On the way back to Port Aransas, I discovered a nail in the front right tire while I was at Sam and Charlotte's. The tire was a little low. They pressed me to take their car. There was really no way to get service in Columbia Lakes on a Sunday night.
I figured if the tire came here from Houston it would last to Port A. Over their objections I chose to press on. I filled the tire in West Columbia and checked it again in Port Lavaca. It was a slow leak, and the tire was still driveable in the morning. I had it fixed at the local tire store, and serviced the car before Sally's trip back.
Sally, Marion and I had breakfast at the Island Cafe. We wished her a safe trip home, made our goodbyes, and strolled down the pier to the boat.
Marion said, "That was a great weekend... now let's get out of here."
"I agree completely," said I, "two weeks in Port A is enough. I'll pay the bill, you start stowing and we will be outa here."
It took us about two hours to make preparations, say goodbye to Jeff, get his recommendations on Corpus Christi, pay up, fill up, and get under way.
"Go into the harbor... Pass two piers on your left... Take a left .. Slip L40 will be on the road." he said.
Well the only road I could see was the Shoreline Drive. There were no boats there, and two consecutive lefts would send me back out to sea. I was confused. I called again after the first left, "I'm lost, where are you?"
"Right ahead of you.. just keep on coming."
Then looking up I heard Marion say,"There's slip 40 right ahead and some one is there to meet us."
The wind was about 60 degrees port, the dock was going to be on the port, and we were going to be blown down as soon as we reduced speed.
I shouted to the man on shore, "I'm going around again."
He understood and called back, "Just take you time, and have a pair of lines ready."
As we came came in Marion passed him the longer bow line and then he asked for the stern line too. She did and then he said, "Reverse and stop the boat... go to neutral and leave everything to me."
I did as told, and then witnessed a feat of strength the likes I have never seen, as he hauled us into the slip against a 25 kt crosswind and secured us fore and aft. Several times he had to loop one foot over the back edge of the pier to keep from being pulled off.
"How can I help?"
"Just hang on, I will need a spring line next."
In the end I found out that he was ex Coast Guard and had lots of experience handling bigger boats in tougher situations. This one he said was a piece of cake.
In the end we had supper at the Lighthouse restaraunt at the end of the Laurence Street T-Head. We were pretty tired from bicycling into a 25Kt wind. I remember ordering pitchers of Ice water to counter the dehydration. Unfortunately the rest of supper was a blur. We ate, went back to the boat, and crashed.
There is a harbor ferry that runs between the Art museum and the Texas State Aquarium across the harbor. It's a no cars - people only ferry but you can take your bicycle. Buy the way, the bicycle is quite common in Corpus Christi especially along the Shoreline Drive. Rollerblades are also very popular.
The sales lady in the Museum Shop gave us a recommendation to try Mamma Mia restaraunt if we were looking for Italian seafood. When we told her we were cruising Texas, she told us about a couple that came by the day before. They had sailed into Corpus a few days earlier, had come down the West coast, through the Panama Canal and made it to Corpus Christi. It took a year and they were selling the boat. He seemed exhausted, she said.
The Aquarium is comparable in size to the one in New Orleans with many of the same fishes. The first exhibit features shoreside birds in a natural like setting. The Docent identified all of them for us terns, roseatte spoonbills, pink ibis, and several kinds of ducks.
The Aquarium has a lot of things for us kids to do.. you can pet sharks in a shallow pool, pickup and inspect hermit crabs, feel around in closed boxes and try to identify what's inside.
The museum's water chemist brought out a golden hawk on a falconer's glove and gave us a very interesting talk about the bird and the others they have at the museum. All of the birds have been injured in some way and are in a rehabilitation program run by the museum. The ones in the first exhibit are in the program too. This hawk had a broken wing and could not fly; he/she (they can't tell) looked quite normal and was not the least bit afraid of the audience or the handler.
There is an outdoor exhibit with about a dozen otters. It has a pool with cliffs, rocks, waterfall, and tree trunks with branches for the otters to play on. They are all in non-stop motion.
There is also a very large tank with half a dozen sea turtles. These too have been injured in some way and are awaiting return to the wild. One with a missing right rear flipper is a permanent resident.
I bought a pin for my hat in the gift shop. When in Corpus, visit the Aquarium for sure.
Marconi used a kite to haul up his antenna for the first wireless communication.
Kites were used extensively in World War II as targets to train antiaircraft gunners aboard ships. These were the first kites to use two strings for control. They could do loops and dives to simulate attacking aircraft.
The Wright brothers built kites. They built a large tethered two winged kite the size of the first airplane. It had control lines to work the alerons. It crashed in a gust of wind so they added an engine and a man to fly it. That one worked.
I bought a dragon kite at the museum.
That evening we went out for dinner to celebrate a fantastic day on the Stock market. We went to Mamma Mia on Mesquite St. Fine Seafood on Pasta. Enormous servings.. We ordered Chianti and she brought a Gallon Jug and set it on the table. Later she asked how many glasses we drank. I had the Adriatico Special. It's mussels, shrimp, scallops, and calamari on linguini in either a white or red sauce. Magnifico!
Did Laundry at the Bath house and saw ad for the dinghy, outboard, life raft and several other items on the Tayana. We called the listed number and made an offer on the 10 foot Avon and 8HP Johnson combination subject to sea trial and compatability with our existing davits. The owners car was out of commission so we had to postpone till Saturday.
Roast pork on the grill worked out fine. After a sumptuous meal we had brandy on the foredeck and sat in our large folding lawn chairs.
We watched and "Howdyed" all the passers-by. One couple stopped to chat and we invited them aboard. He was a school teacher, she a travel agent, they came from Plano, and were enjoying a great deal she had gotten at the Omni Hotel. We finished the brandy and the remaining Chardonay as we exchanged yarns till midnite.
We brought the cats with us. They had not done too well offshore and we wanted to do some of that on our cruise back.
Our neighbor Judy volunteered to feed the cats until Labor day weekend. Son Randy would cover on Labor day weekend.
Daddy's move went smooth and the Blazer we had rented was great for moving his TV, wheel chair, walker and Lounge chair to the nursing home.
After two nights in our very comfortable bed and real plumbing, we returned to Corpus Christi to resume our Cruise.
Later that afternoon we motored to Lydia Ann Channel. There we did some sailing before anchoring for the night.
The seabreeze was comfortable so we opened the boat up and gerry rigged some windscoops using the solar screens. By morning we were sleeping under covers.