Shipwrecked on a paddlewheel boat in Kemah

Taking a break from regularly scheduled running blogging, here's an Anna-omoly.....

I went on our annual Krewe Du Lac (Kemah Mardi Gras Krewe) paddlewheel boat/bead tossing excursion aboard the paddlewheel boat Spirit of Texas on Sunday. The cruising part came to an abrupt hault after we rammed the boardwalk, ruining a good hunk.

We cruised along the Kemah boardwalk & were throwing beads to the people on the boardwalk. On the 2nd pass the captain came on the PA system and was frantically saying "watch out" (or something like that). I wasn't sure if he was talking to the people on the boardwalk, a boat, or the folks upstairs (I was downstairs at
that point). I looked out the window and realized we were going to ram the boardwalk!

The first hit took out about 8 boards between the Cadillac bar & the Flying Dutchman, leaving a BIG hole in the boardwalk. (So pedestrians would have to go all the way around) The second hit - closer to the bridge, I think right past the Aquarium only marred a
pylon (no boardwalk there), but was a BIG hit that knocked a lot of people on the boat to the ground despite the captain's frantic warnings to hang on (some people sitting in chairs fell over
backwards). Most all cocktails were lost & two people downstairs were bleeding (not sure about upstairs). Some people panicked after that (the drunkards). For the final hit, everyone downstairs was either in a chair or on the floor and braced. That hit wasn't too bad of a jolt & just took out 3 boards on the end of
the walkway.

The captain said (after hit #1) that we lost the engines, throttle & steering. Jennifer said the engines did sound odd before the first hit.

They got the boat tied up to the boardwalk by Pappadeaux and we waited with the band playing on, the bar staying open, and boaters coming by for beads until we had to abandon ship (after about an hour) onto a pontoon party boat in groups of 30 to go back
to Endeavor Marina.

Kemah & Seabrook police both came on board. Someone said the Coast Guard too, but I'm not sure about that. We had to sign a passenger manifest on the rescue boat. And I have a pic of me kissing the dock when we safely arrived back.

Shipwrecked on a paddlewheel boat in Kemah -
hysterical!

Wahoo!
Anna