The Rest of the Year 2016

     Well, as often go the best laid plans of mice and men, the remainder of the year did not come off as planned.  The plan was to spend most of the summer at Ortega Landing, one of our favorite marinas, in Jacksonville.  That is right across I-10 (1000 miles+, but a straight shot) from Houston, and we hoped the grandkids would spend some time aboard.  Alas, we returned to Texas in mid-June for a family reunion and visit, and immediately got stuck to some rent house projects that kept us captive until the end of September.  We realized that we would not get the boat up to Solomons, MD for the Krogen Cruisers Rendezvous in  early October, and so decided that we would drive to that event.  Just before our departure, we received word that the sailboat in the slip next to us was struck by lightning.  Such reports are often exaggerated, and we asked several folks how they knew it was a "direct hit".  The answer:  many people saw the mast and shrouds "light up".  I suppose that is convincing!  We decided that instead of heading straight for Maryland, we would go via Jacksonville.  We also needed to pick up a few items of cold-weather clothing, and what little we own was on the boat.  It also gave me a chance to do a quick check of the boat for lightning damage.
     We traveled to Maryland, and watched as Hurricane Matthew churned along the Florida coast toward our boat.  The initial worries that it would reach the Chesapeake also played havoc with the docking order and plans for the Rendezvous, but in the end all turned out well, and we had a great time with many boating friends.  Webcam posts and reports from Ortega Landing assured us that all was well with our boat, and we were much relieved.  However, all was not well between Maryland and Jacksonville, and we knew that travel south down I-95 would be impossible.  Therefore, we returned to Jacksonville via Corpus Christi.  By the third week of October (not July, as planned), we were finally back aboard Texas Ranger.  A more detailed assessment revealed several items of lightning damage, but none that would preclude our travel, and we elected to move south to our first winter stop in Fort Pierce, and address the items needing repair there.  We departed Ortega Landing October 24, timing our departure to ride the outgoing river current downstream.

Ortega Landing Marina

Krogen Cruisers Rendezvous