Lake Charles to Galveston

April 24, 2009
The alarm went off at 4:30. We got up, got dressed, untied the boat and headed out. It was very dark and a barge was passing. We fall in behind the barge for a while and then pass it down river a ways. There isn’t much traffic but we do have to move over to let a large ship pass. We made the bridge at 6:30, got through and headed to Galveston. We are going to try to make 100 miles today.
The depth finder wants to work today. That is good.
The winds pick up. At one point, they got as high as 30 miles per hour. We have a series of small lakes, including Sabine Lake, to pass. The winds are a lot of trouble and the seas splash over the nose. A hatch was closed but not latched. Our bed got wet.
When we approach Pt. Arthur, I start looking for fuel. A tug directs me over to "Beans" or "Deans" marine fuel and we head over. They won’t sell us fuel because they are only equipped to fuel large boats. They direct us to Talons twelve miles up.
We head through Pt. Arthur but cannot find Talons. Finally, someone directs us in and we radio Talons who gives me specific directions which I follow and we pull up to their fuel barge.
Their fuel nozzle won’t fit. We have a problem. Through a lot of work we get fifteen gallons of fuel and I’m happy. We head on but realize we won’t make it to Galveston. We learn of the Stingaree Marina in Crystal Beach. Call them. They have a place we can dock on a finger pier.
The winds pick up again and clock into the 30s. This is not easy. Finally, we reach Stingarees about 7:00. I pull in, the wind catches the bow, the boat hits a piling, crunch, the rubber from the rub rail squeezes out. That’s the only problem though and we get safely tied up. We are in very shallow water but we have no choice but to stay. There are rain storms in Galveston with lightening. We cannot go there and we cannot go to Kemah because it is too late and the storms are headed there.
We are securely tied. The tide goes out and our boat settles firmly on the bottom. The tide will be up in the morning so we will be fine to leave.
We are almost home
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.