Ingleside to Clear Lake

In June and July of 2009, we took Double Wide across the Gulf to the Pensacola/Destin area and then back to Ingleside. Below is a recap of this fantastic trip (photos at the bottom of the post).

Michelle and I invited my father, Jim Haley, to join us on our summer adventure. We set sail around mid day and sailed a short distance to Lighthouse Lakes and spent the night. The next morning, we started early to a beautiful day with perfect winds on the aft quarter. We headed up the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway). We made it to Army Hole by late afternoon with one small problem. The house batteries, which I believe were original, were not able to hold a charge. They were fine for a short day sail, but during the course of a full day’s use, we didn’t have enough power to run the winch and the Navigation system at the same time.

The next morning, we stopped for fuel in Port O’Connor and then headed out through the jetties into the Gulf. Next stop, Galveston! We had a wonderful overnight sail, though I left an engine running the entire time to keep a charger on the batteries. Even at that we had to reboot the navigation system multiple times. We hit the jetties (not literally), at 4:00 AM and continued into Galveston Bay, headed for Clear Lake.

We arrived in Clear Lake just after 6:00 AM and spent a couple of hours waiting for marinas to open so we could find a berth. We found a great spot and arranged to borrow a car from Michelle’s sister. I went right to work finding new batteries (I ultimately found them in Austin and arranged to have them shipped in). We also had a list of items that needed to be repaired/replaced prior to setting out across the Gulf which we went to work on. Michelle and I had hoped to talk Dad into staying with us across the Gulf, but he felt he needed to get back home to my Mom and his ranch.

As we were going to have to wait a couple of days for the batteries to be shipped in, we found we had some time for an evening sail with Michelle’s sisters and their husbands. We enjoyed a wonderful sunset sail on Galveston Bay (dinner and drinks included!). We enjoyed showing off our Double Wide and spending time with family.

The batteries arrived and I managed to break a finger disposing of the batteries. It hurt like hell, but I wasn’t going to let a little broken bone delay our trip. With the batteries replaced and chores done, we were ready to leave for Florida.