Launch Day October 1st 2006

Well after 7 months of fixing stuff, I finally got to sail my boat.

My friend Wes and I left the shop(also known as my home) at 5 o'clock Sunday morning in the hope of avoiding as much of the notorious Houston traffic as possible.

Can anyone tell me what the hell so many people have to do at 5 o'clock on a Sunday morning. I was surprized by the amount of traffic.

The boat and trailer are a real load for my old truck and although they towed very well I can say without reservation I knew that I was towing something big.

Oh, I must also say, One should never change a well known route for an unknown one once you have started. While there was no disaster, I hate being even a little lost. I tried to take a "short cut" and while it was a "shortcut" I was not sure where the hell I was for about half an hour. Not something you want to be doing while hauling about 6000lbs of boat and trailer with an under sized truck. Oh and it was foggy, and dark but my finally honed sense of direction prevailed and we got to Hillmans boat yard by 6am.

Ya right, blind luck's more like it.


I also finally decided on her name.

With a split of mid priced champagne in the ice, we were ready to rig her up.

Everything went as it was supposed to and by about 10:30 the lift guys were chomping at the bit to get her wet.

That and the fact we had parked in front of the next boat on the lift list.

She really looked tiny and fragile when in the clutches of the travel lift.

She weighs in at a piddly 4750lbs and this monster will lift 50tons or more. The guys running the show were gentle and careful with both her and me.

About half way to the ways the guy on the lift stops, gets off and brings me the contract and as he called it "the money pen". Fine time to ask me if I had the money and "How long is this boat anyway".

Once the paper work was done and the cash($100)changed hands, with her dangling over the water I opened the champagne and, with a splash for her, a splash for Neptune and a splash for us she was christened "Turtle".

Why "Turtle" you may ask(or not). Well, she's old, well travelled, tough, and, how shall I say this kindly........less than speedy. She reminds me of an old leather neck turtle, hence the name.

I checked the bilge and all the thru hulls for leaks and, finding none, fired up the engine. It, amazingly, started within seconds and showed water was flowing through the exhaust and not all over the inside of the boat.

We were sailors again!!

With the launch a success, Wes and I proceeded to do the pick up truck version of leap frog. Once we had the trucks squared away we headed out the bayou to the bay.

Dickinson Bayou is very shallow even for my 3'3" daught so we stayed in the channel, helped no end by my new Raytheon BiData depth and knot meter.

We rolled out the new 140% genoa and shut off the motor.

It was wonderful!

I had never sailed this boat before today. I had no real idea, beyond what I had read, about her sailing abilities. As I mentioned, she is no speedster, but with the big roller furler genny alone we hit hull speed(5.5kts) in about 10knts of wind. I was very happy to say the least.

Thank you Ed at C&C sails here in Houston. The new sails fit perfectly and look beautiful as well.

We were now on the trek to the new marina. We basically just followed the Houston ship channel north.

The ship channel is one of the busiest pieces of water in the country and today was no different. By sailing on the wrong side of the markers, actually outside the channel we were able to stay in about 12ft of water and not have the fear of being folded, spindled or mutilated by any of the 20 or so huge ships that passed us in our 7 hour trip up the bay.

Yup, I said 7 hrs, to cover 30 miles, give or take a bit.

The wind died out until we were forced to resort to the motor if we were going to make it to the slip before dark. I really didn't want to be anywhere near the ship channel after dark.

In the last couple of miles we were visited by porposes. Why they would be so far up the channel I'm not sure but maybe they were attracted by the dredging opperation going on near the marina. They showed themselves as close to the boat as I've ever had them. Within 5ft of the side of the boat several times. Of course I tried unsuccessfully tried to get pictures of them. I managed to get about a dozen pictures of brown water with almost a reconizable shadow in some of them. I did get one with just the tiniest bit of a fin showing.

No, really I did, honest.

Ok so now for the disaster part of the trip.

The motor chugged along quite nicely but as it got warmer the oil pressure gauge showed less and less pressure. I was getting really concerned when it got to only about 10lbs just before we got to the slip.

As I was putting the boat in the(wrong)slip I stalled the motor when I tried to put it into reverse to slow us down. You guessed it we hit the end of the slip.

HARD!

Well not THAT hard but hard enough to scare the hell out of me and several mullet having a nap under the pier. The bob stay took most of the hit and sprung several strands of wire meaning a replacement.

Hell it's almost 30yrs old and probably needed replacing anyway. I just wish I hadn't done it in front of all those people sitting up at the marina bar.

Damn I hate being entertainment.

It could have been very much worse.

I could have known some of those spectators.

I replaced the stay this morning courtesy of the nice fellow at Stix and Rigging in Kemah. He made it while I waited and it's back on the boat. I'm looking forward to the weekend. With any luck I will get in some sailing.

Until next time........