Louisiana Ho!

 

lots of tugs & barges in Louisiana

Friday morning, foul weather was all around us.  After weighing anchor at Petit Bois, we went west for 40 miles to Cat Island, another barrier island at the south end of Mississippi Sound.  There, we dropped anchor in its sheltered “crook” to wait for the latest storm to pass.  Once in the clear, we headed north up to Bay St. Louis, where we would spend the night in the Municipal Marina. 

Bay St. Louis Marina

Bay St. Louis is another one of these “touristy” towns one finds along the waterfront.  You got your bars, restaurants, curio shops, hotels, a marina, entertainment, bicycle rentals, et cetera.  Some other such places I’ve visited:  Key West; Friday Harbor, Washington; Lewes, Delaware; Galveston; and others.  Bay St. Louis had golf cart rentals.  Anyway, skipper Brent had some family who lived here, who dropped by the boat Friday evening for cocktails. 

galley in "The Ark"

In the marina slip next door was a humongous houseboat called “The Ark”:  76 ft long, 36 ft wide, and three stories tall (not counting the helipad up on the roof).  Her owners were Warren and Gayle.  Oh and, we learned, they also have a sprawling waterfront estate just north of Lake Pontchartrain.  Warren was 80-something, and clearly had more money than God.  We visited with them and got a tour of his magnificent boat.  He says he built it himself, in his back yard!  The galley, salon, and bar put mine at home to shame!  Twenty guests, plus hired crew, could comfortably sleep aboard.  One thing about boat people, I’ve learned thru the years, is that they are as nice and friendly as can be.  Especially the ones with the BIG boats! 

The crew of Just One More Day stayed up late that night plotting how to get across Louisiana.  The three of us were pecking at our devices, researching canals, bridges, locks, weather forecasts, and calculating distances as we tossed out options and weighed the pros and cons.  Going around or thru the Mississippi River delta did not sound fun at all because, with the southerly wind projections, we’d have to motor dead upwind for over a hundred miles.  We finally decided to take the ICW right thru New Orleans.  It would be slow and zig-zagity, with potential delays at all the locks and drawbridges - but if we gotta motor that far, at least the scenery would be interesting and the waters would be calm.  

West of Vermillion Bay, we devised a plan to exit to the Gulf via a waterway known as Fresh Water Bayou.  By then (about Wednesday), the wind was supposed to shift to the south, giving us a beam reach all the way home.  Sails up, baby! 

storm clouds

Sunday morning we left Bay St. Louis as gloomy-looking storm clouds gathered.  As we headed out to the Gulf, the clouds continued to get darker and gloomier.  Soon the entire horizon was black with storms.  Rain and high winds didn’t bother us - but lightning was a different story, and lightning and thunder was everywhere.  We spent a few hours in drenching downpours, watching nature’s light show.  Thankfully, none got us. 

Where the ICW meets Mississippi Sound, we entered the Louisiana marshes.  The rain was still falling, but at least we now had calm waters, and a significant change of scenery.  25 miles ahead laid New Orleans, and our next set of challenges:  locks, drawbridges, and barges. 

inside the Industrial Lock

In New Orleans, the ICW comes to a fork.  Turning northward takes you to Lake Pontchartrain.  Turning southward takes you through Industrial Canal, a 2 ½ mile long stretch of waterway with a whopping three drawbridges plus the infamous Industrial Locks.  Those locks raise your boat up 4 feet to the Mississippi River.  Each of these obstructions must be contacted individually via VHF to request passage.  Oh and recreational vessels such as ours are the lower priority, after the commercial traffic, so we had to wait about 30 minutes for our turn.  I had been through here about 3 years ago, so I was somewhat familiar with the process.  But my two novice crewmates gawked in amazement at lock passage. 

Mississippi River

Then we were out in the Mississippi River, running downstream with the 3 knot current.  4 ½ miles later we exited the river for the Algiers locks.  Fortunately, there were no other barges waiting - it was Sunday, after all - and the lock gates were open so the lockmaster told us to  just cruise right on in.  We were then lowered back down 4 feet, and were cruising southbound on this fresh-water canal.  

friendly locals in a powerboat

The sun was going down and we needed to find a place to stop for the night.  A powerboat with three friendly locals came up alongside us, and we struck up conversation.  The guy said he would show us a nice anchorage.  We ended up in a lovely little spot near a massive pumping station and a humongous flood wall.  This area, evidently, has some pretty extensive infrastructure for hurricane protection. 

Stay tuned for more adventure! 

Capt. David