Kemah Texas Checking In

[windshadow]

hi volks when I left galveston I thought if I ran to the flower gardens and headed for panama city I would miss most of the riggs well it did not work out that way between the rigs and some bad weather and fateag it left me headed for mobile. I dont care much for the ditch from mobile bay west,from mobile east it is a nice trip when you leave mobile bay head for ingrams buyo near perdiedo bay it is a great place to drop the hook go to into ingrams to the end you have to go left there is a great spot right after you left to drop the hook you will see 3 pillings to your left, drop the hook in the middel between the pilings and were you come in, do not try to go to the right the depth gets thin, you will see a boat back in there I am not sure how he got that far in. from ingrams it is about 4 hrs to pensacola bay,just before pensacols bay entrance there is a nice place to drop the hook to the right.hope this helps you out a bit.Do your self a favor and get a hand held vhf or a base unit you will need it to talk to the towe captains on the ditch you will need to know what they want you to do when you pass them,also get some kind of depth sounder they are about 99.00 at west marine you do not need to mount it through the hull sand a smooth spot in a locker about mid ships take a PVC pipe and secure it with 5200 around the enges od the pipe make sure you leak the sanded glass the earea of the transducer free of 5200. position your transducer so it sits on the flat spot you sanded smooth fill the pipe with mineral oil and take a rag role it up and rap it around the trans ducer filling the gap between the pipe and the transducer make sure that it does not soak up all the mineral oil you want to have the transducer sitting in oil at all times put a PVC cap over the end of the pipe and secure with 5200 you will need to cut a slot in the cap for the ducer cable, you said money was tight this will get you going with out to much money spent,they make a kit made out of PVC that will set the angle of the ducer but it will cost a bit more.some people have use strait epoxey between the ducer and the hull this works but make sure you have no air bubles in the epoxy. bill

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by Volksdraggin

Most of my trip has been planned with coastal cruising all the way down to Costa Rica, giving me the chance daily to let the dog on the beach to run around like a heathen and play and poop and for the fear of being out of sight of land and out of dinghy range.

This entire posting sounds a bit bogus, but I will play along. How have you planned planned coastal cruising all the way down to Costa Rica since there is NO coastal cruising on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and coast of Costa Rica is not hospitable to small boats. Can day hop around the islands off Honduras but not off Nicaraguan coast. Only place on Costa Rica to put in is Puerto Limon and that is for commercial only.

Judy
S/V BeBe

[windshadow]

if you are a real cruiser, you should no it starts when you cast the line off the dock how far you get you never realy know until you get there many things happen along the way. He has a long way to go and lots of things to learn along the way, key word here learn along the way. I my self started out heading for the bahamas, never got there. When I left key west after spending the winter there on the hook, I headed for ny and worked my way up to the great lakes and then down the tombigby and back to the keys for another winter stay.so as for playing along if you do not have anything good to say to get him started in some direction then dont play along. cruising does not always follow the plans you start with,but cruising is casting the dock lines from your home port headed for some were . At the end of my 3 yrs I went 13000 miles solo and had a blast and met many people along the way as for plans my directions changed a few times along the way.so my point is help him get underway that is what cruising is,and I would think that is why he came to this site.

[windshadow]

bebe one more thing. Not everone has the capital to do what you are doing.I worked along the way to support the cruising life I was living. I think that is what volk will be doing from the sounds of it. In any case lets help him get under way and down to the coast of fl.

[windshadow]

volks must have gone sailing.