Position Report March 30, 2014 

Hi All,

We are once again under way for a 6 month or so cruise this year. One of the nice things, Guenevere fits on a trailer, not just in a slip. Jill and I both thought it's been a LONG time since we were in New Orleans La., and Mardi Gras was coming up soon.

Sooooo, like last year, we hooked up the trailer to our truck, but this year headed east on Feb 13. We arrived here at the Seabrook Marina and yard on Feb 16, in time for Mardi Gras!

First, a few quick facts on the tow.

From the storage yard near Phoenix Az. to SeaBrook Marine in New Orleans was 1, 524 statue miles.

We took the I-10 all the way.
We spent 3 nights in a hotels. Drove 4 days.
We filled up just before departing and refilled 6 times on the trip, including the last fill.
We used 143.42 Gallons of diesel.
We averaged 10.75 MPG.
Our best was New Mexico to Texas at 12.31 MPG
Our lowest was the last part of Texas at 10.06 MPG It was a very rough road.

We had one (1) somewhat of a problem. About half way on the trip, we lost our left equalizer hitch bar. During a fill up and check it was there. At the next fill up, it was gone. We made no sharp turns, but it was a rough road.

During the trip we had very good weather. No rain or high winds.

A photo a friend, Charlie Johns, took of us when we were in Houston.

Now on to some of our feelings.....

All in all, we felt it was not a “hard” trip. We feel that although it was twice as far as we towed last year, it was easier. We did not have any large mountains to go over and there was a lot of nice smooth straight well maintained highway. There was some road in need of repair, but mostly good.

UNLIKE when we towed from Georgia to the SF Bay area behind an old gas powered V8 Dodge van and 2 axle Easyloader!! … ;-)

Once we arrived here at the yard, they placed Guenevere in a shed! How nice we have a smaller boat! During some of the VERY heavy rain, we are nice and dry.

Soooo, during the days we worked on getting the boat ready for the water, but in the evening, what fun we have been having!!!! We attend a number of the wonderful parades and have a BIG stash of beads and all the other items they toss from the floats, including plush toys (Chica's favorite), LED lighted items, doubloons, and all types of beads!!

AND, on top of all that, we have found Seabrook to be some type of magic marina!

OK, so it might not be real magic, but sure is a bit spooky!

We got here on February 16 to be able to be at Mardi Gras. At the same time we were checking in, another LARGE new power boat was trucked in. We were both in the office together and said our hellos. A couple of days later, the owner of that boat was getting ready to depart (before Mardi Gras!) to get to his home marina further east. I was sitting at the office checking e-mail when he walked up wearing an F-22 ball cap from the same program I was on a long time ago. I asked if he was on that program and he said yes, so we started talking and he asked if I knew another guy who had out of the blue volunteered to act as crew and help deliver. DID I, I SURE did!!! We had been buds over 24 years ago!! Working on the P-3 program, traveling and SCUBA diving in the Bahamas together! We had a great, but to short,catch up.

Now that would be a fluke. BUT....

They had to move us out of the shed we were in for one (1) day we were here. We were again back at the office using the e-mail, a couple came walking up and the lady said 'You need a haircut”. WOW WOW, it was Gordon and Susie of S/V Sprite from the Sea of Cortez! We have not seen them in about 6 years!!!!! They are now in an RV with there power boat in Alaska. They parked in an RV park next to us here in Seabrook and as they drove down the drive, in that one day, saw Guenevere parked sideways in front the of the shed and found us. We spent a couple of days catching up talking about old times.

You can see that haircut we talk about on Youtube at; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCN9t4N_IdQ&feature=share

What a yard this is! If you lost contact with any one, stop by here, you might just catch up with them!

We expect to be here for a couple more weeks as we finish up the boat and exploring the area.

Also, a small note, Chica sure does seem to be HAPPY to be back aboard the boat!

That's it for now

Greg & Jill