Total Miles Traveled 1497
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After spending a few days at Galveston, we departed Pelican Rest marina and traveled 44 miles to a marina at Freeport, TX. We have found very few options for anchoring or marinas as we travel west due to our boat length and draft. The city marina at Freeport is a very nice marina with floating docks, power, water, and Wi-Fi, but it’s located in a very industrial area. To access the marina, we had to travel 3.5 miles through the Freeport shipping channel then pass through a guillotine flood gate. Freeport harbor has two major companies, Phillips Petroleum and Dow Chemicals Texas operations facility, the company’s largest integrated site.
The following morning, December 3rd, we awoke to dense fog and had to wait until after 10 o’clock before traveling 48 miles to the Matagorda City Marina.
On December 4th, we departed Matagorda Marina and called the Colorado River East Lock for instructions. There were seven eastbound tows waiting to lock through and one westbound tow. We were instructed to get close to the lock and wait. The lock controls the waterway traffic when crossing conditions are hazardous because of strong current velocities. As we waited close to the lock, we watched tows struggling to push there load out of the lock against the strong opposing current, only traveling one or two mph. One of the tow captains called the lockmaster and asked if he could close the gate behind him to reduce the current. The lockmaster replied that the lock gate has been broken for two years and could not be operated.
Finally, it was our turn and the lockmaster said there were three pleasure craft boats eastbound that would also be passing through. I asked if I should wait for them to clear before proceeding, explaining the size of our boat, but was told there was plenty of room to pass. We could not see inside the lock from our waiting position but as we turned into the lock entrance two center console boats and a cruiser were coming at us fighting the current that was pushing us through the first lock gate. A high stress situation for sure trying to keep off the wall and away from the passing boats zig zagging through the strong current. We passed through the lock without incident and continued across the Colorado River and through the West Lock without any issues. We traveled 24 miles crossing Matagorda Bay and passing hundreds of jelly fish along the way to our anchorage behind Matagorda Peninsula.
We awoke to another morning of dense fog on December 5th which was not good as we had to travel 63 miles to our next stop. Luckily the fog lifted early, and we were on our way by 9 o’clock, although we didn’t arrive at the Rockport Texas City marina until thirty minutes before sunset.
The birds love following our boat, diving for fish churned up from our props.
We stayed at Rockport for four days, visiting the town, museum, and the local markets. Oysters, crab, and shrimp can be purchased right from the boats in the harbor. Our electric scooters have been handy during our travels too, allowing us to see more of the areas we visit.
On December 9th we traveled 31 miles to the Corpus Christi City Marina, located about 20 miles across Corpus Christi Bay from the Gulf of Mexico.
Best Mate view from the Omni hotel
Getting to the marina had its challenges though, as we approached the ship channel from the GIWW a ship was crossing the waterway and fog was starting to form again (in the middle of the day with mild temperatures). Are you starting to see the unpredictable fog pattern of coastal Texas?
I had several AIS targets of ships and other boats displayed on my chart plotter, but the ships were all docked. As we entered the ship channel and turned from the GIWW, four pilot boats were helping a ship depart on our starboard side so I moved to the opposite side of the channel, the fog was getting worse, but we still had a half mile or so of good visibility. As we continued, an oil tanker was also moving down the channel, so we hugged the outside of the channel until we came upon a dredge and several work boats. We crossed to the other side of the channel again and only had a couple of barges to deal with before entering Corpus Christi Bay as the fog cleared.
We met a fellow DeFever boat owner at the marina, Mike on m/v Sea Biscuit. Mike is a great guy; he took us to a few restaurants for lunch, and to a local grocery during our stay. He also helped with information on the area around the marina. We met another DeFever owner on our dock, Byron on m/v Blue Moon, he offered to take us anywhere we needed to go during our stay. We have been very fortunate to meet such great people during our travels.
We attempted to leave Corpus Christi for our next port on December 26th, traveling about 8 miles across the bay and into the ship channel when we heard a coast guard announcement on the VHF radio that the ship channel was closed to all traffic due to an oil spill of light crude oil. A safety zone was established and as luck would have it, we would have to cross through it to arrive at our next port. We turned around and stayed at Corpus Christi four more days. We learned later that a cracked pipe at one of the ship terminals leaked about 3800 gallons of oil into the channel.
The long range oil tankers are over 1000 ft long and almost 200 feet wide, they make our boat look so tiny. They carry between 1.9 and 2.2 million barrels of oil, that’s over 42 million gallons of oil. The ship AMJAD is from Saudi Arabia.
On Friday, December 30th the safety zone was
lifted at noon, so we traveled 21 miles to the Port Aransas Municipal Marina,
located on Mustang Island. Mustang
Island is a barrier island on the Gulf Coast of Texas about 18 miles long, and Port
Aransas, known as Port A by the locals, is located at the northern tip of the
island. Port A is a small community and one
of the prime destinations for winter Texans and vacationers, an “island like
laid back vibe”, I think we’ll fit right in here, can’t wait to explore!
Happy New Year!!
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