We got this....

We finally loaded everything into the boat, checked the weather and headed out for a quick sail to Redfish Island where we planned to anchor for the night. We made decent enough time even though we were under canvassed. Our thought was that this first day was more about getting the kids comfortable on the boat, seeing how our anchor bridle worked for us and what we thought about the new lighting and fans than about trimming the sails spectacularly and clipping along at a nice speed.

Sunset at Redfish Island

Redfish Island is not actually an island at all as Maura discovered to her utter disappointment. Visions of frolicking on a lovely beach, splashing in the surf were quickly put away as we made our approach. (from the NW for those taking notes, the S end is very, very VERY shallow) "That's it?!?! Its just a bunch of dirt and rocks." she said as we entered the anchorage. Yes, its just a bunch of remnants from the channel dredging which makes a nice little sheltered are so that the huge commercial ships do not run over you at night. Not being run over at night is a really good thing. We put out plenty of scope which thanks to Mark's super specific anchor marking technique was easy to count (it hurt me to write that.), got the bridle and snubber on without much fuss even though it started to rain as we came in. The rain cleared and Kitty danced and sang on deck. we had a lovely unburned dinner and Maura declared that she loved this. This was even better than camping and she really loves camping. We settled in, watched the stars from the open hatch above our v berth and thought, yes this is good.

During the night we had 2 little blips to disturb our rest. The rains came, necessitating that we close up the hatches. Fortunately, due to the fact that our boat now has more Caframo fans than any other boat on the planet, we were able to maintain a somewhat reasonable amount of comfort. Point to Mark for that one. The other blip? While Kitty is the happiest kid on the planet while sailing or playing at anchor she will not sleep on the boat. AT ALL. After the 3rd time of Kitty calling for me, me going in and comforting her and trying to get her back to sleep, Maura opted to bunk on the settee and I moved in to the girls bunk to try to get Kitty to sleep. It worked for about 15 minutes at a stretch. It was a very long, long night.

And then the rains came. Good thing Maura loves to read.

The next morning we took our time getting breakfast, tidying the boat, more deck dancing until the rains came. Then it was time to hang out on the boat, coloring, reading, playing with Legos until the weather cleared. Once we had blue skies again, we hoisted the anchor and set sail for Galveston. We were on a beam reach and as we approached Galveston, the dolphins made their first appearance. Maura was at the helm as 2 big dolphins came within 3 feet of the boat to check us out. "MOM! MOM! LOOK!" Maura exclaimed. The smile on her face was absolutely magical. I still get excited by the appearance of dolphins and I love that the girls share my joy at the beauty of these creatures. We taught Kitty how to squeak at the dolphins and now every sighting means we get an excited stream of joyful exclamations punctuated by toddler dolphin squeaks.

Beauty is where you find it. Industrialized busy port not beautiful to you? Look up...

The area just as you come into Galveston is known as Bolivar roads. It would be better to be called Bolivar sphincter check. Bolivar roads is where the Houston ship channel crosses the ICW and oh, there are a few other various channels full of commercial ships following other channels here and there. You've got lots of really HUGE container ships, barges, pilot boats, fishing trawlers, a cruise ship or two, Coast Guard cutters and skiffs and ferries running to and fro, this way and that and one little sailboat with a squall approaching, sails up because Mark did not heed my warning that the rain was going to hit us and there were too many huge ships going in every which way to sail elegantly into Galveston. As I manned the helm trying to keep clear of impending doom, Mark and Maura finally struggled to get the sails down in the rain. Mark later admitted that he would never again ignore my request to drop the sails if I was feeling nervous. That I think is a very important lesson learned. Always defer to the Biggest Chicken Baby on board. Kitty sat with me in the cockpit shouting "LOOK! Pirate ship!" at every tanker that passed. Who knew my 2 year old was up on current Somali events?

We headed into the same anchorage by the Bolivar ferry we used last year. This year, there are work barges moored in a large portion of the anchorage. Seems they are reconstructing a jetty near the ferry landing. Fortunately, we were the only boat there so we had plenty of swing room.

At this point, Maura was ready for a bit of land adventuring so we inflated the dinghy and headed for shore. Since we are trying to wait until the last minute to buy our dinghy (one less thing to maintain until we are ready to use it) we used the small inflatable given to us by a friend. Imagine my surprise to see that the dinghy Mark intended to use was a 6 foot rubber Achilles which the previous owner had christened 'Stinky'. We were rowed ashore in 2 trips by Mark in a bright red inflatable with STINKY emblazoned upon it. We tied the dinghy up but didn't lock it because A: we were not at a dinghy dock, we were docked in a super secret not Kosher location that the security guard said so long as we went to dinner then right back, she would look the other way and B: who the hell is going to steal a little rubber rowing dinghy which is emblazoned with STINKY on it? A friendly power boat captain gave us a ride to the nearest restaurant ; Chili's where we ate an unremarkable dinner as you do at Chili's, then made the trek on foot back to the boat where we enjoyed a beautiful sunset, lots of rolling due to passing commercial traffic and another night where Kitty refused to sleep. Even still, it was a good night and everyone was in great spirits.

Early morning. Birds overhead as the rain clouds rolled in...

The next morning, absolute crap weather rolled in. Bad visibility and rain, rain and more rain. This was supposed to be our first time to take Ceol Mor out into the Gulf but I nixed that idea. I just don't feel the need to prove anything and while we absolutely could have handled what was out there (just a lot of rain and low clouds, no scary wind) it would have been less than fun. As it is, Mark will still be able to tell people his dream is to get out of Galveston for a while longer. We headed back to Kemah escorted by a tremendous amount of dolphin pods every where we looked. Maura and I got good experience helming the boat in busy shipping lanes and Mark learned to relax a bit when he is off watch. Very good things to have a bit of confidence in.

 We made it back to the marina and as we approached the slip, the rain stopped and the skies returned to blue. We might not have gotten the ocean experience we were hoping for, but we did learn a lot of useful things. We have a better idea of what we want on the boat, what changes we are glad we made and what is now at the top of the refit list (separate short post coming up on this).We gained confidence in anchoring. We got a bit better at trimming the sails. We learned a bit more about how to handle 4 distinct BIG personalities in a small space. The most important thing I learned? We can do this. We really can.

Playing Sit and Spin

While we are still toying with the deck layout (more on that later) Operation Make Ceol Mor A Home continues. We installed yet more task lighting into the cabinets. We are using good old fashioned, unflattering fluorescent lighting because what we require is a rugged fixture and abundant light when we are digging through a cabinet or locker. I'm sure Mark knows exactly what the amp draw is but since these lights will only ever be used momentarily and not for a constant light source it shouldn't matter that much. They are fluorescent- low amp draw in exchange for making your face look green. Everything is a trade off. The galley cabinet work lights are now installed and its just a matter of tidying up the wiring and replacing the teak cabinet facing.

We took the boat out for a little chug on Saturday. I like to joke that if something happened to Mark, I could absolutely sail the boat well enough on my own to get to my desired location. I just can't dock the thing and so would be forced to sail in circles in the harbor until docking help arrived. I'm working on it. We headed out to the bay- where there is a lot of room for screw ups to work on my docking technique.

We had a nice breeze going, enough so that everyone seemed to be out on the bay with all their canvas up enjoying the day. Not us. Under my command Ceol Mor was playing sit and spin. I'm getting used to pivoting on the keel so basically it looked like I was doing doughnuts in a parking lot. I am sure all the sailors zipping by thought "what is that idiot doing?". Never mind. It will not be the last time I look like an idiot to be sure. In the end, I got a good feel for pivoting and understanding prop walk and prop wash . I'm still not the greatest at backing the boat and can only do so for about 50 feet before I screw that up. Its ok, we've got time. Someday I hope to be able to back the boat into our slip as elegantly and smoothly as Mark. Scratch that. Someday I hope to be able to dock without my stomach in my throat from fear of hitting someone else's boat. Boat owners everywhere should sigh with relief at my unwillingness to dock until I am absolutely sure I'm not going to bash into someone else's boat.

I should probably mention that while I am an outstanding car driver- as in a really great, safe, tireless long distance driver, I am crap at parallel parking. I think perhaps I am just 'parking challenged' and everyone should offer me understanding. Everyone lauds Danica Patrick and Ellen MacArthur but have you even seen either one of them park? I rest my case. So long as I can dock without damaging anything we will consider it a win.

Our last name is not Huxtable

Waves or even chop pretending to be waves never look as impressive in photos.

I really enjoy reading sailing blogs, especially the blogs of sailing couples. Usually there are photos of idyllic anchorages, calm and peaceful passages and tales of perfect harmony. Sailing couples NEVER disagree or argue. It is amazing how you can have 2 people with strong personalities in a tiny space who never disagree at all. They are like The Huxtables from the Cosby show. While this is a sailing/refitting/family blog our last name is not Huxtable and we don't try for perfect harmony, we embrace our differences of opinions and try to disagree with panache and style and if we can make the other person laugh in the midst of an argument then we consider that a win.

After I made the very wise and prudent decision to not go out in such uncertain and hairy conditions with a toddler, a salon with every comfort item taken out for refitting, Mark began to push for us to go out anyway.  The radar was showing a few hours time before the storms hit, he didn't think it seemed  to be that windy, etc.. I stood my ground. It didn't seem that windy to him because he is from Scotland where the best weather days are grey, cold,drizzly and with 30 mph winds.  I'm from the subtropics where we get used to hot and still and if the wind picks up, its most likely a hurricane or a tropical storm. Mark continued to press his case and in exasperation, I ran through the possible and most likely scenarios and came up with 2 likely outcomes.

 Outcome 1 would be one in which Mark is correct and the conditions are not as bad as NOAA says they are (ha) and we go out for a spirited and lively sail. Everyone is happy and the boat performs perfectly. This would be a good outcome.

 Outcome 2 is where the winds are up, the newly installed engine harness fails, the baby is screaming, the saloon is stripped down so we can't send the girl below to amuse themselves until we get theboat sailing comfortably, docking in the waves and high tides proves stressful and everyone has a miserable time. This would be a GREAT outcome because I would then forever have a reference point to close discussion when ever we disagree on weather conditions. "Oh no Mister, remember the time we went out in the wind storm in Texas in April? We are not going anywhere. I listened to you before and it sucked." This would be a GREAT outcome so I told Mark "If you want to go out, you make the decision. You know my position on it".

We stowed all the tools on the boat, clipped the baby into the cockpit and began to get ready to head out. Mark told me to remove the sail cover to which I replied "you really think we are going to be able to sail in this?" Oh yes, Mark thought we would indeed be sailing albeit with the sails reefed down.  I'm not sure what his plans were for the kids but figures it was better to make sure they were safe and to go with it. As I began to carefully remove and fold the sail cover, I spoke out loud about what I want our new stack pack to look like- just to watch Mark's lip twitch. Mark thinks a stack pack will both be too expensive and create too much windage. I disagree because I am the one always wrestling with our old sail cover and I hate that thing with its cranky zippers and penchant for getting tangled. Another point is if he is getting new 50 winches by golly I can have a stack pack.

After getting the sail cover neatly folded away (no small feet on a blustery day), stowing all the winch and hatch covers and watching just how very high the water level in the marina was we set off. Good news- the engine wiring harness seems to be working perfectly. I smiled to myself as we rounded the corner of the fairway where our slip sits sheltered from the wind behind large buildings because I was greeted by the site of rollers coming in the channel. I commented to Mark how special it was to see actual surge in our usually glass flat channel. I also commented on the lack of other boats heading out...

Maura endured the indignity that is the orange sofa cushion PFD. Girlfriend has really shot up. Time for some PFD shopping.

As we entered the bay, we had a windex reading of  23 knots of wind, puncutuated by gusts of quite a bit more. We only had tiny waves of 2-4 feet but they were about 7 seconds apart and did I mention having waves of any size in the well protected, glass like bay is a bit unsual? The girls thought bashing through the waves was great fun. I smiled and said to Mark "we aren't hoisting the sails are we?". He smiled and replied that given that with me having my hands full with the toddler that he would be satisfied with a wee chug.

So we chugged out for a bit,  all alone on the water, bashing through the chop, then chugged back exactly as I knew in my heart would happen. We were able to discern that everything was working properly with the exception of our speedo which is dead-o. I was able to smile the satisfied, Chesire smile of the righteous. I was right. So would we go out again in such conditions? Yes but with the caveat of having the salon put back together enough for the girls to be able to be tucked safely out of the way while we deal with the sails etc. That was the single biggest reason for my lack of enthusiasm for a sail. Next time we are anticipating bigger than usual wind we will ensure the cabin is together enough for habitation and next time, I will make Mark refer to me as Claire.

Kitty's favorite thing to do is to hang on, grin at her Daddy and shout "ARRRGH!" I think she is actually trying to take over the helm.