Leaving Laguna Harbor was more of an effort than expected. I made a rookie mistake and pulled into the pier on my port side. That all worked fine until I started to think about how to get out. I lost a bit of sleep trying to figure out how.

I had pulled in on the port side snug up to a corner in front. There was no way out other than backing out. Unfortunately, this boat pulls pretty hard to port when backing, which means it's going to want to just drag us along the concrete wall until I get enough speed (and do enough damage) to get steerage (the rudder doesn't work until you're moving fast enough for it to get a good flow of water over it).
I decided to put bumpers along the bow and release the stern, pull in the bow as much as possible and make my way out slowly. The best way to compensate for a boat that pulls is to give it a burst of throttle, and then get off the throttle so that it isn't pulling and the rudder can work as the boat starts moving. Worked perfectly. We didn't get away fast, but we got away clean...

Then we headed out of the harbor following the same line we came in on, and somehow ran aground. Luckily the bottom's soft here, so we just plowed through, as I knew we were feet away from the channel. I still can't see what we did different coming out than going in.

To make things worse, 2 of the 10 boats that were with us were having problems. 'A Good Ketch' (our cruise leader) had an electrical problem and had to call for someone to come help. 'Good Timin' was hard aground and burned out an impeller trying to get off. They'd had some overheating problems the day before. so the impeller was likely in bad shape already. We left with most of the rest of the boats while they waited on repairs. Luckily both were successful in getting underway and made it to Freeport fine.

Cruising down the ICW was pretty uneventful, while educational. We'd heard about talking to the tugs, but didn't know the lingo. To be fair, it's in the Inland Navigation Rules, but we hadn't read the sound signal section. Understandable I think since sound signals aren't really used anymore.

In the old days, if two tugs were approaching one another, they'd use horns (called whistles just to confuse) to indicate how they'd pass. One whistle means port to port , two means starboard to starboard. Nowadays, these calls are made on the VHF radio , and have shortened to 'Passing on the one' or 'Passing on the two'.

We did manage to see our first dolphins in the ICW just west of galveston bay. Eagle Eye Annie spotted the pair.

It was pretty well a cold rainy miserable day. We started at 9:30 and arrived in freeport at about 4:15.

As we pulled into the marina, they pointed us to a Mediterranean style silp, which means you have to back in to get off the boat (no finger piers).

When we bought the boat, it was backed into its slip. but after our first sail, we gave up after about 5 tries of backing it in. So much simpler to pull in head first. Never thought about it again. Until this afternoon, when I had no choice. Amazingly enough, I backed in like I knew what I was doing -- until we ran aground. That slip was too shallow for us. So out I go as they look for where to put us. We end up an another slip that I have to back in! We backed in like pros. Two more firsts today.

Strange how such a miserable, cold, rainy day can seem so full of positives in hindsight.