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Port Aransas, TX Wooden Boat festival, and onward...


Docpal

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   Is anyone planning to attend the Port Aransas,TX Wooden Boat festival at the end of the month?

http://www.portaransasplywoodenboatfestival.org/index.htm

 "Petunia" and I are going to stop by for the full three days and become one of the "boats on display" . They took a MAJOR hit from Harvey so this event  is one of the first stages in the rebuilding process. Local hotels are slowly reopening, and in the next 3-4 weeks I think they'll be able to host everyone interested in seeing the local fleet. Hope to see some more B & B boats in Texas....

  After Port Aransas Petunia and I are going to keep heading West, and then South for awhile until we get down to Southern  Baja, Mexico....I've sold my house, packed everything into a storage locker, got a new trailer (insurance covered the total loss on the last one), put a rebuilt engine into my towing vehicle, and I'm now in the process of stuffing gear,clothes, boat stuff inside of her for what I am guessing will be close to a 4,000 mile trip. The "plan" (I'm getting too old for plans...) is to spend the Winter sailing the Sea of Cortez and off shore islands. After a number of "exploratory visits" to the area this past Winter  I am really looking forward to a place with over a thousand miles of beachable coastline where you might not see another boat for a long time.

I'm taking down some Duckworks gear for "testing" , I have ideas for a few more "modifications"to try out, and I have friends in the area who have run Eco tours for 35 years so I am really excited about finally getting a chance to sail the coast.

 If anyone happens to be in the area between Nov 1-May 1 and wants to go sailing, drop me a note....

Bill Palumbo

AKA "Docpal"

Beach-campground-1.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Passed through Port Aransas a few weeks ago, and stopped by even though the festival had to be canceled as there weren't enough hotels open yet to accommodate visitors.

Visited Farley boat works and dropped off a large box of "spare parts" for them to use in their building programs. They were replacing motors on their power tools as they had a few feet of water IN the boat shop during Harvey. Some buildings were totaled, and one of those very large multi story "storage racks" for power boats was completely crumpled with all of the boats still inside.....

Kept rolling onward and in spite of a few technical/political issues (I had to cross the border at Tecate a total of FOUR times as they didn't SEE Petunia behind my explorer and made me go across the border again, this time sort of backwards....) Finally got through and then had an ugly 2 day drive down the Baja peninsula as the main/only highway was heavily pock marked with large,deep pot holes from their hurricane , Lidia, in September. Numerous blow outs on the side of the road all the way down. And while many of the speed bumps on the highway are marked by signs, more than a few were not, and at times I had all six wheels (explorer/trailer) airborne at the same time.

Got into Loreto Thursday evening exactly 4,000 miles from NJ. Dropped Petunia off at a storage yard, unpacked the car, and had a few friends shanghai me to a deserted beach/bay 40 kilometers out of town. Kayaked remote arroyos at high tide, snorkeled around weird cactus crowned islands, and slept on the beach for a  blazing full moon. Will spend the next few days doing minor repairs to Petunia (cockpit fittings vibrated on the bumpy road so much that screws/nuts/bolts worked their way loose...), and then see about doing some sailing.

More to follow....

Cactus-island.jpg

Arroyo-at-low-tide.jpg

Kayaking-beach.jpg

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