We’re ready to get going but had some last minute trips to Wally Mart and Randall’s for provisions. And then went to West Marine, Blackburn Marine and Triad Marine only to be told we would need to order what we needed on line because they didn’t have it in stock. DUH! This is the boating capital of Texas…… Don’t get me started on being told when you go into a “brick and mortar” store that they can order what you need on-line for you. Really!!!

Anyway we threw off the dock lines and slipped away at about 12:55 hours.  It was a beautiful afternoon with just a little wind and we said our good-byes to our slip neighbors and to my sister and headed out.

Leaving the marina we saw skinny water with just 2.9 feet under our keel and we only draw 3.8 feet. Then we entered the Houston Ship Channel where we saw lots of big ships and tugs/barges. The breeze increased to about 12 knots on the port beam for the first hour so it was a bit of a lumpy and a slow ride but we turned downwind into the ship channel and we arrived pretty much as planned. We turned into Laguna Harbor where we touched bottom on entry.  We called the harbor master and were reassured that it was a “soft” bottom so we took another run at it and made it in without incident. What we found was a wonderful little private housing community on canals with private boat slips. There is nice concrete wall for us “transient” boats to tie up to which includes 50 amp service and water. We are the only ones here and it is absolutely lovely. We have to thank our slip neighbors Mark and Maridee for sharing this secret place with us as it is not shown on any of the charts or guides. What a great find!

Well, we did it!… We have our first day under our belt. Yipee!  Celebrating tonight with a nice steak dinner and a tasty bottle of red wine on board …..

We plan to leave pretty early tomorrow morning to travel for about eight hours to Shell Island. Will let you know how it goes…