In the beginning

The Intracoastal Waterway (sometimes called The Ditch) according to Wikipedia:

The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a 3,000-mile waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States.  It provides a navigable route along its length without many of the hazards of travel on the open sea.

Off to Port Mansfield

My objective for the first day was to make it to Corpus Christi, about 150 miles away.  I figured at 30 mph, I would be there just after noon.  Unfortunately,  the wind picked up as I approached Port Mansfield.  I decided to stay the night there, about halfway to Corpus Christi.  I had been watching the weather for weeks and I thought I had planned it perfect as the trip started out with the water almost glass-like.  That is Brownsville on the right and South Padre Island on the left as I leave.

To Rockport Texas in the wind, the Feds and the Bass Family Depot

I had been watching the weather carefully. When I saw that the prediction for the day was for high winds, I became a bit concerned. This is known as one of the windiest places in Texas with several windmill farms nearby. When they predicted high winds, I knew I was in for a rough ride. The idea is that it gets windier as the day goes on so I left early Monday morning. The winds had already picked up as I made my way to the ICW, in the middle of the Laguna Madre. I had a 30 mile ride to the Land Cut, where the waters would be calm.

The wind dies down on the way to East Matagorda Bay

When Jim dropped me off at my hotel he said "we'll see how brave you are in the morning".

I wasn’t very brave.  I woke up and went outside and the palm trees were bending in the wind.  I thought "here we go again".  Three more big bays.  I started to think about alternatives.  I put out bids on Uship to truck me from Rockport to East Matagorda Bay, only 60 miles away.  I was about to call Jim and tell him that I would be working on alternatives and would catch a cab as soon as I figured it out.  I was going back and forth.  Should I go or not?  I got a bid on Uship for $330.  Hmm, that sounds reasonable.  I was definitely conflicted.  Frankly I just didn’t want three more bays worth of fighting the waves and the wind. 

But I decided to give it a shot.  Jim picked me up and as my boat and I moved out of his marina, you could see him looking at me like I had lost my mind.  Actually the wind was calmer and I quickly made it to the middle of the bay and the ICW.

Once across Aransas Bay, there was a land cut to San Antonio Bay.  Once through San Antonio Bay was another land cut to West Matagorda Bay. 

The land cuts were a shelter from the wind.

Galveston, The Moody yacht and stuck In Lake Charles

Around noon, I left East Matagorda Bay and headed out to Galveston.  This part of the trip was entirely on a protected land cut and the wind was no longer a factor.  Just East of Matagorda Bay was a draw bridge with a “small boat” section that was barely wide enough for my boat to fit through.  This allowed the operators to quickly open and shut a portion of the bridge to get boats like mine through with the least interruption to traffic.

Louisiana: Cajun food, alligators and beautiful bayous

I needed to get back to Lake Charles to get my boat off blocks and into a protected stack in New Orleans before it got cold and I lost daylight savings time.  Daylight savings time changes on November 7.  I can't take vacation during the last month of a quarter so that left October as my window of opportunity. I was targeting the first week of October or the last.  The last week had my SMU Mustangs playing in New Orleans vs. Tulane but for weeks before October 9th the weather was forecast as perfect for that whole week.  I have to make a decision about a week before traveling to be able to use my frequent flyer miles so I jumped at the chance.


I flew back to Lake Charles and stayed with my friend Mark Politz. Of course, right before my flight the forecast changed.  Thunderstorms were predicted for the following day.  But every other day looked great.  The next morning it was time to go.  Thunderstorms were moving in early and coming off the Gulf right in my path.  But I was armed with an amazing technology, the Sirius Radio Weather overlay to my Lowrance GPS.  I could watch the storm cells direction, size and intensity .  I waited until one cell passed and launched, just ahead of another.  I was going faster than the trailing cell and everything looked great.


It was a beautiful ride.

Houma, across the Mighty Mississippi and New Orleans

As I headed East from Abbeville I came across a shallow water jack-up drilling rig.