M/V ILLUSIONS                             EARLIER CRUISES            



1993 MEMORIAL DAY CRUISE
Houston to Corpus Christi, Texas Cruise
May 30 - June 6, 1993

Clear Lake (Houston) to Freeport, TX, Sunday, May 30, 1993

     We signed up for the Sea Rayder jet boat at the Houston Boat Show in January.  That put us on a list to receive one as they came into town.  We tried one out for the first time on April 16.  We accepted it and started taking it up all the creeks wpe2.jpg (19011 bytes) and bayous in the area.  Soon after that I heard about a dinghy lift that could be attached to the transom of our 38' Carver.  I ordered a unit and had it installed.  By the last week of May, the installation was complete.

     The day after the mechanic said it was wpe4.jpg (16888 bytes) ready we filled up everything with fuel and headed towards Corpus Christi.  Fuel at South Shore Harbour was $1.37 per gallon for gasoline then.  The first part of the trip we did offshore, from Galveston to Freeport.  We arrived at Bridge Harbor Marina about 5pm.

     Gasoline was $1.349 per gallon there, and our slip cost $30.71 (about $0.80 per foot).  We put the jet boat in the water, ran across the ICW and found a place to tie it up, and walked to the Red Snapper for dinner, which cost about $30.

Freeport to Port O'Connor, TX, Monday, May 31, 1993

     Monday was Memorial Day, and we arrived in Port O'Connor around 5pm.  We filled up with gasoline at The Fishing Center for $1.39 per gallon.  Our slip at St. Christopher's Haven Marina cost us $10, including power and water; and we borrowed a stove-plug type adapter from Cotton Harris to hook up the electricity.wpe6.jpg (19882 bytes)

     Josie's (Mexican restaurant) would come pick you up for dinner at the time, so that's where we went.  Our meal was about $30.  Angela and I both smoked then, and we were both skinny, at least compared to wpe8.jpg (21406 bytes) after stopping smoking.


Port O'Connor to Fulton, TX, Tuesday, June 1, 1993

     We arrived at the Sandollar Marina about 3:30pm.  Dockage was $5.  Gasoline was $1.20 per gallon.  The marina wasn't the finest, but it was a different place to stay and a new experience.

     We ran the jet boat over to Key Allegro and rode around looking at the fancy homes there.  Part of the water inside the Key Allegro subdivision was extremely shallow, with grass growing right below the surface.  We were trying to get to the Texas Maritime Museum from the north, or Key Allegro side, of the peninsula where it was located, instead of going out of the subdivision and coming around the point and into Rockport harbor.  Being unfamiliar with those waters, we managed to get some grass caught in the water intake on a couple of occasions.  We learned how to get the grass out without always having to dive under the boat.

     We wondered why the State maritime museum was in Rockport, which was a fairly small town.  Texas has quite a stake in the maritime industry, and I would have thought a maritime museum for the state would be a big thing.

Fulton to Corpus Christi and Rockport, TX, Wednesday, June 2, 2002

     We left the Fulton area and past Rockport and out the Lydia Ann Channel (alternate to the ICW) to Port Aransas.  Then we went west in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel to the T-heads at Corpus.  We tried to get a slip there, but they didn't have the power we wanted, or they didn't have a slip at all, I'm not wpeA.jpg (21004 bytes) sure which.  Anyway, we left there and returned to Rockport to see that museum.  That return was on the regular ICW, through the town of Aransas Pass.  We got a slip for the night at Key Allegro Marina.

     The slip for the night was $25.  We did not use the Sea Rayder at all on that day.  It was windy on Corpus Christi Bay.

Lay Day in Rockport, TX, Thursday, June 3, 2002

     We took the jet boat out of Key Allegro and into Rockport harbor.  They did not have any slips in Rockport large enough for our boat, and 220volt power was unavailable.  We looked for a place to tie up the dinghy, and a man who was fishing there offered to watch our boat for us.  He also offered us the use of his car, which touched us.
 
     We walked to the museum and spent some time there.  There was a video tape there about the construction of the ICW.  I was thrilled to find it, but they did not have wpeF.jpg (15870 bytes) a copy to sell.  It was not ever available to sell.  I was very disappointed at that.  But we looked at all they had to offer otherwise.  It was not a large place.

     We went to the big HEB store that was right near the harbor.  We were hungry, so we ate at the lunch counter at HEB.  Then we bought groceries and carried them back to the boat.  The boat was fine, and we loaded our purchases and headed back out into the bay.  It was windy almost every afternoon, and that day was no exception.  We had to go very slowly to avoid slopping water over the bow and into the boat and our bags of groceries.  There was no protected area in the jet boat for the groceries.

     After unloading the groceries, we rode around Key Allegro.  It was a canal community, where each home had a boat dock and a canal on one line of its wpeC.jpg (14416 bytes) property.  The homes were pretty upscale, too; and many of them were plush.  It did seem that many were empty a good deal of the time; they were either second homes or their owners traveled a lot.  Some people we talked to were retired.  Fishing seemed to be a common activity for the community.

Rockport to Matagorda, TX, Friday, June 4, 1993

wpe11.jpg (13968 bytes)     We filled up with fuel at Key Allegro; the price was $1.30 per gallon.  We went east on the ICW and made Port O'Connor about 2:30pm.  We filled up there at $1.349 per gallon.  Then we pushed on to Matagorda Harbor.  We arrived there about 6:30pm, and there was no slip fee for the night.

     We dropped the jet boat and went back through the locks to the Colorado River.  We ran upstream for a while and then returned to the boat.  We ate aboard that night.

Matagorda to Offatts Bayou in Galveston, TX, Saturday, June 5, 1993

     We left Matagorda about 9:30am.  We were stopped once in Freeport by a team of tug boats pulling an wpe13.jpg (11154 bytes)enormous oil platform across the ICW and up into the port.  We pulled into Bridge Harbor to buy gasoline; it was about 1pm.  Bridge Harbor had the same price on fuel as before.  wpe15.jpg (10823 bytes)We arrived in Offatts Bayou at 5:30 and anchored out.  Our friend, Bill Brick, picked us up and we went out with him for dinner and visiting with some of his friends.  We ran the jet boat for sight seeing and to get to the shore and meet Bill.

Galveston to Clear Lake, TX, Sunday, June 6, 1993

     We left Offatts Bayou around 9:30am and arrived at South Shore Harbour Marina a couple of hours later.  We were moving from a slip on Pier 15 to a slip on Pier 2.  wpe1E.jpg (25647 bytes)The reason was we planned to use the jet boat from our slip, without taking the larger boat out.  Pier 2 was closer to the entrance to the marina, so we could get out to Clear Creek much faster from Pier 2.  Also, we planned to pull into the slip bow first to facilitate dropping the dinghy lift while in the slip.

     wpe20.jpg (22154 bytes)We got the boat set up in the new slip and set the lines to be able to tie it up the same every time we went out.  Then we began unloading the boat.  My son and daughter came over to the marina and ran the jet boat for about a half hour.  We loaded the van, put the jet boat up, and went home at the end of a very interesting cruise.  Estimated mileage was 500 statute miles.  We went through the Colorado Locks four times, twice on the big boat and twice on the jet boat..