Vacation in Galveston

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Who knew Galveston was a vacation destination?  All those years of living a 3 hr drive to Galveston and its now a 12+ hour airplane ride to where we would spend our first vacation from vacation.

Freezer burn and frigerator burn are the two biggest electrical draws we have on board – not counting the water maker as we only run that every few days.  The fridge and freezer burn the most electricity as they are always on.  Yeah, I know you’d think the internet was always on and sucking down bits and bytes – but that doesn’t compare to the electricity used to keep beer cold.  Yeah, I’m a prima donna.    

As we were going to be leaving for a few days, and even though the weather forecast looked light we needed to make a plan on where to leave our home while we traveled back to Texas even for a short weekend.  Seeing as we had pretty much depleted the frozen meats, those pork chops from Grenada had seen better days after almost 4 months in the freezer and going through 2 defrost cycles.  We were going to be leaving the boat on the hook, at anchor out in the bay and relying on solar to keep the electrical in balance and the hook to stay  stuck while we were away.   We had worked it out, to where there was basically only ice in the freezer and one last bit of shrimp which we had for dinner, the plan was to turn off the freezer while we were gone and thus remove one of the larger power suckers while we were away.

Our friends had agreed to keep an eye on the shack and also to give us a lift to land so that the dinghy wasn’t tied to dinghy dock for 4 days and nights.  That was so awesome, and then they also picked us up at the bar when we arrived as well.  Too cool.

The wind was forecast to be light but also shifting 180 degrees from the direction we anchored in.  We had found our normal spot, next to the beach, we set the hook and were comfortable, dove on the anchor it was set, but then thought about it.  Maybe we should anchor further out away from shore, get more swing room – we don’t need to hog the prime spot while we are not here, so we picked up the hook and moved further out.  Found a spot with lots of swing room, till someone anchored next to us later in the day – but they didn’t look like they were going to stay.  You can just sense these things sometimes.  Dove on the anchor it was buried in sand again.  Let out lots of scope and that’s where we would leave it.

Sugar Shack

Can you spot the shack in the middle of the pack?

Moved some of the last things in the freezer to the fridge after dinner and shut down the freezer.  5 am came pretty early, at 6 am our ride showed up, shuttled us to shore and we set off looking for a bus or taxi to the airport.  Was it too early, the roads were empty, we had an 8am departure, sure we could walk it and be there by 7am with the luggage.   Then a yellow school bus honked slowed and asked if we needed a lift to the airport. Christine and I looked at each other and said.. uh sure, okay.  We jumped on the school bus.  This guy knew his route and that school bus cornered like it was on rails – to borrow a line from Pretty Woman.  Honk Honk, what speed bump, wowzers how did we make that corner.  Was an E-ticket ride for sure, never came to a complete stop to pick up the passengers, and grinned when it was boys as he made it extra challenging for them – everyone seemed to enjoy the challenge too.

At the airport we got our tickets and settled in for a long day of travel to the north side of Houston, where we picked up a rental car and traveled across Houston in rush hour traffic,  After moving at 10miles and hour for 4 months – driving 80mph in Houston, in a strange vehicle was quite the experience.  2 hrs later after a stop at williams-sonoma for some cooking gear we finally made to Galveston and the vacation / celebration could commence.

La Semanna

Baie Longue, La Semanna – favorite stretch of beach on a good weather day.

Where should we go today?

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How about a vacation?   A vacation from permanent vacation?  Sounds like fun.

Hung in Grand Case for a couple of days longer, was running low on provisions, so we explored the long way to the super market.  Down the less traveled path that the tour bus had brought us on a month back or so.  Walked through the town, instead of down the main restaurant row.  Made our way to find some bacon and couple other sundries to hold us over till we left for vacation.

Back on board for a lazy day, beer supply was holding out fine.  Decided about time to head to Baie Longue, or La Semmana hotel and chili out there.   Decided to get up early and make a fishing day of it.  Dropped the lines in and motored over what looked to be good contour lines and I could have sworn I saw fishing boats out in that direction before.   No birds, no flying fish, nothing even tickled the lures.  I pulled em in to check on them, and there was some small sea week fouling the hooks – ugh.  That definitely does not help.  In the process I managed to do my finest macrame of the starboard fishing line.  Well at least that gave me something to do as we motored along toward La Semmana.  An hour of something to do that is.  Forgetting that I was in the sun, and neglecting the sunblock and hat, I got a little red but eventually got the line sorted out.  Only having to start over twice.

We got up to La Semmana and the waves were rolling in, wasn’t too comfortable and the WiFi wasn’t cooperating so decided to bail and head elsewhere for the day.  We had made plans with our boat buddies on Contrary Mary to meet at La Semmana, they actually raised sail and showed up right as we were getting set to bail.  We settled on Mullet Bay, maybe it was a bit more protected, nope – smaller bay, not much protection so Marigot was the call.  Back to almost where we came from.

On the way, they spotted Baie Rouge, a nice gem of a beach that is normally pummeled with waves and boats don’t often get to go there.  Given the conditions, there was one monohull up in there, and shortly 2 cats followed.  Perfect conditions for stopping there.  We got the explorer itch, as we hadn’t been there. Called on the VHF and got no takers on a beach walk, so we swam ashore, dragging money as there were 2 beach bars that looked like well deserved watering holes, Gus’s is where we stopped.   Didn’t take a camera / iPhone as it was a rather long swim and trusting a waterproof bag didn’t seem like a good move.  Swam a shore with mask/fins/snorkel/hat and sunglasses and the cash in a ziplock baggie.  Found a place to leave mask and fins while we wandered the beach.  Was a nice beach, a long hard walk as the sand was really soft.  Lots of nice houses on far end from the beach bars but we made the entire beach before turning around.  There was this large pelican sitting on a rock that would have made a great picture as the sun was behind him.  Oh well.

Baie Rouge

Gus’s Beach Bar close to where we anchored

Exhausted, plopped into the seat at the beach bar – it was happy hour, damn the luck.   That means 2 for 1 drinks.  Score.  Beers and Frozen drinks – you can guess who had which.   I wandered over to check on the mask/fins while Christine was ordering – all good still there.  Cheers, the table of Canadians next to us – super friendly but wasn’t sure she knew where Canada was.  Then in the conversation they asked where we were from and of course Texas is the answer, not USA – Texas, the big country of Texas.  And then the strangest comments, yeah, started with the political theatrics with our current president, but followed shortly with “You got Chevy trucks in Texas”, and me being the smart ass, replied, “Yup, we got Ford pick em ups too”.   Un-phased, the guy said he really wanted a short-bed chevy, used to own one and wants another and even follows a Texas blog about them.  Oh my. Would you look at the time?  They were on their way out, we finished our rounds of drinks.

The chairs were being piled high, the sun was getting lower, I went to get the gear while.  Found everything except my mask, the snorkel was removed and left but the mask was gone.  Was going to be a long swim with just a snorkel.  Looked everywhere, Christine asked the chair guy, and a couple others on the beach.  Nada, Oh well, I guess it happens.  But just an old mask?  Not the fancy flippers and why leave the snorkel.  Looked a bit more and then resolved to swim back to the boat with just a snorkel, as I didn’t bother with bringing my fins along.   Walked down to the waters edge with just the snorkel while Christine was looking under and behind the stacked chairs and then gathering her gear, and a guy comes running out of the water and hands me my mask.  He said he thought it was “abandoned”.. Uh-Okay. Thank you.  At least I had it back and the swim was much easier than keeping your head out of the water for that long.

Christine wanted a beach BBQ as there was secluded section, but we were low on something to cook and all, luckily we are boaters and schedules / plans are subject to change – our friends on Contrary Mary had us over for dinner while watched the sunset go down on another great day in a new anchorage.  Cheers.

Happy Hiker

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Anse Marcel: Nature Reserve, 3.3km or 2:30hrs at least that is what we think the sign says in French.

Overcast day, nothing on the agenda we hadn’t been off the boat much and spotted this trail a couple of days ago when we were in Anse Marcel, we are now in Grande Case (spoken as Caaaaas) which is a whopping mile or two down the west coast.   I tossed the idea out after the morning radio net and Christine said sure.   

First time in months, this wasn’t a one beer hike.  So we both filled water bottles as we weren’t sure how long this was gonna take. Was the 2.5 hours each direction since we didn’t have a car at the other end of the trail or was that round trip?   Adventure, that is what it is.  Normally I take a beer to nurse on the hike up a hill and have a sip or two left at the top, but it certainly would be warm after 2+ hrs.

As we were in Grand Case, we dropped the dinghy and scooted over to Anse Marcel which was a nice ride till we cleared the coast then the surge/waves set in, we went from 17knots down to 4knots to keep dry-ish.   Landed safely, but Christine needed something to eat to in case she got hungry along the way (since it could be another 5 hours before we saw food again) so she found something in the french mini-market that would do.  We set off to explore the nature.

The sign promised lots of information along the way.  We started down the path which looked like a car path, and ran into the water treatment plant – such a lovely aroma to start a hike.  But off we went after finding the signs that pointed the right direction to the trail we were off – nice and fresh like.  We started at the red spot on the lower left side and walked toward the right, or East around the island.

The trail went up hill, what looked to be a washed out ravine had been marked and trimmed a way to make a single path up the hill.  It started with some beautiful trees that arched over the narrow, rocky path which was cool and pretty.

The start wasn’t too bad, but being on the back side of the mountain it was a bit warm even given the overcast skies.  Once we crested the first hill, there was a great view of the Anse Marcel bay and Anguilla, we pushed on, up and over the next.  From there we could see Tintamarre, and the beach where we would eventually walk on,  a long way down.

Christine is going slow and steady, enjoying the birds and butterflies, reading the signs and snapping photos of me–look closely for me in the orange shirt below.

Up and over boulders, tree roots, broken limbs, along the dirt and sometimes rocky and cactus encroaching path.  After scurrying over several large boulders, we made the secluded beach and walked its distance to find the trail that continues on.  In an attempt to rest, Christine captured a couple that spoke English who said it was worth the hike to the end, so we continued.  The beach was a little 1/2 way to the end and we had been walking a little over an hour.  So maybe 2.5 was each direction.

After the beach it became rocky, like large pieces of coral and walking became an exercise in watching where your feet were going to step while hugging the coast line.   Made the brain work, and keeping more focused on the steps than taking the scenery.   Was rough going in flip flops, but we made it.  Made it to the end, the end is at the landfill or dump.  So what the sign should have said is the most scenic route between the sewage factory and the dump.  However, the coast that lined the dump was very lovely with tide pools that could lull you to sleep with the harmonic sounds.

We did the round trip of 6.6 miles in about 3 hrs of moving time, we stopped to rest at the dump and then again to scarf the french tasty treats Christine had picked up earlier.

Back to the boat and a pizza was devoured, and a lots of resting and relaxing till Happy Hour which consisted of Ribs for appetizers and another rum sampling.  Thinking the Plantation from Barbados might be edging out my favorite Diplomatico from Venezuela, but I’m sure there will be more taste tests..