Settling In

Every now and then you land somewhere new, pause to take a look around and say, “Yeah, this is it”. I spent the week in Kemah settling into my new office and new home, Romance. Many times I’ve moved and told myself I’d make an effort to get more involved in the community and get to know the people I was living around. It never seemed to happen for one reason or another. I was dedicated to doing the same thing with this move and amazingly, the community seems to be pulling me into it more than I’ve gone out looking for them.

The first part of the week was pretty slow even through I have a million things I wanted to get done to the boat. As the week moved on I seemed to pick up steam tackling jobs like removing the old autopilot, installing new Lewmar 40 self tailing winches, replacing the genoa sheets, taking my primary 150% genoa to Cameron Sails, and generally cleaning the place up. At the end of Thursday I ran into the harbor restaurant for a burger and ran into a really cool local couple. I was a little freaked out as the guy looks like the identical twin of my buddy Jeremy in Dallas. They both have the same oversized head and are brilliant when it comes to military history. They were good folks I am hoping to stay in touch with.

The same night I met a Brit who lives locally and was throwing a “black tie optional” St. Georges Party tonight (sat). Long story short, I’ve pulled out my best suit and will be heading up the ramp this evening to meet all kinds of locals out to live up St. Georges. Turns out St. Georges is the British equivalent of the Irish’s St. Patty’s Day. This gave me a great way to meet the locals at what should be a pretty cool event. They even hooked me up with a skipper who is looking for crew on the Sat. and Wed. J109 racing circuit.

Friday, as I am finishing up the winch job, one of my neighbors pulled back into their slip after a week long cruise. Next thing I know I am sitting back in the same bar as the night before having drinks and talking boat projects. I was definitely sorry to see the Razorbacks move off the pier, but turns out I’ve still got some really cool neighbors. These are the kind of people it’s fun to grab a beer with and they have been filling me in on all the local hotspots. I’ve got to get the dink in the water as it looks like that’s the safest way to bar hop around Kemah considering the police force is really, really bored.

Things are coming together in a good way.