Taken by our friend as we went under the Kemah Bridge heading out
We decided to take “Last Affair” off the market and sail her to our current location near New Orleans LA. This decision was a long time coming, but for a host of reasons decided that it made sense. First, the boat wasn’t moving on the market there and were afraid it was getting lost in the shuffle of a LOT of other boats for sale in the same area. a few hundred just on the brokerage docks right there a the Marina we had her in. That and the fact that we have some major work to do on DreamChaser and it will be good to be able to just relocate into Last Affair for a week or so while we do the work rather than trying to live on the boat while doing the work.
So it was a great time for a summer adventure. We decided to go and make sure she was ready for the trip (since it had been 18 months since her last offshore decent voyage. The great news is she was. I needed to replace a battery and one of the navigation light bulbs, and do general maintenance (oil, impeller, transmission fluid and all the filter changes) but all in all she was ready to go.
We decided to make the trip and take the grandkids with us. Chasity (10 years old) and McKinlee (2 years old) and Deb and I set off on a trip of 6-9 days depending on the weather, routing, etc.
We started a little later than originally planned on July 3rd and planned just a shore 5 hour trip to Galveston from where we were. This was a good way to start out because we beat into the wind and waves on the nose the whole way so it was great to see how the girls would handle that part of the trip because it was likely the roughest we would see on the whole trip based on forecasts.
We stayed at the Galveston Yacht basis on the first night, just tied to the fuel dock (a little disappointed in the staff there who didn’t seem to know who to even call and ask where the transient slips were). We ended up just tying right to the fuel dock when the person working there kind of just gave up on what to do next. In the end, we paid more for that night than any other night on the trip at a location and had the least amount of services ($2 per foot, so $86) and all we had was power. I went in search of a rest room in the morning and I am sure that they have showers and what not at the Marina but they were no where to be found and the dude working the fuel dock was of no assistance to even point us in the right direction to it.
On Day 2 we were going to stay at the Port Arthur yacht club and we arranged it all and they informed us of a 4th of July celebration they were doing at the Marina. Sounded great and we would check out the fireworks.
We got to the location and I realized that I could see the marina (We were 50 feet from it) but there was not an entrance from the ICW, but rather we had to backtrack about 15 miles to go up into Sabine Lake to get to the Marina. then have to go the 15 miles back and pass the place we were at then. So we decided to backtrack 7 miles to the Sabine Pass Port Authority municipal marina. This was a nice little marina. The staff were great, they had 24 hour secruity which was kind of nice but not needed and the person that worked there drove us to the store in the morning which was really kind.
We got there later than planned with my botched planning for our original place to dock, so we arrived and tied up just before dark. In the morning we had a great sunrise before we were taking off.
We planned this day to make it to Lake Charles (to the Louisiana state line) and we did stay at the L’aberge Casino, which had a really nice place to tie up for the night. It was at $50 per night with electric and gave you access to the Casino. This was a nice way to have a great meal off the boat for a night too. The website for the casino doesn’t have a bunch of information about slips, but just call the main number at (866) 580-7444 and just ask them about it. Once tied up we just walked to the front desk for the hotel to check in and we were all set. Below is a link in the Active Captain for the review and info page.
https://activecaptain.com/quickLists/marina.php?name=L%27Auberge_Casino_Resort_Lake_Charles_LA&i=1116134997