had checked the river conditions before we arrived.  We followed the crowd, which included M/V GRANOLA II, as shown in the photo.  We made it up to the town of Anahuac without any problems.  At the little harbor there we had lunch and a short rest.  We looked for alligators, for they do live in that river.  We saw at least one, probably more than that; but they are tricky to see.      Then we pushed on upstream.  S/V SUNK FUNDS had a close call going under a 60+ foot clearance power line, but just made it without touching their mast.  We crossed under the high I-10 freeway bridge and went a few miles further.  Then we chose spots on the left bank (RDB) of the river to nose in and tie up to trees.  Our custom was to tie one line straight ahead from the bow.  Then we also tied one line on each side to the aft sides of the boat and trees off to the side to counteract any current or waves from other boats.  There were no other boats of any size; there were only occasionally boats with fishermen or hunters on board.  The occasional house (camp) we saw had no electricity or telephone line running to it.  This was out in the woods.      John had a former Coast Guard fire and rescue boat with shallow draft, and he took a group into the Sulphur Cut, the site of a former sulphur mine.  There were two world-class cypress swamps in the area.  The two canals leading to the cypress swamps began on the Sulphur Cut.            We dropped the dinghy and followed John's boat.  We wanted to explore and see the cypress swamps.  They were spectacular, with very shallow water.  The photos show one of the entrance channels; the other was much smaller.  I doubt John's boat could have made it down there.           We went back to the boat turned our dinghy over to Jim and Gerda for a ride.  Then we grilled some tuna.  Then we had coffee and visited with Jim and Gerda aboard M/V SEA STAR, and Russ and Pat from M/V POWER PLAY, and their crew, Russ and Sherry from S/V REHAB.      On Sunday, July 28, we were up and having breakfast at 8am.  Jim Witt and I took our dinghy for a ride up the Trinity River.  We came across a creek on the right descending bank, and I decided to explore it.  I had an idea the creek crossed the river in a couple of places, so that we could travel a length of it without turning around.  We immediately went into an area that was heavily treed, with a width across the stream of only 15 feet or so.  It was shallow, too; but the jet boat only needed 11 inches of water.  Since we had no prop, I wasn't worried about shear pins, prop damage, etc.  In fact, on more than one occasion, we came to a spot in the creek where there was a small tree fully across the waterway.  I found I could "goose it" and the boat would leap across the log or tree, rubbing the bottom but causing us no damage or problems.      We did come back into the river, after a ride that was wild and interesting.  We were almost always in the shade.  There were some pipeline crossings in there, but otherwise it was swamp and forest untouched by mankind.      Around 11am we began our return down the river.  It was uneventful, for which I was grateful.  I have been on that river and seen a television set, and another time a refrigerator, floating down the river.  The lower first mile or two of the river are lined with large logs from trees that floated downstream on the current.  The river starts above Dallas, and in this area is a swampy river mouth with many channels, most of them shallow except during flood stage.      We bought fuel at Lakewood about 3pm and returned to South Shore about an hour later.  It was a nice weekend and an interesting boating experience. TMCA Gatorfest Cruise, September 14 - 15, 1996      Don and Ann Thomson on M/V ANNTICIPATION led the 20 or so TMCA boats up the Trinity River to an anchorage for the annual Gatorfest celebration.  Don said Anahuac,       Texas was declared the Alligator Capital of Texas by the State Legislature because the alligators outnumbered the humans almost 3 to 1.  During the event hunters can kill, by only very select means, and bring in alligators, which are then judged for size, weight, etc.  Some of the food stands sold cooked alligator, too.          That was an unusual cruise since it involved putting out two anchors, fore and aft, in a river channel.  All the barge traffic had been stopped for the weekend, but the current and tides were considerations we were not accustomed to.  We studied up on how to place the two anchors, and we did all right.  Most of us had a spare anchor; we just needed to know the technique for placing the two in the river to keep us parallel to the bank.        We had engine problems, which slowed our departure from Clear Lake; but we were anchored by 1pm.  The weather was nice, but hot!  We used our dinghy to visit the festival and eat lunch there, and then we took a short trip up and down the Trinity River.  At sunset the mosquitoes came out and we went inside.  Jim and Roni from S/V RENAISSANCE, anchored right next to us, came over for a short visit.  They had no generator, so we were feeling for them in the heat and mosquitoes.      Other boats on the cruise that we usually spent some time with were M/V's NORDIC, SEA STAR, and POWER PLAY and S/V GREAT KETCH.      At 10am the next day we had pulled up our anchors, and only one of them was bent - the spare.  We headed back down the river, watching for alligators and logs.  The ride home was uncomfortable due to high (35 knots) S winds and choppy bay waters.  We were in our slip at South Shore by 2pm, and we had lunch at the nearby Mexican food restaurant at 3pm.  We visited with Frank and Sue Clements from M/V DOS AMIGOS at our dock at South Shore Harbour.