Days 85 – 86
Several weeks ago, I’d heard from one of our old Seabrook, TX, friends, Wayne Gaudet, that he and another one of our old friends, Mitch Karlson, were planning to crew aboard their friend’s Kadey Krogan 44 on a trip from Kemah, TX, to a marina in Bradenton, FL. Luke (the boat’s owner) would then have his wife fly to Bradenton to join him aboard Norman Jean for Christmas and then travel further south this winter, possibly over to the Bahamas. Wayne had promised to contact me along their journey, in hopes of us all meeting up somewhere. Things worked out so that Luke and his entourage would be stopping at The Wharf on Saturday, 12/05/20. Wayne called the morning of the 5th to let me know they hoped to arrive that afternoon, so we watched for them from our boat, as we had a perfect view of the ICW from where we were tied. That afternoon, Norman Jean and crew arrived at The Wharf, and we helped them slip their boat into their assigned transient space. It was great to see Wayne and Mitch again and to meet Luke. They came over to tour our boat and then Steve carried them around in our rental car so they could do some provisioning. That evening they invited us over to their boat for cocktails where we spent time reminiscing about our sailing days on Galveston Bay, where we’d all owned sailboats. Then we all walked up to Ginny Lane for dinner. Three of us had the Saturday night special, which was a delicious plate of shrimp and grits. After dinner The Wharf was playing their Christmas music and lighting their lasers, by which all three guys (I called them “the triplets”) were most enamored. They were so impressed that they all shot videos on their cell phones to send to their wives. The Wharf is definitely not your average marina! Wayne decided he needed ice cream for dessert, so we walked to the ice cream specialty shop for after dinner treats. Mitch and Wayne are still just as funny together as they’ve always been and kept us entertained with a story they told of an amorous Uber driver the three of them had encountered in New Orleans earlier that week. Wayne really enjoys taking Uber rides, and kept coming up with random reasons for us to call an Uber that night, even though we had a perfectly good rental car at our disposal. 🙂
On Sunday, the 6th, the triplets needed Steve to drive them around some more that morning, then Steve helped them over on their boat to update the operating system on Norman Jean’s chart-plotter. I took advantage of my alone time to take the rental car for a haircut at Great Clips and a shopping fix at Target. I finally found the Zygo Christmas cactus I’d been searching for at Publix and bought a planter for it at Old Time Pottery, which increased my onboard plant collection to five plants.
Position: N 30° 17.699, W 87° 37.816
Marina Nights: 71