Wednesday, 18 February 2015 - What a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. The sun reflected off the bay like a mirror as I awoke. I went to see the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier grounded in the bay here and converted into a great museum about itself, aircraft carriers in general, WWII navy battles and aircraft. I spent most of the day there and that was barely enough. I got to use my first pair of 3D glasses to watch a movie about the bombing of Pear Harbor on 7 December 1941. The theater probably seats about 400 - 500 people and was right there in the front of the hanger deck, which is truly huge. The tours are self guided and include most of the ship. I actually got to sit in the seat and control an an ack-ack gun, tour the bridge and engine room, flight deck, and much more. Very hands on.
                 I later headed over to the marina and watched the beginning of a small sailboat race. I had hoped to get to either crew or just ride on one of the boats, but my contact said all the boats already had full crews for this evenings race. Maybe next week, if I'm still here. My contact, the Commodore of the Bay Yacht Club, did, however, say that he was helping a fellow move a boat across the bay tomorrow, so I can tag along on that trip of about 4 hours. Perfect! I'll meet them at the marina at 8:30 am tomorrow.
                 As I headed back to my motor home on my bicycle, I came across another fellow cleaning up his boat and I stopped to ask him questions. It turns out that his Morgan Outlander 41 had taken on water a few months back and he's had it cleaned up on the inside, but is just now attempting to straighten things up and get it back into sailing condition. I may try to stop back by there again and see if I can help. Even that would be a learning experience for me. He gave me a quick tour of the vessel, and to be honest, it was closer to being what I think I want than any boat so far. Roomy, lots of storage, etc. I certainly liked the layout, engine access, and headroom on this boat. He's not trying to sell it, just get it back into usable condition. He certainly has his work cut out for him. It was a ketch; double masted plus a jib.

Thursday, 19 February - Well this was a very successful day for me. I met the Commodore and the boat owner at 8:30 am at the boat docks and we drove about 25 miles over to Ingleside to the sailboat. When we got there, the vessels bow thruster wouldn't work and the owner and a shipyard worker tried for about as hour in vain to get the thruster to work. While they worked on it, the Commodore showed me lots of the features of the boat and answered lots of my questions. They gave up on the thruster and we set sail. This was a 42' Catalina and VERY nice. Fairly new. All the latest electronics. After we left the bay we were in and headed out into open water, even though he could have merely turned on the autopilot, he let me take the wheel till we arrived near the entry to the home marina. I'm sure I didn't do near as good a job as the autopilot would have, but I sure appreciated the opportunity to take the wheel. I was concentrating so on holding my course and trying to figure out the electronics that I didn't ask nearly as many questions as I should have.
                  The wind picked up when we were about 3/5ths of the way there off the rear quarter of the boat and steering became more difficult, so for about 1 minute, I turned on the autopilot to see how it would handle the steering. I could see it was working just as hard as I was, but it was quicker to respond. I'm really used to a tiller, which you move opposite the direction that you want the boat go. The wheel, you turn the wheel left to go left. Maybe I'll get better over time. When we arrived at the slip, since the bow thruster wouldn't work, it took the man two tries to get the boat in, but that was understandable. Since we had to head into the wind as he turned into the slip, the wind caught the bow and turn it too far. The second try was a little rough, but successful. A great day for me. I need many more like that before I get my own boat.

Friday, 20 February - It was very windy all day long, rattling the TV antenna on the roof constantly, and I sat in my motor home most of the day researching sailboats and putting down on paper what I now think I want and don't want in a boat. At least now I'm starting to get enough information to form an educated opinion, but I need to refine it and then actually find that boat. Of course, I already know what I want, a new boat all tricked out with every available feature on it, but I can't afford that one.
                  After feeling all cooped up in the motor home all day, I walked over to the marina and stuck my head to see how the fellow whose boat had taken on about 2 feet of water was doing. He was working on it, but said he didn't have anything that I could help with. I gave him my phone number in case he could use my help, but also told him I probably won't be around long. I think I need to move on. I'm not seeing enough boats here and I'm told that the Houston area will have many times the number of boats available.

Saturday, 21 February - I've made good on my word and headed out on the road again. I drove most of the day toward the Galveston area, stopping only to by food. gas, empty my sewage tanks, and refill my fresh water tank. Jay Bowman-Kirigan called while I was filling my gas tank and we did a little catching up. He was skiing at Alta this weekend, then heading back to school in St. Louis.
                  I had reset the preferences on my GPS from "fastest route" to "shortest route," so I traveled the back roads, perhaps a little too much. It sent me through all the little towns, even onto some back streets as shortcuts, but I did get to see more interesting country. This part of the Texas is VERY flat and all the riverbeds seem full. And, oh, I think they must have passed a law a few years back demanding that EVERY bridge has a sign at each end declaring "Bridge May Freeze Over In Cold Weather." I haven't seen a bridge, overpass, or culvert that didn't have one of those signs, and down here there are lots of bridges, overpasses, and culverts. That's a lot of signs. I think the rivers must run in circles. Of course, they are beautiful with all the trees on their banks covered with Spanish moss. I arrived in Kemah just at sunset, so rather than drive through town in the dark, I headed for the Walmart parking lot, had dinner, took a shower since I have all this fresh water onboard, and went to bed.

Sunday, 22 February - Tried to contact some old friends of my parents that live here locally and then headed over to the Johnson Space Center and spent all day looking at their exhibits. Some of the rockets were smaller than I had imagined, but the Saturn V really lives up to its reputation. That thing is enormous and so is the space shuttle.
                  It's amazing to me that we, as humans, are capable of accomplishing virtually anything we put our minds to, but I really think we'd be better off, now that we've proven that we can do these things, spending our money and efforts on learning to take care of and clean up earth, rather than rushing off to ravage and pollute Mars. But then, I guess NASA has to perpetuate their jobs, even if we are polluting our planet, have millions of starving people, and have wars occurring all over the world because of social inequalities.
                  Gary Powers, a friend of my parents, returned my call and I'm to meet him and his wife, Lorrie, for lunch tomorrow for some advise on boat buying. My old room mate, Chuck Moore, called too. It was great talking to him. Apparently he hasn't been getting my updates.
                  I arrived after closing time at West Marine, where I need to shop for a couple of things, and I'm staying overnight in a large, undeveloped parking lot next door. I'll be there in the morning when they open.
                  Tonight, I started the generator and watched more TV than I intended; they had back to back episodes of Downton Abbey on PBS.

Monday, 23 February - Met with and spent the day with Gary and Lorrie Powers, cruising friends of my parents from the Caribbean. A miserably cold and windy day outside, but a very enlightening day for me. Gary was not only a long-time cruiser, but also an instructor for the U.S. Coast Guard Power Squadron for several years; very knowledgeable about sailboats and sailing. Very nice and helpful people. I've been invited to go to dinner with them and several other "retired sailors" this Friday night.

Tuesday, 24 February - I went out today, met with a broker, and looked at three boats. The only one that really appealed to me was the first one I looked at, but it's right at the top of my price range and wasn't anything special. I returned to my new "usual" parking spot and entered some of the data about the boats that I had seen today into a spreadsheet for comparing features on the vessels.
                  I had some time left, so I thought I'd be able to contact a private owner/seller about a boat I've been keeping my eyes on for about a year and a half on the internet. It was listed as being near here. I contacted the owner and found that he sold it last month for $45,000 less than he was asking. Great timing, Rick!
                  After being near 75°F just days ago, it was near freezing last night and will be again tonight, so I checked my propane level and realized that my supply might not make it through the night; so I rushed to a propane supplier and arrived just before they closed. Great timing, Rick!

            Until next time,
                        I hope you have a great week...and don't hesitate to call or email me with questions or news.