Well unfortunately the davits we had did not workout the way we wanted, so
everything had to come down. No davits…no solar panels :(! The back of our
boat really wasn’t made to have davits, or at least not the way we want them. We
have not completely given up though, we still have the option of going completely custom if we can get some done within our budjet. We did get our new table top installed and it is gorgeous, came out exactly how we wanted. See Pics below!
I remembered I found this video of the Redfish round up last year (2009). There
are several shots of Menestheus, see if you can spot us!
Currently revamping and redesigning the blog. Stay tuned for the new Menestheus and Me …coming soon!
We headed out about noon on Friday out to Double Bayou and Channel Marker 17. It was pretty windy and not terribly sunny, but still a great day for a sail. Some other TMCA friends of ours (S/v Cambria) caught up to us and we both pretty much stayed together for the whole trip over.
Headed out in the Bay
We put the head sail up and motor sailed until the ship channel and then we had to navigate around a dredging barge and pipe that was set up at the North boaters cut, but it wasn’t too bad…just had to scoot around it. We like to motor sail when we are in a hurry to get somewhere and we never use our main sail because it is a horrible set up and really hard to use, but that will change once I finish making our Stack Pack, I hope.
In the Bay
Once through the ship channel we put the head sail back up and continued motor sailing. Once you got closer to Double Bayou channel there were a bunch of crab pots and little boat type buoys everywhere. We later found out that they are surveying out there, for what, I don’t know. We made it through the channel without a problem and docked up to Channel Marker 17 (the bar/restaurant) and Cambria rafted up next to us.
Cambria in the Bay
Once we were settled we came out on our boat and chat with Al and Kay (s/v Cambria) and watched the other TMCA’ers come in and down to dock at Beason Park Marina(The marina just down from Channel Marker 17). Several boats ran a ground coming in the channel which is almost expected coming in Double Bayou since the channel constantly changes, is not marked well and is tricky to navigate. There were plenty of fishing boats around to help everyone get off.
Later, another person we knew from Portofino marina, Doug R., came in and Cory had to help tow him with the dinghy since his batteries had died. He was grateful for the help and offered us drinks at the bar and dinner. We had to declined since we had bought some awesome filets at the meat market just to have for dinner that night and Cory was determined to have them. We cooked the filets on the grill and sat and ate on the back deck of the bar with Doug. We sat and hung out with Doug and another TMCA’er Tom. Then I wondered off and was talking with some locals in the bar, when I came out everyone was gone to their boats and Cory was in ours watching TV. I obviously had lost track of how long I had been in the bar chatting. We relaxed in the boat and went to bed at a somewhat decent time.
Saturday morning we woke up and all the TMCA’ers were at the bar decorating and setting things up for the fish fry. We hung out and chat with people on the deck and then a bunch said they wanted to go for a dinghy ride. We all gathered together and then ventured down the bayou in our dinghies.
TMCA boats docked at the marina
Gathering more dinghies
Tom and Debra..fellow Portofino crew
Some people we saw riding horses in the fields
We ate at about 3pm(I ate something else, don’t eat fish) and things continued on in the same way, everyone sitting around picnic tables having various weird and inappropriate conversations and drinking more and more. This went on for several hours till it started to thin out and a good amount of the group had gone back to their boats. We were hungry for dinner since we had lunch at such a weird time, so we went into the restaurant to have some dinner with some of our friends. The bar/restaurant was more crowded than they are used to so it took a while to get our food. We had our dinner and everyone kind of split up and went to their respective boats.
We were a little disappointed, since this was the first fish fry we had been able to go to and had been told it was a super kick ass party. It seemed very low key to us, but some of our friends that really like to party were not able to come this year. Don’t get me wrong we still had a fun time.
We left for home early in the morning and had an easy ride back, although it was quite windy and not very sunny.
All and all it was a fun and relaxing weekend and the first trip of the season! 🙂
This years boat parade was extra special because our good friends Troy and Deana (S/V Storyville) who have been gone cruising were in town and staying at Portofino to party with us. Also, our good friends Steve and Deb were here too.
We started the morning with the Portofino Harbour Yacht Club meeting and nomination of new officers for 2012. Cory is the Commodore and I am the secretary again this year. After the meeting we just waited for our friends to arrive. Once everyone got to the marina we hangout and caught up telling our various stories until it was time to go to the party.
We went up to the clubhouse and Troy and Deana got to see a lot of TMCA people that they haven’t seen in a long time and others that they had not met, but have been following their blog. They kinda felt like celebrities.
We all watched the parade of lighted boats go by and went back up to the clubhouse to sit in the couches and continue chatting and catching up. Steve and Deb stayed the night on our boat and Deana and Troy stayed on our friends Alan and Donna’s boat (S/V Sunshine), who were not down for the weekend. In the morning we all went to Las Brisas for Buffet breakfast and our friends Rhonda and Phil (S/V Slowride) came with us, too. After breakfast we all went our separate ways. Deana and Troy went back to the other side of town to see family and Steve and Deb went back to Austin. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and are planning on all getting together again to have a big get together blowout for New Years Eve. That post will be soon to come.
Well this Thanksgiving as with every year we had planned to go on the TMCA French Picnic cruise to Double Bayou. It is one of our most favorite cruises of the year. Unfortunately, this year it was cancelled right before we were about to leave the dock due to a norther that was supposed to come through. Cory and I were on our own, just the two of us for Thanksgiving. We actually ended up getting alot of things done on the boat in those few days, you know, all the little things like putting water in your batteries, that you never take the time to do. I pulled together a small Thanksgiving dinner in the clubhouse while we watched the Cowboys play ball.
Then we hungout with some new friends of ours Katie and Dean Calkins (s/v Our Way Too) and had desserts and watched The Pirates of the Caribbean. We ended up having a nice low key and fun Thanksgiving.
The actual French Picnic was still scheduled to go on at a members house in the area, so we went to that on Saturday. I made the same winning dish that I made the year before last and won again, second place this year. French Onion Tartlets..yum, yum! They actually had a dessert category this year and Cory said if I had brought my Cake Balls too, I would have won that also. We had a lot of fun and a very relaxing weekend, but we really missed being at Double Bayou and are looking forward to next year.
This posting is coming a little late since this event was November 11, 2011, but better late than never I guess. There really isn’t too much to say about this cruise. We went to double bayou and stayed at the marina there. We did see a pod of dolphins come right up to the boat on the way there and I actually was able to get a decent picture.
We got there and hung out and drank as usual and Saturday there was a Chili cookoff, which was lots of fun. I didn’t win, but I like my chili no matter what and there were lots of other delicious chili’s to try. We had a fun and pretty relaxing weekend.
We were originally supposed to leave Friday afternoon, but after that cold front came through Thursday night there was barely any water and it would have been hard to get into Double Bayou. We decided we would leave early Saturday morning as long as the water had come up.
Cory got up and checked the status of the water early and everything was ok, so we were on our way. We headed on our way with a bunch of our fellow TMCA’ers from Portofino coming shortly behind us. The weather was beautiful and just enough wind for us to put out the head sail and do a little motor sailing.
Captain Cory
Cory's daughter Abby
Ship coming through the Ship Channel
Sail up
This was Bo’s first time out and about in the boat and needless to say he was a bit freaked out. He will have to get used to it since he’ll be going cruising with us eventually.
Bo peaking
Bo freaked out in the bathroom
We made it through the channel at Double Bayou and down the Bayou to tie up without any issues. Everyone slowly came in behind us and we ended up with a really good group there.
All the boats tied up down the Bayou
Everyone settled in and then the cruise leaders, Rhonda and Phil (s/v Slowride) began to decorate for the shared dinner and contest that would be later.
The prize table for the costume contest
Old bones we found last year and decorations
More decorations
Even more decorations
The mosquitos were awful so we were very glad that Phil and Cory had brought mosquito foggers and kept fogging periodically while we were there.
The evening came and we all got together to have some drinks before dinner. Then it was time for everyone to get there dishes for dinner and get into their costumes. Rhonda appointed me, Cory, and Abby as the costume judges, and Abby had a lot of fun announcing all the winners and giving them their prizes.
Rhonda and Phil - Devil and Pirate
TMCA'ers in costume
John and Peggy - 1st Prize Winners Popeye and Olive Oil
Everyone had a fun night, hanging out, drinking and being silly. In the morning we were up for another shared meal, breakfast, and it was delicious. We hung out for a few hours after, then headed out back to Kemah. The bay was beautiful, but no wind so we had to motor the whole way. The weekend was a lot of fun ,but way too short.
John and Peggy's cute Tug
Slowride coming out the channel behind us
Boats trying to sail in the bay, but not getting very far
The PHYC (Portofino Harbour Yacht Club) had it’s second annual cardboard boat
race on August 7th, 2011. Cory’s daughter Abby actually got to participate this
year and she ended up winning the race for her category. Here is a short video
of her winning lap.
There was also a muti-man crew of two adults that made a boat and one of the
adults made an additional boat to race in alone. There was then a final lap with
all three boats in the water against each other. Here is the footage for the
rest of the runs.
Once the official race was over some of the members of the yacht club decided to
do a little dinghy paddle race.
I know I am way past due on this one. I have had a hard time getting my butt in
gear to write this post and now it is almost too late. I really don’t remember
much of the details of this weekend.
We went down to Moody Gardens with TMCA and stayed at the docks. Some good friends of ours Fern and Roz (S/V Alter Ego) got married right there on the landing by the docks, it was a lovely ceremony.
We had a very fun weekend just hanging out with friends as usual. Some other
good friends on our dock Phil and Rhonda (S/V Slowride) brought there little ski
boat and we had a blast riding around in that and Cory had fun getting pulled on
the tube (which I have some priceless photos of, that are to follow). The only
bummer was that after we took off to go home our engine wasn’t pumping, so we
had to call Tow Boat US to give us a tow all the way back home. Since we are
members it didn’t cost us, but it was still a bummer. Turns out whatever was
blocking the flow of water was dislodged by the time we got home from the tow.
So I guess that was good news that we didn’t have some major problem. Alls well,
that ends well and as always we had a great weekend.
We left the marina around 11:00am on Thursday, May 12th. Our friends and dock
mates Donna and Alan (s/v Sunshine) came to crew with us. We had decided to go
to Galveston for the night and then down the rest of the way to Freeport. We
really weren’t able to do any sailing so we just motored and hung out and talked
down to Galveston Yacht Basin, where we had a slip for the night. We got into
GYB and was put in a slip next to a derelict boat some guy was working on that
had a spreader broken off and hanging by some rigging swinging in the breeze. We
were able to hangout and relax just a little bit till we were forced down below
for a storm blowing through. It was supper windy and rainy for a bit, but not
too long. Thank god, because we could not stand hearing that spreader banging
against our neighbors mast for much longer.
Once everything stopped, we started to cook dinner. Cory had bought some really great fillets at the meat market and we put them on the grill with some fresh green beans and potatoes. It was a delicious dinner. We hung out for a while after dinner, but not too late because we were getting up early to go offshore the rest of the way to Freeport.
We woke up and were out of the slip at 7:30 am on Friday and on our
way to Freeport. The sailing offshore was beautiful, but the ride was a little
ruff. Nothing like Harvest Moon, though. I was a bit nauseous and so was Donna
so we both wore these shock watches they had for sea sickness. The watches
helped, but nobody could really go down below for any length of time without
feeling really sick. It made for a long trip plus the fact that we had to go far
offshore. We tried to do some fishing off the back of the boat, but all we were
catching was seaweed. By the time we made it into the City of Freeport Marina
it was Probably about 6pm.
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| Coming in to City of Freeport Marina |
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| Ready to dock at Freeport |
The whole marina was filled with boats for this TMCA event. There were
broker boats to look at on the docks and Marine Max boats in the parking lot.
There was a big stage set up with various bands playing at different times.
There was a big building with tables for vendors set up, it was just about
closing though and we didn’t get to see them that night. We went into the
building just as it was about to close to get some ice and the lady we were
supposed to get it from wasn’t there. Bob Bitchen from Latitudes and Attitudes
magazine walked by and asked who we were looking for and helped us get someone
to get us ice. The rest of the night we just walked around and kinda hung out in
our cockpit, we were all really tired. Long Day!
Saturday we all woke up and had a nice breakfast on the boat. We got cleaned up and headed out to check things out. I had paid for an ad in the program and I made a bunch of TRS Canvas Creation t-shirts, so we were all wearing my matching company t-shirts. We
wondered around and went in the building to check out what vendors were there
and what they had to sell. Cory bought some Peek-a-boo shades for our hatches
and bought a dinghy ladder from the Lats & Atts store. Cory also bought me a
t-shirt and I bought myself a beautiful bracelet (an early birthday present to
myself). He also bought some weird rubbery tape called Rescue tape…kinda cool
and useful on the boat. We also had our picture taken with Bob Bitchin.
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| Cory, Me, and Bob Bitchin |
Our friends Rick and Steph (m/v Phat Bottom Girl) were also there and they hung out with us on and off all day. We all went to the Lions Club Trailer to grab a burger or hotdog for lunch and some amazing cake the little old lady had made. The Coast guard did an in water resque demonstration in there helicopter right off the end of our dock. They then
landed back on the parking lot and opened everything up so everyone could climb in the helicopter and check things out. It was pretty cool to see soo up close.
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| Coast Guard Demonstration |
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| Coast Guard Demonstration |
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| Coast Guard Demonstration |
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| Parked after demonstration |
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| Opened for people to check out |
That evening we decided to go out to eat and we had the trolley service take us over to On The River Restaurant (like the only real restaurant in Freeport). Just about everyone’s food was awful and I was very disappointed. I had to use the restroom right before the trolley was supposed to come and when I came back outside everyone was gone, but i didn’t fall for it….they were hiding behind the building around the corner.
We got back to the marina and the Lats & Atts people were doing the raffle for
the prizes and calling out the winners. We didn’t buy any tickets so we weren’t
really interested in that, but then the party began. The main band was playing
and everyone was sitting, listening and hanging out or dancing.
We didn’t stay up too late because we had to leave early in the morning to head back
home.We woke up early and headed out back home down the ICW to the ship
channel. It was a pretty uneventful ride back other than the fact that there was
a continuous line of boats headed back towards Kemah and various other
places.
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| Old abandoned cruise ship alone the ICW |
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| House boat on land alone the ICW |
It was a great weekend and a great TMCA event. We are looking forward to next year which promises to be bigger and even better.
Menestheus and Me 