Need one good sailor

[EdHouston]

Many of us Know of Ray Deming (Ray & Wanda) Ray is in desperate need of one crew member to help him get his new boat home, she is currently in Mobile AL. Ray is heading to Mobile Tuesday July 12 to bring the boat to Palacios TX, I unfortunatly am unable to help Ray on this trip so one other good sailor would help Ray out greatly he has himself and one other currently but a third hand sure would be nice, So if you can make it Houston TX Ray will pick you up there and drop you off after you all get the boat back.

Please help if you can, this as always could prove to be a great adventure.

Ed
captedl9012@att.net

[Dale Tanski]

I hope someone can help Ray and Wanda.  I would hate to get an E-mail stating that they made a wrong turn, were mugged and robbed and are now stuck in Columbia with no money and credit cards.  I am still recovering from the last $5k I sent to the UK.

Ray, it is a long story but I have 194 vacation hours accumulated.  If you send me a ticket, promise it won't get too hot down there and Wanda is as good of a cook as you have stated in the past I will come, and I do have cat experience. 

Dale

[RayNWanda]

I can promise it IS hot down here in our subtropical climate. The reason I need two people is that Wanda ain't going. She wants no part of offshore. I do hope we can ease her into this. The last part of the trip I had 2 school teachers and an MD. We had a ball in spite of the wind being on our nose. It didn't matter where we turned the boat, the wind shifted to head us again. Fuel, fuel,fuel- the theme song of the trip. We had a partial steering failure about 30 miles out of Pensacola (we sheared one of two bolts mounting the steering cylinder), other than that, the boat has been great. Catching and grilling mackerel and tuna- we had all we wanted. Mobile is somewhere I really didn't want to be. We are now kind of boxed in by the Delta and prevailing wind. We have to go south or southwest to clear the delta (windward). Typical cat- it don't want to go there. The state waters off the delta are full of wellheads, unlighted structures, ect. Lots of obstacles. We can't cover it all in a day, so we will probably follow the safety fairway SW under power until we enter federal waters. At least there obstacles are required to be lighted or the company gets fined. Most are lit.
I was making jokes about all the money I was going to make when I sold the boat to the military. They have been looking for a way to control the weather for years. All they need is that boat. Point it where they want the wind to come from. Ah, but we got 3-4 hours of wind off the port quarter as we approached Mobile. 7.5 kts, no heel, spinnaker flying- life was good. I think I will postpone offering it to the military for now. We ran into 4 guys on another boat in Mobile delivering a boat to Kemah, Tx. They told the same story. Everywhere they pointed the boat, that's where the wind came from. They got caught in a squall off Panama City and blew a sail out, so we came out better than they did. Come to find out, I may know those guys and we just didn't recognise each other.