UNTYING THE LINES

By Captain Scott Buckley

We have finally "UNTIED THE LINES".  After 2 years of working to build the cruising kitty and getting SV Kooky Dance ready again we are actually underway East.
The Plan is to sail east thru the ICW to Pensacola FL.  From there we will make an overnight passage to Port St. Joe where we will meet up with our old friends Bud and Jill.  Bud has agreed to crew with us to  Mexico. 

SV Kooky Dance at her original home at South Shore Harbor Marina next to our friends Dr. John and Miss Peggy

We will sail from Apalachicola to Isla Muejeres.  It is typically a 4 day sail if things go as planned.  It will be nice to out of the cold.

SV Kooky Dance at her temporary home at Sea Brook Ship Yard while we waited for weather to sail.

We left Texas in stages.  Saturday January 20, 2018 we left South Shore Harbor Marina (Our home for the last two years) but only sail about 6 miles to Sea Brook Shipyard to tie up to the transit dock.  We did this because the water in and out of SSHM is very shallow and with a northern front coming it was doubtful we would be able to leave the marina and a good weather window was approaching. 
We were still finishing up the list of last minute tasks that typically accompany any adventure.  We had sold our house and had moved out that Friday. We were ditching our belongings and the cars temporarily at a storage unit. We were still doing some last minute repairs and provisioning.  Saying good by to friends and making friends with our new buddy boat SV Minnow.
Sunday's weather called for strong south easterlies and the trip from Sea Brook to Galveston would be a slog to windward however Monday promised winds from the north so Monday was the departure day,
We got up early Monday and had planed to depart around 8:30AM.  We found we were ready at 8AM and were just twiddling our thumbs.  At 8:09AM we slipped the lines,  At 8:19AM we called SV Minnow to let them know we were underway and they should also get underway.  Well things don't always go according to plan.  I was to be another hour before they were actually underway.
The winds and currents were perfect for a fast sail down to Galveston taking about 3.5 hours.  We turned east into the ICW and were met with such a cluster of barge traffic that I have never seen.  The previous weeks ice storm had closed the port and ship channel traffic and it was just this morning starting to get moving to thin out the log jam that crowded the Bolivar peninsula.  Tempers were short.
We had planned to move east and find someplace to tie up or anchor for the night.  We could have anchored at Galveston but this would make our second day of travel very long and due to the short days at this time of year this was not advisable.  It turns out actually finding a place to tie up or anchor east of Galveston on the ICW is not as easy as it sounds.  Besides our buddy boat was very new to sailing and having to deal with impatient barge traffic was making there first day sailing very memorable.  I have to say they impressed me with their tenacity. 
At about 2:30PM they called us to report they were hard aground and unable to get off.  We reversed course to help but honestly did not know how I would be able to free them without endangering SV Kooky Dance.  We had them call Sea Tow.  They did and they told us to continue looking for an anchorage for the night. 
Sea Tow finally got SV Minnow off the shoals around 4:30PM.
We had tried a couple of location and ran aground in each one of them.  At this point we had grounded 5 times.  We read in the Skipper Bob's guide of and emergency anchorage at High Island bridge.  We proceeded there and promptly ran aground before even getting out of the ICW.  Our next option was the Taylor Outfall Bayou. That was another 20 miles east.  We would not get there before dark but we could not identify any other options.  So off we went at night in the ICW that was very busy with barge traffic.
The winds had eased up so the barge traffic was not having to use spot lights to navigate.  Big bonus for us because they will blind you for a while when they shine them on you.
We arrived at Taylor Outfall Bayou at 11:45PM and threaded our way in.  We found water and a really good anchorage.  It was the first time we were to set our new Vulcan anchor and man did it set.  We informed SV Minnow that we had found an anchorage.  By this time SV Minnow's crew was exhausted and at night nothing was making sense to them.  We talked them thru getting to our location and had them tie up along side.  It turns out they had never actually anchored before and this day has proved to be more than a sufficient number of first for them without adding their first anchoring to it. 
It was very cold that night and we had a small propane heater that we invited them over to warm up before going to bed. 
It seems to be a pattern with us that our first day after UNTYING THE LINES would be challenging enough to make us question our decision to cruise but both times we hung in there and the second day proved to be worth it.