Tuesday 8/2 Rockport – Matagorda 
We woke up at 7am and sailed out. There was a good breeze and we used a medium sized jib with the reefed mainsail along with the motor. In order  to make it to Matagorda before the sun set, we would need as much speed as possible. The crew all took turns at the helm, and we made it to Port O’Connor just after 3pm. We decided to push on through even though our ice was almost melted because stopping would jeopardize our arrival time in Matagorda. Good thing we didn’t stop. We made great speed motor sailing on a beam reach and reached the Colorado river locks at about 7:45pm. We followed a barge through and made it to Matagorda harbor about 15 minutes after sunset. The crew loaded up the gear and got a ride to Matagordaville with Bart and Boom-Boom. We immediately set up and started playing for an excited crowd. It was a great show, and everybody had a blast. We headed back to the boat with some friends and passed out soon after – exhausted.

Wednesday 8/3 Matagorda – Sargent
The crew left the marina before noon with fuel, ice, and supplies. There was a stiff breeze so we sailed without the motor, using a reefed main and a medium jib. We made good time and made it to Sargent well before sunset. We were greeted at pier 57 with cold lonestars before the boat was even tied up! We loaded the music equipment into the bar and then were treated with steak dinners. Pier 57 is awesome! We played a few sets to a small crowd and then hung out with them after. We ended up passing out pretty late.

Thursday 8/4 Sargent – Surfside
We woke up, ate breakfast and cruised out. We made such good time that when we approached surfside, we decided to take a little trip offshore. I wanted to test the conditions for a potential offshore sail to Galveston tomorrow, and we all wanted to do some fishing. We headed out the jetties and sailed to one of the rigs. We trolled lures and circled the rig a few times. No bites. Heading back into surfside was pretty rough, but very fun, and the boat performed great.  We docked at the surfside marina and headed to castaway for our show. They were rude, but we played anyway and still ended up meeting some cool people. We got back to the boat around 2am and went to sleep. Long day tomorrow.

Friday 8/5 Surfside – Galveston
We got supplies from the ship store and left the dock at about 7am. We decided to make the run offshore, so we headed out the jetties. It was a great sail. I rigged up a tarp for shade and motor sailed with a medium jib. It was nice to not have to worry about water depth. I just followed the compass and relaxed. We sailed in pretty close to the seawall and saw big schools of stingrays. After sailing through the Galveston jetties, we pulled around to the Galveston yacht basin. We hot a ride to Yagas and started setting up. It was a great show with a packed house. People danced all night long and we had a blast. After the show I skipped out on the after parties to get some needed rest back on the boat.

Saturday 8/6 Galveston
Everybody did their own thing for the most part today. At one point Ryan and I met up with local legend Bert Wills and had an amazing jam session. Later, I moved the boat to joes crabshack where they had a slip for us, and we set up our gear for the show. We played a few sets and ate crabs. After the show we met up with some friends at another bar. Nice night.

Sunday 8/7 Galveston
Pretty much a repeat of yesterday with alot more beach time. We had some family and friends in town for the show, which made it extra special, and it was also the last scheduled show of the tour. We loaded the gear on the boat for the “last time”, and hung out with friends. I am pretty sure that Ryan and Blake are looking forward to their homes on land… It has been a long tour… 33 shows in 38 days, by sailboat and bicycle.

Monday 7/25 Corpus Christi & Port Aransas
A much needed day off. It was my sisters birthday, and her and Joel were in town. The crew went to lunch with them in corpus, and then they drove us to Port Aransas where we all hung out for Michelle’s birthday. We all ended up at the pool at island moorings marina where we partied til about 4am. The crew ended up staying on Captain Casey’s sport fishing boat “Barracuda”.

Tuesday 7/26 Port Aransas & Corpus Christi
We woke up to the sound of the “Barracuda’s” diesel engine at 6am. I went to the ship store for coffee, Dramamine, sandwiches, beverages, and cigs, and Michelle and Joel met up with the crew shortly after. We were going fishing!!! I passed out in the cabin for about an hour as we were heading out and woke up to the feeling of large waves. We were offshore and the waves were 4-6ft with some chop. Captain Casey had me drive the “barracuda” while he set up fishing stuff and I was stoked – it is a badass boat. I’m not sure if it was the hang over or sea sickness or a combo, but I was starting to feel queasy. We would drift fish and we would troll, and all of us caught fish. We caught mackrel, king fish, Bonita, and a mahi mahi. I eventually stopped throwing up and everyone was having a great time. Nobody wanted to head back to land, but the crew had a show I corpus christi at 6pm. We made it to the dock around 4pm, cleaned the fish, and then headed to corpus. We were late to the gig at Harrisons landing and they were pissed! We still played though and had a bad ass show.  People danced, bought cd’s, and we had a blast playing (even though we were once again exhausted). They kept buying us beers and tipping us so we wouldn’t stop playing… So we didn’t! After the show we rode bikes back to the boat with our gear and passed out hard.

Wednesday 7/27 Corpus Christi
The crew slept in. We had thought about making the sail to Port Aransas, but we decided to stay another night so we could get rest and take care of some much needed boat maintenance. We also had a gig on the island at Docks that we needed to find a ride to. Jake hooked us up with a ride and even took us by west marine and guitar center. Docks was really cool and we played well. We made it back to the boat after meeting up with some friends at another bar in corpus. Supposedly there was a potential hurricane heading to Port Aransas…

Thursday 7/28 Corpus Christi – Port Aransas
The boat was ready, so we were able to leave the dock by 10am. Port Aransas bound with a reefed mainsail and medium sized headsail. We were close hauled the whole time with a good lean and punching through the waves. Blake drove the second half of the trip. We made great time, arriving at island moorings marina at about 1pm. The crew loaded up the instruments and got a ride from steve-o to Tarpon Ice House. We played out front and had a good time. When we got back to the marina everybody was talking about the Tropical Storm Don and the party we would be having for it at the marina. We passed out late.

Friday 7/29 Port Aransas
Everybody in the crew did their own thing today. Activities included swimming in the pool, hanging out at the “circle of nautical geniuses” table by the ship store, and surfing the building storm waves (way overhead when I surfed it).  When the sun went down and the storm drew closer, we started grilling fish with everybody from the marina. We cooked our catch and other peoples too. It was delicious… Mahi Mahi, Mackrel, Ling, King Fish, and shrimp. Everybody had a great time and the crew performed an unplugged concert for the party. When the storm hit there were a few raindrops and some strong gusts of wind, but nothing major. We all went to sleep pretty late.

Saturday 7/30 Port Aransas
I woke up around noon and Ryan was hanging out with the captains by the ship store, and Blake was still sleeping. I caught a ride to the pier to catch some surf and it was amazing (chest to head high clean walls with power). When I returned to the marina, everybody was hanging out by the pool and the road crew with shark attack and mama tried members was on the way. We decided to rent a golf cart for the night to make transportation easier especially since all the musicians would be here (we figured it would be fun too).  We loaded up the gear and went to the gig. Tarpon Ice House was a blast. Sound was great, crowd was great and everybody played great. So fun! All the musicians headed back to the marina. Most people slept on the boat, and a few slept on the beach.

Sunday 7/31 Port Aransas
We were supposed to head to Rockport… That didn’t happen. Instead we hung out on the beach with the guys from Mama Tried. It was a beautiful day and there was still some small longboardable swell, so we caught waves and enjoyed the day. We probably should have been getting rest for the long haul to Port O’Connor, but we didn’t. We were at the beach til about 2am. 

Monday 8/1 Port Aransas – Rockport
We were so exhausted that we decided to get more sleep, so instead of waking up at 6am as planned, we woke up around 10am. We gathered supplies and raised the mainsail at the dock for departure around 2pm.  The shackle that connects the mainsail to the halyard broke loose and got stuck at the top of the mast. Not cool. I had to climb the mast… I wasn’t able to free up the halyard but I was able to rig up a mid mast light, which had been on the to do list since the beginning of the trip. We also replaced our spare halyard which we ended up using as a temporary main halyard. We got the main back up (reefed) and the spare halyard worked ok. We couldn’t get it completely tight though because of the placement of the block (pulley) at the top of the mast. It had to go around the side stay which didn’t allow the halyard to pull straight up and caused some chafing. Oh well… The sail was up and we untied from the dock, way behind schedule. We only had time to sail to Rockport before the sun went down and would have to make up for lost time another day. We did however, make good time. With the wind and waves coming from astern, we didn’t have to use the motor much and still kept an average speed of over 6.5mph. Mostly we used our big gennoa by itself. We got to Rockport before the sun set and pulled into key allegra marina. After getting hooked up to shorepower, we rode bikes to the HEB that was only a fee miles away, and bought supplies for the next run. The crew went back to the boat, watched a movie, and passed out (early, for once).

Wednesday 7/13 Port O’Connor

The guys from Mama Tried left at about 8am, and the crew slept in.  After cleaning up a little, we got a ride into town. Josies was closed but we were able to score some fried chicken from Eloisa the owner, then we rode around town getting supplies. The list consisted of: batteries, fuel, rope, fiberglass repair kit, wire, alligator clips, pocket knife, chart of area from port oconnor to port aransas, beer, soda, water, and food. We got the supplies and went to check out the poco bueno fishing tournament. It was a busy mess of fancy million dollar sport fishing yachts, fishermen, rich assholes, staff, and pretty ladies. We didn’t stay too long cause we needed tickets and they were about $150 each. To enter a boat in the tournament costs $25,000!!!  We ended up at the cantina for cold beer and friendly faces. Melanie gave us a ride to drop off the supplies at the boat and returned us to the cantina where we hung out with the locals until the bar closed.

Thanks for the help Melanie!

Thursday 7/14 Port O’Connor – Rockport
Due to a night of partying, we did not wake up at 6am like we planned. We managed to leave the dock at 8am, and since our marina was 6 miles west of port oconnor we were about an hour closer to our next port, so I wasn’t trippin.  Ryan drove the first 6hrs while I slept and did boat repairs, cleaning and maintenance. When I took the helm, we put up the mainsail to help out with speed. The wind had been head-on until that point.

A deer crossing the ICW

 It was a windy day! Once we sailed into Aransas bay conditions got rough. We plowed through the waves at about 7mph as spray constantly got us wet.  I made the decision to pull into rockport so we didn’t have to navigate any of shallow water near port Aransas at night. We pulled into key allegro marina and were happy to see a bar (“Grog”) in the marina. During the first round of lonestars we managed to score a gig… We were to play in 2 hrs., and were stoked that the stage was only a short walk from the boat. Fun show for cool people! They seemed happy to hear something different and called their friends who came out to see the “gipsy pirates who floated into town to cause a ruckus”. What a long day… 11hrs of sailing immediately followed by a 4 hr show. I fell asleep sitting down, and didn’t make it to the v berth until I woke up hours later.