M/V ILLUSIONS                             EARLIER CRUISES            



1995 Labor Day Cruise Logs
Houston to Galveston, TX and Return
September 1 - 4, 1995

      My oldest daughter, Darby, was born on September 1, 1970; so it was her 25th birthday.  Angela and I took the boat to Galveston on Friday afternoon so we could meet the kids there and celebrate Darby's birthday.  We fueled up and ran about three hours to an anchorage in Offatts Bayou.  We cooked onboard and ran the generator and the air conditioning.  It was hot in Houston, as usual, that time of year.

     On Saturday, September 2, we were up and about at 8am.  We ate breakfast and lowered the dinghy to the water.  We went to Moody Gardens in the dinghy to buy IMAX tickets for the family.  Chuck and Daniel arrived about 11:30am.  Darby, Carrie, and Tricia arrived about noon.  They parked at a little public park on 61st Street and called us on the telephone.  We ran the jet boat over to pick them up at the little dock there. Then we ferried them back to the boat.

Inland Cruising - Chuck, Daniel, and Darby, Offatts Bayou  Inland Cruising - Daniel on the jet boat, Offatts Bayou  Inland Cruising - The birthday girl: Darby at 25  

     We turned the jet boat over to the kids and fixed lunch.  About 2pm we ate lunch and dinghied over to Moody Gardens.  The IMAX ran from 3 - 4pm.  The title of that one was "Wings of Courage".  At 4:30 we ferried Chuck and Daniel over to their car.  Darby and her friends left at 5:45pm.  The kids enjoyed driving the jet boat around Offatts Bayou.  Darby had a good birthday, and we enjoyed the family outing together.

Inland Cruising - Darby, Carrie, and Patricia in the jet boat  Inland Cruising - Darby terrorized the bayou, Galveston, Texas   

     We stopped over at S/V EMERALD LADY for the TMCA cocktail party at 6, and we visited M/V NORDIC at 7pm.  In addition to Marc and Cindy from NORDIC, we had dinner at Moody Gardens with Tim and Sharon, Dick and Nancy, Bob and Linda, Keith, and Bard and Sherrie. All of those boaters had been rafted up together all day.  It had been 101 degrees F in Houston and 98 in Galveston.  They had all been swimming to beat the heat.  I remember it was the first time I had ever seen "Noodles", which were long cylinders of foam that would help you float in the water.

Inland Cruising - Moody Gardens, on Offatts Bayou, Galveston, Texas

     On Sunday, September 3, we had a lazy, hot day.  We ate three meals on our boat.  In between meals, we swam and rode around in the jet boat.  We bought gas for the jet boat twice that day.  We visited other boats, and we swam with the folks on the rafted-up boats.Inland Cruising - The COLONEL and the docks at Moody Gardens are in the background


Inland Cruising - Angela standing next to one of the lifts for the jet boat
     Monday was Labor Day, a holiday for us.  We ate breakfast and lunch on board.  We swam and ran the jet boat and filled it up with gas.  We left the Offatts Bayou anchorage about 1:30pm.  By 4:30pm we were in our slip at South Shore Harbour Marina.  After a shower and a change of clothes, we loaded the van and headed home.