Mobile to Port Aransas

Planned route

Sauvy B had been in Mobile for 7 weeks, waiting for the spring winds to lay down.  We planned to run offshore in the Gulf of Mexico to Port Aransas, as this route is much faster than going via the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.  There would be no place to anchor or tie up, so we would need to run 24 hours per day, 4 hours per shift.  Our best (most optimistic) estimate was for the trip to take about 65 hours.  We recruited a crew of 3 to accompany the two of us; Boka would not be on-board.

Bob, Reagan, Bill

Friday, June 17, 2011

Our crew departed from Corpus Christi, flying to Mobile the day of departure.  Bob, Bill and Reagan are all good friends and experienced offshore boat owners and we were very fortunate to have them aboard.  Many thanks to Reagan for serving as our trip photographer.

Sunset over Mobile Bay

We timed our departure to be offshore before dark and to transit major shipping lanes in daylight hours.  Unfortunately, we left Dog River about 1 1/2 hours behind schedule.  At least we enjoyed the sunset in the calm waters of Mobile Bay!




Our calm was soon interrupted near the farewell buoy as we left Mobile Bay.  We suddenly encountered extreme turbulence, possibly due to standing waves.  In addition, numerous shrimp boats were dragging their nets crisscrossing the channel.  We scrambled to dodge the shrimpers, pass through the turbulence, miss the channel markers and stay on course.  Of course it was pitch black dark by this time.  We learned the hard way which drawers and doors on Sauvy B were not properly latched.  Refrigerator contents sailed out the door and landed upside down all over the floor.  Drawers were slamming open - shut - open - shut.  Yikes!  We were very close to turning around when the seas slowly began to calm.  Only then did we realize the A/C was no longer cooling.  The rough seas discouraged Captain Robert from assessing the problem so, as the seas calmed, we opened windows and those off duty spent a long night trying to get some sleep.


Saturday, June 18
 
The next morning, Robert and Bob finally diagnosed the A/C problem and jury rigged a solution so we would have cool air, hopefully for the remainder of the trip.  The day was gorgeous, sunny with 1' - 2' seas.  Unfortunately we were making less than 7 knots, rather than our projected 9+ knots.  We appeared to be bucking a strong current, likely from the Mississippi River outflow, that had been with us since we left Mobile Bay.  We are now even further behind schedule with increasing wind and seas predicted once we turn south near the Texas border.

Reeling in the big one

Releasing a Jack Crevalle

Not to worry!  Fishing lines went into the water to troll for "the big one".  Soon one of the reels was singing with line being stripped off.  The reel was almost empty of line when Bob got it under control and started slowly reeling in the catch.  It takes some time to reel in several hundred yards of line, so we had lots of time to speculate about the fish species we would have for dinner. The consensus was it would be a big tuna. Yum! Finally the fish was at the surface - a Jack Crevalle!  Not good to eat, so it was released.


Sunday, June 19

Today the seas were a little rougher, maybe 2' - 4', but our stabilizers helped smooth the ride considerably.  We passed through lots of "weed lines", large patches of seaweed concentrated by currents, which made fishing impossible.  It would be too easy to keep snagging the seaweed with the fish hooks, rather than catching fish.  So we enjoyed some music and slowly picked up speed to our normal 9 knots.


Monday, June 20

By midnight, we passed offshore of the Louisiana - Texas border.  The seas were building steadily. When we passed offshore Galveston about 3 am, we also turned more southeast and began taking the seas almost exactly broadside.  We passed row after row of anchored ships interspersed with oil platforms, all lighted, radiating in spokes from the Galveston jetties.  An awesome sight!  As the hours wore on, the seas built to 8' - 10' and we had to slow our pace.  Sauvy B was handling the waves with much more grace than her crew!  We finally turned toward Freeport to go inshore at their jetties.  After several hours of rough seas, we finally sighted land!  We pulled into Bridge Harbor Marina, just inside the jetties, at 11 am.

Land ho!

Our crew departed at Freeport with work commitments, since we were already overdue for our scheduled arrival time in Port Aransas.  We were still almost 150 miles from home.  After a quick lunch with the crew, we said our farewells and headed south in the Intracoastal Waterway.  After an uneventful afternoon, we pulled into Matagorda Harbor Marina about 5:30 pm.  We were delighted to be on a new, secure floating dock in quiet surroundings.  We could shut down the engines and generator for the first time in three days!


 Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Home at last

 
One more day on the Intracoastal and we finally arrived home at 7 pm.  What an adventure!