We ran the engine 7 hours today (Sunday) without a failure! Laddie and DJ came out from Kemah yesterday and brought an elec. fuel pump like the one he installed years ago to solve the air leak problem they had. Mike and Cynthia arrived later in the morning and after the pump was installed we headed over to the Isle of Capri casino area to have a look around but, most importantly, to partake in the All-You-Can-Eat-Seafood-Buffet featuring Alaskan King Crab Legs. After several pounds of crab legs, shrimp, mussels, chicken, BBQ ribs, etouffe, salads … and the desserts; cheesecake, oreo cookie pie, pecan pie, ice cream – that’s what I had, I’m not sure what all everyone else had … Laddie and DJ had to return to Houston. The rest of us took a quick walk around one of the riverboat casinos before returning to our boat.
Today we sea-trialed. We drove the boat down the Calcasieu River for 2 1/2 hours before heading back. Seven hours later we shut the engine down with a great deal of our confidence in the boat restored. We’re flying to DFW Tue. for Thanksgiving week. We’ll be back on email when we return, Fri, Dec. 4.
David and Claudia
We’ve seen very little rain, until today that is. But we weren’t traveling today so it was no problem. Right now we’re near Cameron, Louisiana. We attempted to head offshore yesterday afternoon, but the forecast was in error and wind and wave conditions quickly got beyond what we were willing to tolerate, so we turned around and headed back up the Calcasieu River to an anchorage we had heard about. It was after dark but with radar, the nav. software, GPS and our fabulous night vision scope we had no problem finding the waterway and winding around it to the charted spot. We were exhausted so we decided just to take today off and have stayed here resting all day. We’re still having fuel line problems so we’re now talking about going back up to Lake Charles and renting the slip in the marina for a month (a lot cheaper than the daily transient rate). This will give us plenty of time to get the known problems fixed (and tested) and finish some other projects that we’ve needed to do. We also may leave the boat there and fly to Mexico since Jim, Edith and the Katies will be there on their trip the first week in December. It is unlikely that we’ll make it there in time with our boat and don’t want to miss seeing them there. We are not in a hurry to get anywhere and we’re trying hard to keep it that way. This email is wonderful. We’re really glad it’s working so well (albeit slow).
David and Claudia
a historical sailing adventure