Left Houma in patchy fog to make our way to New Orleans running across the Barataria Waterway through the town of Larose (beginning of Cajun Country). Weather was cooperating with sun shine and light winds for this mix of Cajun country and heavy industrial. Of course New Orleans brings the dreaded 'locks'! This first picture is the Harvey Lock, as before, we were the only boat in this lock and I could hear the guy instructing me on what and where to do it! He informed us that the Mississippi had risen over 3' the last several days requiring an 11' lift up to the Mississippi and to be aware of logs and trees floating down river in its 5 mile an hour current (made for an interesting trip down the Old Miss.
Then we moved onto my next biggest fear, the Industrial Locks (east side of the Mississippi). As we approached we were instructed to move in behind this draw bridge and hang tight. Thinking this was easy, little did we know that we would be 'hanging tight' for more than an hour. Capt. B was getting dizy going around in circle - after circle - after circle! Finally, we heard and saw this rusted draw bridge begin its squeaky rise. I was afraid it was going to fall apart at any moment, but we made it!
This tow was a double wide hauling a crane and he was the only other vessel going into the lock with us. If I thought I was nervous, this capt. must have been hysterical, he didn't even have enough space between him and the wall to fit an ant! But, unlike last time he turned off his engines, so I could hear the guy instructing me on what and where he wanted me to hook my line. This time, I was prepared to the max! Life jacket that I could move around in, head set to talk to Capt B, heavy duty gloves, ugly deck shoes that did not slip, and my handy dandy 'knife'! If he gave me any 'lip' I was prepared to take action! Just kidding, but I was more than ready to slit that line if I needed to! Happily all went smoothly. So I began to relax when we exited and thought that we were home free. NOT!
As we approached the Florida Bridge at 3:50pm, the bridge monitor informed us that they were closing the bridge until 5:45pm, because of the 'curfew'. What curfew? There went my relaxing evening! So here we go again, Capt. B running around in circles, but this time for approx. 2 hours! Wheeeee, are we having fun yet!
Okay, we finally passed through the Florida Bridge and headed for Seabrook Marina, which was only 20 minutes away. Now we see that we are going to have to go through another draw bridge and this bridge operator had a real bad attitude (she was probably tired, like me) so, as nicely as possible I had to asked her to repeat, several times what she was saying - well I guess she thought I was being a snit, so after the 4th try, I think she said that a train was coming and "how did she know how long it would be before she could open the bridge for us"! That was the last conversation we had, so we didn't know if she would let us through or not. Anyway, we finally made it to the marina and, of course, there was no slip available by the time we arrived. We tied up to a small fish boat dock, with no shore power, and ran the generator for the night. When we finally got dinner ready and had a chance to catch our breath, I informed Capt. B that it must have been at least 2am in the morning, and I was going to bed. When my head hit the pillow, I glanced at the clock - it was only 9pm! Good grief, getting old really stinks!
Departed the Seabrook Marina after a quick stop at the fuel dock making our way to Biloxi. Another cooperative weather day with light winds on Mississippi Sound arriving Biloxi early afternoon for a short day on the water.
Tomorrow we head to Gulf Shores, La.
No comments:
Post a Comment