A year ago today, we were heading to Miami to pick up Royal Crescent. Today, we are going to Pagosa Springs, CO. Tomorrow is our 30th anniversary.

Royal Crescent is in Kemah waiting for the weather to warm. We thought about taking a sailing trip, sort of a sailing anniversary, but chose to go to Colorado instead.

A Sunset

Even More

More photos

Photos from the trip

Afterthoughts

April 26, 2009
I’m sitting here drinking my first cup of freshly brewed coffee in a month. We didn’t have a coffee maker on the boat so I started using a coffee press but it was too messy to deal with. I switched to instant coffee and occasionally we would pass a store or restaurant that sold coffee. I always bought it when I could. But, none of it tastes as good as making it myself and drinking it freshly brewed with Snickers, our dachshund, laying beside me.
We have been surprised at the number of people who followed our blog. If we didn’t post, we received emails asking where we were, what were we doing. It was not possible to post every day but I tried to write every day so the blogs would accurately reflect a summary of our day. But, there were many things we didn’t put in the blog such as how interesting Fish was and how we enjoyed talking to him or, how much fun we had talking to the little lady at Intracoastal City. We found that everyone we met were really, really nice. That made the trip fun.
There were many people who made this trip possible–our parents first and foremost. They gave us the support over the last twenty nine years that built the foundation that allowed us to do this. If my Dad were alive, he would be really excited that we completed this trip. My sister Pam took care of the family while I was gone, I owe her big time. Ed and Joan sold us the boat, Bill and Anna encouraged us to buy it. Bill was a tremendous help in getting the boat ready and he and Anna patiently stored all the stuff that had to be sent to Key Largo ahead of our return. Without them this trip would have been next to impossible. Kent guided us through our purchase. Mark helped us learn to sail it and helped us make the jump across from Tampa to Pensacola. Dan and Felicia, our first cruising friends. Our coworkers at the office kept the office together and running while we were gone. There were the hundreds of nice people we met along the way that gave us advice, helped us find things, took us to get fuel.
I also want to thank my stand-by crew who were ready, willing and able to come finish the trip with me. I called on them for about a week and a half to get ready then suddenly cancelled them when Linda decided to stay. I hope they understood that her staying to the end was important.
Most of all, I have to thank Linda. She was impressive. There were three high points on this entire adventure. The first was leaving Key Largo, just the two of us. We really had no idea what was ahead. The second was when Linda decided to finish this trip. We needed to share this experience, to see it to the end, together. We now have a taste of cruising, albeit fast paced, but still a taste. The third and most important was as we were coming through Galveston Bay. We were sailing, I was at the helm and Linda was sitting in the cockpit relaxing. She said, "I could do this again."
Royal Crescent.

Royal Crescent Comes Home

April 25, 2009
When morning arrived, we were ready. We were eager to be home. Backing off the dock was simple and easy. Down the intracoastal canal we went.
Galveston barge traffic was very heavy. The winds were up and the barges were stacked up along the banks of the waterway waiting for the winds to die before crossing the bay. A few straggling barges crossed towards us on Galveston Bay. One pair of boats had long sections of pipe tied between them.
The winds were perfect for sailing so once in the Bay, near the Houston Ship Channel, we raised the sails and sailed to Kemah. It was nice to be under sail for a while with no motor running.
As we approached Kemah, it appeared as if a hundred sailboats were in the bay. Some were in a regatta, others were just sailing. These were the most sailboats we had seen the entire trip. It was fun to see the Kemah bridge, the finish line for our trip. We have passed under that bridge hundreds of times in other boats and it symbolizes the beginning and end of a nice day’s sail, as it symbolizes the end of this trip.
We are going to keep the boat at Legend Point, an apartment complex with a marina. We used to have a Catalina 25 and when I brought it here from Lake Conroe, I first docked it at Legend Point. I guess bringing Royal Crescent here completes the circle. Anyway, we always liked Legend Point. It has large grassy areas that are well groomed and landscaped. There are many liveaboards here and they will watch our boat.
It took me a minute to find my way back to Legend Point. The chartplotter (gps) showed it to be in a different spot than it actually was so I initially headed the wrong way but I easily turned around and slowly made my way back to our slip. I pulled in like a pro, no bumps of the dock, no pirouettes, just easy-in docking. Richard, the harbormaster, helped us tie up. We were finally home.
We called Julie Warren to come pick us up and we began packing up the boat. Linda had cleaned it thoroughly on the trip through Galveston Bay and so all that was left was packing.
The suitcases, boxes and bags of dirty clothes filled the back end of my pickup and half of the back seat. We had so much stuff but most of it came with the boat and we had to move it off the boat and store it at home. We had to sign the lease for the dock space and properly tie the boat. Our power cords were not long enough so I had to walk to West Marine to buy extensions. We packed and cleaned and waited for Julie to arrive.
I drove home. It was different driving in the pickup as opposed to the boat, not having to deal with winds and waves and barges and broken depth finders. We didn’t have to radio cars in front of us about passing them nor did we have to ask those coming toward us if they wanted us to pass on the "one" (port to port) or the "two" (starboard to starboard). We didn’t have to worry about how far we could go before we ran out of dockage and we didn’t have to start searching for a marina with transient docks. But, we were no longer traveling at 7 miles per hour either, we were clearly back into the fast paced life. And, that was fine.
When we got home, there were yellow ribbons tied in our trees in the front yard and on the back patio. There was also a large "Congratulations" sign with a poster that said, "You Brought the Royal Crescent Home." Linda’s parents and my Mom put them up. It is the perfect welcome home.
Post again tomorrow
Royal Crescent.