Slightly over three years since we arrived in Galveston, we closed on our sale of the Royal Crescent.  We decided a little over a month ago to buy a trawler.  I want to scuba dive. Diving off the Texas coast is a long trip and in a sailboat it is a very long trip.  So, we decided to sell Royal Crescent, buy a trawler, and continue our adventures. 

These pictures show us leaving Freeport, Texas (at the top) last weekend on our way home from TMCA's Spring Fling and then at dock once we arrived back in Kemah.  We stumbled on a really nice Grand Banks Trawler, Escapa, about a month ago and were eager to sell the Royal Crescent.  We priced it right and in about three weeks it sold.  We learned of the offer when we left Galveston headed to Freeport.  We offered to turn back and dock the boat and ditch the Spring Fling but our broker told us to keep on going and we are really glad we did.  We met a great group of people and learned that TMCA is really fun and we hope to join many of the future cruises. 

We will miss the Royal Crescent but are looking forward to new adventures.  I may start a blog for our trips on Escapa and, if I do, I will post a link here for everyone to follow.

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.