Day 254-255, Final things on hard, Mast installed

Mast

On Friday, first thing in the morning, we arranged with the boatyard to assist us with the crane to step the mast. My son Andriy and I stepped the mast and secured it tightly enough to climb up and disconnect the crane hook within about 40 minutes.

At the beginning, it wasn’t clear how much clearance there was between the mast and the overhead high-voltage line. It turned out the clearance was quite small — probably about 50–60 feet — but we were able to step the mast without any electrical shock 😉

After the mast was set up, we asked to be lifted on the travel lift so we could apply bottom paint to the centerboard and the bottom surface of the keel. The boatyard asked us to move the originally planned splash to the end of the day on Friday.

Centerboard

When boat get in air I found the centerboard requires some serious work. As first when it released it travels too much in front, second problem is the centerboard is not tight side to side, shaft and centerboard swing bearing have a very big gap and no slide plates to keep centerboard stable. Centerboard bottom side moves about 10" side to side. And third, several inches of the board is chipped out.

It would be nice to repair or rebuild it, but I ran out of time at the boatyard and didn’t feel like staying on the hard for another week or two.

On the other hand, over the next couple of years I don’t expect to use it much anyway, since Galveston Bay is very shallow and a 7-foot draft is not what I’ll need.

So, I decided to skip this part of the repair work for now and plan to address it later — maybe even do it in the water.

Andriy is ready to clean centerboard and prep for painting.

He cleaned the centerboard and the bottom of the keel, and then we applied two coats of TotalBoat Spartan bottom paint.

Back to the water

VIDEO

We are going back to the water.

Friday 13, low bridge, first time in Galveston bay, moonless night, dense fog, shallow and narrow channel, what could go wrong.

We left Hillman Boatyard in Dickinson, TX (29°27.663'N 94°58.477'W) at 5:00 PM, waiting for high tide so we’d have enough water to get through the channel. The plan was to make our way to Kemah Boardwalk Marina (29°32.691'N 95°01.191'W).

Right from the start, we had a challenge: a 44-foot bridge, while our boat carries about 46 feet of air draft. So we had to get creative. To squeeze under, we heeled the boat over. One crew member climbed out onto the boom, another leaned hard over the port side, and we managed to get about a 10-degree roll. We mounted a camera at the masthead to watch the clearance in real time. It was tight — very tight — but we made it through.

After the bridge, we settled into the long, shallow stretch of Dickinson Bayou Channel — 5.8 nautical miles of carefully following the markers in skinny water. From there, we ran 2.6 miles parallel to the Galveston Bay ship channel toward Redfish Island, keeping well clear of the big traffic. Then it was 4.1 miles across toward the eastern entrance of Kemah Channel, and another 2.3 miles inside the channel to reach the marina.

The first part of the trip was pleasant enough in daylight. But around sunset, fog started creeping in. At first it was manageable, then it got thicker… and thicker… until we could barely see a boat length ahead. The channel marker lights were only visible from about 50 feet away. For nearly two-thirds of the trip, we were navigating entirely by instruments — GPS and compass — because visually there was almost nothing to see.

It felt surreal moving through complete grayness, trusting the electronics and the chart plotter while listening carefully for other boats. Thankfully, traffic was light. Once we were lined up properly in the Kemah Channel, things became much easier, and the final stretch into the marina was calm and uneventful.

A challenging departure, some tense moments, but a good reminder of how much preparation and teamwork matter out there.

Moment of truth.