Florida Keys' Watercolor Kapers by Bob Kranich

Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers
by Bob Kranich

Robert’s Best, (Part 5, Excerpt 90)

This is a new story. Robert’s Best is a sail boat. Grandfather Roberts is going to sail it on the Intercostal waterway from Texas to Key West, Florida. That will be an adventure. Then his grandchildren and their parents will come to Key West on a visit. There will be a lot of funny happenings until the criminals from a previous story get into action. A side note is that a 1935 antique Chris-Craft Model 557 Cabin Cruiser is going to play an important part in the rest of the story. Grandfather Roberts is getting ready to start on his trip to Key West, Florida in his sail boat via the Intercostal Waterway.

Roberts’ Best

What we have here is a fictional story that Grandpa Roberts wrote for this story. It’s called Gulf Coast Summer

One man’s sailing adventure from Galveston to Key West. Now on with his tale.

The research I had done on Galveston Island rewarded me with this tidbit of information. Galveston was originally inhabited by native Indians. The famous Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca’s ship was wrecked on the island in November, 1528. In 1758 another Spanish explorer came along and named the island Villa Galvez in honor of the Count of Galvez from Madrid, Spain.

I stayed in the Galveston Marina and the surrounding area a couple of days. There were a lot of fellow boaters in all types of craft, from big cruisers to large sailboats. In fact, mine was on the smaller side. One good thing I noticed was that everyone was friendly and helpful. The first thing I was told that I needed was a Gulf Coast Water Travel Guide. The book I bought from the marina store was over five hundred pages. It consisted of charts and descriptions of every turn and stopping place on the Coast and most importantly the Gulf-Coast Intercostal Waterway.

By visiting around with the many boaters, one item I really found historically adventurous was the fact that two pirates had a lot to do with early Galveston’s history. One was in 1816. Louis-Michelaury, a pirate supporting Mexico’s fight against Spanish rule, sailed in and out of Galveston. The other was the pirate Jean Lafitte. He was a hero of the War of 1812 against the British. He had made himself the island’s governor over all the inhabitants with a bunch of pirates. This may sound hard to believe, but these men helped with the early settling of Galveston.

During my stay on the island, I obtained as much advice as my mind could hold. Then the day came. I was really excited as I untied the Roberts’ Best from the dock and headed away from the Galveston Marina. It was midmorning. I could almost picture the skull and crossbones flag flying from my mast.

I couldn’t daydream forever. I was awakened from my trance by the waves and goodbyes from the many boating friends I had made the last few days as I sailed by them.

I was especially grateful for the designers and builders of Roberts’ Best. They had installed a twelve horsepower, two-cylinder inboard diesel in my great little sloop. It was going to save me in the many tight places I would find myself in on my adventure.

It was a sunny morning, and a nice breeze was springing up. As I pulled out of the marina I suddenly realized that I was not only in the Galveston Ship Channel, but also in the Inter-Costal Waterway. It was huge!

I headed north temporarily. It was just a short distance, only about a quarter of a mile and I was to take a right ninety-degree turn around the northeast end of Galveston Island to head out into the Gulf. As I made my turn right or starboard, I suddenly realized I was in the middle of the main ship channel entrance to the Houston port. Possibly that was why I was looking up at a large mountain of a ship coming right at me!

I immediately kept on turning, getting out of the huge oil tanker’s way. I also remembered not to get too close to the shore or jetties because of the rocks. As he went past me and then his wake hit me, it felt like I was in the middle of an ocean!

That first emergency experience now past, I thought, what a way to start my trip! I flipped open my handy Gulf Coast Guide. I had made notes. I would have to use my math and lots of reverse thinking, because the Gulf Coast Guide was written from Key West to Houston, and I was going the opposite way.

The guide book said that if I went straight out from Galveston and then turned a magnetic east-northeast 28 degrees, in 49 miles I would be off Sabine Pass. This was the entrance to Port Arthur. I cut off the motor, put up the sails and was clipping along at eight to ten knots. What a glorious feeling. I was doing it!

The notes I had made warned me to keep a good look-out for drilling platforms and something called Christmas Trees. I found out that they are what is put on the drilling pipe after they hit oil. They stick out of the water, with all kinds of valves and pipes on them. I did keep a good look-out and saw many of them and kept my distance while maintaining my compass bearings.

As I went towards shore, I saw the flashing green and red markers. They marked the main Port Arthur ship channel. I turned in left or to port between the markers. I had decided to stay in the small town of Sabine Pass. It was on the Texas side of the channel. I dropped the sails and turned on the motor. It coughed a couple of times and then purred. On the Louisiana side was a large anchorage area. There were some big jack-up drilling platforms anchored in it.

Just past the little town were commercial docks. I pulled up just a little off of the dock. A guy was standing there. He looked like a boat captain, short, stocky, big arms, tee shirt, and jeans.

“Sir, would it be ok to anchor just off the pier here?”

“Yeah, it would be fine. No shrimp boats due in tonight. Most will be coming back in a’couple days. Just leave room for them to get past you. Where you out of?”

“Houston. I’m new at this Gulf stuff. Mostly sailed just in Lake Houston.”

“A Newbie, huh? Tell you what, shut her down and anchor. Better use two cause of the wake from the channel. I’ll show you a great restaurant. Don’t look like much, but you can’t beat the food!”

“I’ll be right in,” I exclaimed.

“Take your time. I’ve been working on my trawler. I need a break!”
I brought the dinghy in, tied her up, and shook hands with the captain. As we walked up the dock, he showed me his boat. It was a fair size, about sixty feet long. He had been shrimping all his life, and this was his home port. He was right. The restaurant didn’t look like much, old weathered boards with pealing paint and one neon sign. It said, Sabine Pass Dockside Restaurant, Open. But the food, it was great! Talk about fresh fish, shrimp, and crabs, they had them.
It was a good thing it was early afternoon. It seems the captain wanted to take a long break! I told him I had to get an early start to make Morgan City by evening tomorrow. He said I could do it in around ten hours max. The tide would be in my favor. He also told me I should pass the green and red flashing channel markers and hold to a magnetic one hundred and twelve degrees east-southeast. I would just clip the south shore of Marsh Island. It’s about eighty-five miles to the turn up into the Lower Atchafalaya Bay and River. After that it’s about ten miles up the river to Morgan City and the Inter-Costal Waterway.

I bid the captain goodbye, and since it was early evening there was still plenty of light for me to find my way back. I had no trouble walking the short distance back past the piers, docks, and warehouse. I spotted Roberts’ Best and rowed out. I checked my fuel and found I had used very little leaving Houston. I went to sleep fast because I needed to get up at the crack of dawn.

From the Author:

My second full-length book , Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers is composed of 336 pages. There are 12 stories running from 6 pages to as many as 72 pages. It is fully illustrated with 88 watercolors and sketches. The watercolors I made roaming around Key West after I finished my 750 mile hike from Georgia to Key West. (See book or Don Browen’s SouthWest Florida Online News records, A Walk Across Florida.) As you read these stories you will experience Key West, the Keys, and the Caribbean. These stories span the time of the early 1800’s to 1969. bkranich.wixsite.com/bobkranich