Houma - Madisonville

Man did we like Houma had my cousin Judy and her husband Terry visit on Friday. Wish I would have met him a long time ago. We had a lot in common. My son Chris & Kerry came down Saturday, they took some people we had met on a 30' cat to return one of those portable a/c unites. Then took Karen & I grocery shopping.

Left Houma about 6 a.m. headed towards the Harvey Locks. Got to Lafitte, La and I can tell you this is a place we could live. Just 35 minites to the French Quarter. Lafitte got it's name from the Pirate Jean Lafitte. Humors are that Jean Lafitte has teasure hidden in the canals off from the intercoastal. I think the the gator count around here out weighs the teasure hunting. Nice homes along the ICW with shrimp boats behind them. These shrimpers are not hurting. Most of them are working for BP cleaning up the oil spill. We saw lots of diapers and booms on their shrimp boats. We found out that to work the spill you have to agree to sell your hull to BP after you finished. You can keep everything except the hull.

Saw some old river boats and casino boats. Lots of commercial boats up close to the Harvey Locks.

Lock through the Harvey with no problems. Rose up about 5 feet to river height. They we very nice. Down the Mississippi River past the French Quarter up to the Industrial Canal Locks where there was a red flag tow in front of us. Went around the side of the Lock and tied to part of the Lock that was floating. They called us in with a tow boat with no barge and a light Louisiana boat. Locked us in and Karen tied the rope they drooped down to us off to our mid cleat. Well the guy was on the phone so he did not give Karen any instructions. Water starts going out. The boat starts drooping. The port side of our boat stays up held by rope. I start calling them on the radio and Karen cuts the rope. They drop us down another rope and then we head out the locks.

Stayed at the Seabrook Marina, just before going into Lake Pontchartrain. Karen had some heat exhaustion. But felt better after getting cooled off.

Got up Tuesday after sleeping in. Had a very nice ride across Lake Pontchartrain to Marina Del Ray in Madisonville, La. We will stay here a few weeks. It's Karen's class reunion this weekend in the French Quarter.

Lake Charles - Houma

Well things did not quite go as planned. We left Lake Charles Tuesday morning. Down to the ICW then our first lock took about 1 hour. After we passed through the first pontoon bridge we heard the second pontoon bridge call out that the cable just broke and they would be down for a couple of hours.

We also needed to stop and fuel up. So after a 3 hour delay we made it to Talens Fuel Dock about 4:30 pm. It was another 40 miles to nearest marina. The guy who remembered Jay told us to we could tie up to this half sunk barge in a canal across from the fuel dock.

It was hot so we started the gen and spent the night tied to this barge. We woke up to a gator visiting us for coffee behind our boat. He was looking at us as if we're his his breakfast.

Wednesday morning we ran on down to Shell Morgan Landing in Abbyville, La and had shrimp poboys in the deli across the street. About 9 pm some kind of commercial jack up rig came and docked next to us. Karen got scared it was going to throw us off the wall.

Up early Thursday hoping to make Houma. We hear about the tropical depression. It rains pretty hard for the first few hours. Thank goodness for the enclosure.

We get a text from Christopher saying it is now a Tropical Storm heading our way. Saw a neat little cable ferry and some of the prettiest scenery in La. When we get into Houma it is so pretty we decide we will just stay and get our office work done and wait out Tropical Storm Bonnie here.

Friday morning we get boarded by the US Customs & Border Patrol. Three of them come down into the main salon. They ask for our driver's license & documentation. As Ron was getting the documentation out one of the officers noticed a spider on the blinds next to Ron's head. One of the officers said he would jump off the boat if the spider gets near. Another one the the officers said just get out of the way we'll open fire on it. Then Ron screams like a little girl and says kill it Karen kill it! So I didn't kill but broke the blinds trying.

We have a great Internet connection here. We missed having Internet & cell phone service Since we left Lake Charles.

Pics are:

The first pic is Laberge Du Lac Casino

Me waiting for the pontoon bridge

The barge we tied up to overnight

Rain ahead at sunrise

Shell Morgan Landing

Cable Ferry

US Customs & Boarder Petrol

Lake Charles - New Orleans

Had a good visit with family in Lake Charles, moving on after week one.

Going for another Tuesday departure from Lake Charles, La. Hope to make Avery Island/Morgan Shell Landing. Stopping for fuel along the way. It's about an 11 hour run. plus two swing bridges & one lock. If we can't make it we will anchor at Avery Island.

30 percent chance of rain for tomorrow in Lake Charles.

Next day Wednesday we plan on making Morgan City a 7.5 hour run from Avery Island. Then on to LaFitte on Thursday a 9.5 hour run. Which will leave us about 3 hours to the Harvey Locks for Friday. Then either overnight in the Industrial Canal or cross Lake Pontchartrain another 5 hours to our son Christopher & his new wife Kerry's home & a marina in Madisonville, La.

Kemah - Lake Charles

The first pic is Summertime at Olmstede's, the second of the rocks being placed along the ICW. These rocks run for miles. Our tax dollars at work no doubt.

We left the dock at Portofino on a Tuesday at 6 a.m. nice 10 - 15 knot Southwest wind blowing. South down the Ship Channel to ICW a little choppy but mostly right on the bow. Lots of ship traffic, tows & shrimpers. Only saw one other Pleasure Craft a 45' Hatteras.

We get to our designated anchorage at Shell Island about 5:30 p.m. (Port Arthur) with lots of daylight left and mosquitoes we decide to keep going. We called the marina in Lake Charles and found out what slip to go into.

Darkness found use about to pass under the Ellender bridge (2 hours to Lake Charles at 9 mph), where 2 tows pulled in front of use. A whole line of tows are on the south bank, waiting to go through the Calcasieu Locks. I guess they were all waiting for dark because they all started pulling out like rush hour in Houston. This was fun!!

Passed a couple of tows just as we were turning up the Calcasieu River for the run up to Lake Charles. The refinery lights are so bright it's hard to see the water. Thank goodness for the radar & GPSMap.

A BIG ship is coming out of one of the refineries north of the 210 bridge, just as we approach the bridge from the south. He calls us on channel 13 and warns us he is going to use the whole ship channel to make his turn. Also just to make things interesting a dredge is working just South of the bridge and a tow is south bound coming around the dredge. Another tow is north bound on the north side of the dredge. Ran the engines up and out ran the ship. Attacked by mosquitoes and got mosquito spray in my eyes just as all this was happening. Then ducked into Contraband Bayou. Glade to be away from all the commercial traffic!

Grew up here so I have been down this bayou a hundred times or more at night. But it sure was dark with only a sliver of a moon. The marina, Olmstede's is all the way to the bridge. Had to back into the slip. I am really out of practice, since I normally pull forward into our slip at Portofino. It wasn't pretty but we finally got in.

Plugged in, got to bed about midnight after a 16.5 hour boat ride.

Note to self, stop at Stingaree overnight next time!

Restart

Well it looks like we are going to depart for Lake Charles, La again on Tuesday July 13. The weather looks good and most of the trash should have washed down the rivers from all the rain & high tides. Hope to spend the night at Shell Island (on the ICW near Port Aurthur) then on to Olmsted Shipyard. Just around the corner from my Mom's house.

False Start

Well I guess what we have here is a bit of a false start. After a haul out and new Thu hull we have returned to our slip at Portofino. Looks like some bad weather coming this way from Louisiana. Beautiful here in Clear Lake today though. We will wait for another weather window. Also visitation schedules all messed up now.

Spent the night in the travel lift slip at Hillmans with the gen set running. Not exactly what I hoped for. At least it was free. See pic. Summertime in the Travel Lift sling see pic. It took Raymond about 4 hours, good thing the yard was slow. They just left me in the lift the whole time and only charged me for a quick haul.

Departure Sort of

Got up at 5 a.m. this morning Steve, Jeff, Darla & Jay were up to see us off. Steve & Jay took out Steves boat just ahead of us for a morning sail. See in pic. We get out to the bay and rev the engines up to 2K rpm and the starboard engine starts over heating. So we back it down to 1500 rpm and it runs a little above normal. So we anchor behind Redfish Island so I can get in the water to check the saltwater intake. Seems clean so I try to pull off the intake hose and can not get it off. So we decide to go down to Galveston hook up to electric and get the a/c going. I get the hose off and I have a broken Ball-Valve on the Sea cock.

We get on the phone (it's 4th of July Holiday) but we get a haul out and ball-valve at Hillmans Marina setup for tomorrow morning.

Hope tomarrow is a lot easier!

Departure Party

Our good friends Doug & Karen gave us a going away party Thursday night. Fajitas, Margareta's and lots of fantastic side dishes. Man what a good time sure makes it hard to leave. Maybe we can wait a couple of weeks and get another party! Here are some pics from the party. Thanks to everyone who came & brought something to share.

Karen & the ladies put on a fashion show with Cyndi's Tye-Dyed cloths

We had lots of rain from Hurricane Alex the water is over the dock at Three Amegos and almost even with the Island.