La Trucha Caribbean Cruise 2004

Ship's Log

(Oct 26-31 2004 Houston Texas)

Well We're cooling our jets here in Brazoria Texas, on the San Bernard River at the infamous 2J's Cafe and Grill (check out their site at http://www.2jscafe.com/), owned and operated by Joyce and Jim Bradshaw, Brazoria Texas.  It's where La Trucha (The Trout in Spanish) is tied up currently.  The boat itself is within spitting distance of the cafe.  Really neat around here.  We're working on the boat to get her ready for the trip, but while we're working we're eating high on the hog.  2J's has a super menu, with super food.  Here we're just like a bunch of working guys, going into a nice grill and eating free meals, breakfast, lunch and supper.  Oh, those side benefits really kick in.

                    La Trucha tied up at 2J's Cafe and Marina on  San Bernard River

Anyway, the work on the boat is progressing well.  We installed the diesel generator yesterday, after our skipper Jim, had constructed the fiberglass mount.  We lowered into the port cockpit sail locker, and have yet to hook her up.  Something that shouldn't take long.  We're also working on maintenance items, such as splicing eyes into anchor rode, cleaning up deck winches, installing the cabin dinner table, painting dinghies, and much more too numerous to list.

Weather is still holding good with winds out of the south, just had a full moon on the 28th, which means spring tides - here the rise and fall is about a foot.  We like everyone else in the US has a bird's eye view of the eclipse, which caught us all by surprise. 

Mosquitoes around here are fairly tough, but that hasn't stopped my running which is going great.  With any luck I'll be flying from Belize direct to Charleston, early December for the Kiawah Marathon.  But it will take lots of work yet to get ready for that.

Jimmy and I, are sleeping in an apartment underneath the skipper's abode.  It's small but adequate.  We've got good internet, radio, AC, and all the other amenities to keep our morale up.  I, myself, am having a great time learning about La Trucha, but Jimmy seems to be more interested in getting underway for the Yucatan and parts further south.

In spite of that we're getting along just great - he's teaching me Spanish and FrontPage - I'm showing him some of my sea going knots.

We're expecting a cold front to come through this Monday - so that and the rain may slow things down a bit.  Fine by me.

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