ASA 104- bareboat chartering
26 March 2015 | Galveston Bay
Gene/Sunny 15 knot winds SSE
We woke this morning with a new level of confidence and several new bruises on Amy's legs. Amy and I took turns at the shower house. When amy returned a look of pure anger draped her face. Know I have been married long enough to know when a women looks pissed off that much, a man should dock and find cover. I asked, "what I did, and I'm sorry?" Yep, I'm that trained. She said nothing, I dropped my phone in the lake. Well, that would make us even for me dunking my phone in a pool after jumping in to save my daughter from drowning last year. Time for class we will deal with it later.
We have completed the ASA103-Basic Costal Cruising and now have ASA 104-Bareboat Chartering. This class is more about how to self captain charter boats in far of destinations. We met Captain Ken, and sailor with more then 35000 nautical miles delivering boats from South America. Captain Ken has a funny personality. He was drafted to the Army during the Vietnam War. He figured he either got married and started having kids, or go get shot at. He felt that getting shot at was the safer choice. Told ya, funny guy. We worked on navigation and chart plotting in the class room, where suprisingly, he taught me some new tips and tricks even though I learned navigation in the military. To say he was able to "dumb it down" further then the military is saying something. We went out and sailed courses, and learned more seamenship skills ( Captain Adel taught the book, Captain Ken taught from experience and practical application). Captain Ken really increased Amy's confidence and even had her dock our 35 foot vessel again. When Amy has the conviction to look at me and say, "we can do this", the money spent on sailing classes was well spent.
We arrived back to the marina and decided that the Bar/Restaurant Cabo would be our last supper in Kemah, Texas, we where not let down by its reputation for interesting people watching. We met nice people, rude people, and most interesting drunk people. After watching a drunk "upper middle-class" young business man do his best to pick up a dirty bar hag, we decided to leave and head back to the boat to pack and sleep.
Amy and I woke the next morning and Amy decided to use the showers, even though we had a room reserved. I told her I was going to wait for her on the boat. I didn't have to wait long, Amy was back shortly saying that she would wait. When asked why, she said she had met the state bird of texas , the Coach roach. Know these are not the little coach roach of the north, these bad boys are over 2 inches long and don't scare easily from Amy's report. We decided to head out and see what else Houston had to offer. We have dinner plans with my uncle Alex who still lives in the area, and a date with a regular hotel room, a king size mattress, and a hot shower.
This is the last blog for this trip. Our sailing is done and we are spent. Time to head home