Tuesday, November 12, 2013
New Orleans Zoo
Spent the day here killing time. We were leaving in the AM after 9 days in New Orleans. Not recommended.
NOLA zoo
NOLA zoo
We spent the night at LuLu's...Jimmy Buffet's Sister's restaurant...almost
We had choices. Stay at LuLu's Marina, which is where the restaurant is, or across the ICW, only 100 feet across, at the broken down abandon docks. Where did we stay? it's cheaper here. The docks smelled, I mean really smelled like marijuana. It was thick, good stuff.
The docks were part of an old abandon warehouse. This big aluminum siding, metal structure with broken out windows, graffiti on the doors, paint cans on the ground, overgrown weeds, 8'chain link fence surrounds the place and old clothes inside, it seems there was an illegal residence(s) not too long ago.
Well we wanted to go to the store, and Google maps tells us there is a Winn Dixie and a produce store just a 1/2 mile away. The problem is this big metal building. We walked around it. The owner I guess decided to build an 8ft chain link fence to keep the people in or out, not sure which. We did manage to find the hole cut out by the residences. the owner also found this hole and put 2 rebars in front of it, but we managed to get through. The guys building the house next door looked at the 2 homeless people with a backpack coming out of this shelter kinda funny. But we made it to Winn Dixie and the liquor store and the gas station (to go to the bathroom) .
We left in the AM. Don't feel you you have to run out and head to LuLu's....it's not all that.
The docks were part of an old abandon warehouse. This big aluminum siding, metal structure with broken out windows, graffiti on the doors, paint cans on the ground, overgrown weeds, 8'chain link fence surrounds the place and old clothes inside, it seems there was an illegal residence(s) not too long ago.
Well we wanted to go to the store, and Google maps tells us there is a Winn Dixie and a produce store just a 1/2 mile away. The problem is this big metal building. We walked around it. The owner I guess decided to build an 8ft chain link fence to keep the people in or out, not sure which. We did manage to find the hole cut out by the residences. the owner also found this hole and put 2 rebars in front of it, but we managed to get through. The guys building the house next door looked at the 2 homeless people with a backpack coming out of this shelter kinda funny. But we made it to Winn Dixie and the liquor store and the gas station (to go to the bathroom) .
We left in the AM. Don't feel you you have to run out and head to LuLu's....it's not all that.
More lessons learned.
When anchoring, anchor like the wind is going to blow 50 knots and you the waves will come over the front of the boat....because it just might happen.
The weather guy on the VHF radio said up to 5 knots tonight. My ass...it was up to 25 knots before that night ended. It was a long night.
The anchorage was not great if the winds come from the East or North. Guess what. .....yup Northeast. It's worse if the winds pick up...yup 25 Knots.
Earlier in the evening before the sun went down, we anchored in calm weather, and only 1 other boat around. Those 2 people on that boat happened to be naked on the beach. She was pulling a large driftwood stump back to the boat and he was walking the beach. Welcome to Alabama.
The night started nice. lots of stars, calm waters, and our friend billy did not show up at our boat. But then things turned for the worst.
The wind picked up. Well the wind generator worked all night and charged our batteries to the top. That was the first time the windy actually carried his weight on the boat. Prior to that night, that thing was just added weight. That night, he worked hard. And vibrated the boat a lot.
The wind picked up, the waves picked up, we got scared. About 12:39 I asked Marina what time it was, she said she doubted it was time to get up. The front of the boat where Marina sleeps, well should I say used to sleep, is an interesting place. As the waves come up to the boat, the front of the boat rises and you feel like you gained 20 pounds from the pressure of the rise. As the boat comes down off the wave, you lose 40 pounds, now you are near weightlessness. On top of that you get a bit of forward motion as the anchor chain grabs ahold and pulls and hangs on to the bottom of the ocean. Now I want you to sleep!!!!!!!!!!!
About 12:39 I go out side to readjust the anchor set up I have. This takes me about 1 hour. I wish I could tell you in detail, but what I can say, at night, some of the fears go away. You can't see that you you can't see land on 3 sides of you. All you see is your boat and 3 feet of water around you. I could be in lake Travis. I adjusted in the dark. Do you know what it's like to pull 24,000 pounds of boat forward so you can loosen the tension and let out more anchor chain. Well you can only pull it forward on the downward motion of the boat on the wave. On the upward motion you better have that rope wrapped around something, because you can't hold it. I have a black finger nail to prove that. It almost got stuck in the windlass...i yanked it out.
After that was done, I went back inside to sleep...ya right. about 1 hour later I went to check on things. Back to the front of the boat. Wind still blowing, waves still pounding. I proceed to the front of the boat and kneel down near the anchor line. My left forearm touches something soft. It feels like feathers.....wait it is feathers. it's a Blue Heron. It's a big bird that is sleeping on the side of the boat. He stands about 1 foot tall and wing span about 4 feet. He didn't notice that I touched him, but i did. he was sleeping( Bastard). I backed up...looked. and got scared. His head was in his feathers. he probably didn't hear or notice me because of the wind and waves. All at once he woke up. He looked, I looked. noone moved. I kinda approached him with my channel locks in my hand, he didn't move. I backup off. hmm....This time i touched him with the channel locks, he flew down to the water. This won't be the last time I hear from him.....I look at the anchor lines and go back inside.
About 5 minutes later..."KEVIN WHAT WAS THAT", I say "I don't know". it sounds like we just ran over a pile of stainless steel tubing. chang, chang, chang, cling, chang. this lasted for 2 seconds and then gone. What the fuck was that?
I go back out side. I see that damn bird flapping his wings and heading out into the water. The problem is his wings were banging against the stainless steel life lines which are held up by stainless steel posts. it makes quite a racket.
We didn't sleep much that night. Lesson learned. The weather man is wrong and anchor like the wind is going to blow 50 knots. Then at least I would not have had to spend so much time reanchoring at 1 am in the am.
The weather guy on the VHF radio said up to 5 knots tonight. My ass...it was up to 25 knots before that night ended. It was a long night.
The anchorage was not great if the winds come from the East or North. Guess what. .....yup Northeast. It's worse if the winds pick up...yup 25 Knots.
Earlier in the evening before the sun went down, we anchored in calm weather, and only 1 other boat around. Those 2 people on that boat happened to be naked on the beach. She was pulling a large driftwood stump back to the boat and he was walking the beach. Welcome to Alabama.
The night started nice. lots of stars, calm waters, and our friend billy did not show up at our boat. But then things turned for the worst.
The wind picked up. Well the wind generator worked all night and charged our batteries to the top. That was the first time the windy actually carried his weight on the boat. Prior to that night, that thing was just added weight. That night, he worked hard. And vibrated the boat a lot.
The wind picked up, the waves picked up, we got scared. About 12:39 I asked Marina what time it was, she said she doubted it was time to get up. The front of the boat where Marina sleeps, well should I say used to sleep, is an interesting place. As the waves come up to the boat, the front of the boat rises and you feel like you gained 20 pounds from the pressure of the rise. As the boat comes down off the wave, you lose 40 pounds, now you are near weightlessness. On top of that you get a bit of forward motion as the anchor chain grabs ahold and pulls and hangs on to the bottom of the ocean. Now I want you to sleep!!!!!!!!!!!
About 12:39 I go out side to readjust the anchor set up I have. This takes me about 1 hour. I wish I could tell you in detail, but what I can say, at night, some of the fears go away. You can't see that you you can't see land on 3 sides of you. All you see is your boat and 3 feet of water around you. I could be in lake Travis. I adjusted in the dark. Do you know what it's like to pull 24,000 pounds of boat forward so you can loosen the tension and let out more anchor chain. Well you can only pull it forward on the downward motion of the boat on the wave. On the upward motion you better have that rope wrapped around something, because you can't hold it. I have a black finger nail to prove that. It almost got stuck in the windlass...i yanked it out.
After that was done, I went back inside to sleep...ya right. about 1 hour later I went to check on things. Back to the front of the boat. Wind still blowing, waves still pounding. I proceed to the front of the boat and kneel down near the anchor line. My left forearm touches something soft. It feels like feathers.....wait it is feathers. it's a Blue Heron. It's a big bird that is sleeping on the side of the boat. He stands about 1 foot tall and wing span about 4 feet. He didn't notice that I touched him, but i did. he was sleeping( Bastard). I backed up...looked. and got scared. His head was in his feathers. he probably didn't hear or notice me because of the wind and waves. All at once he woke up. He looked, I looked. noone moved. I kinda approached him with my channel locks in my hand, he didn't move. I backup off. hmm....This time i touched him with the channel locks, he flew down to the water. This won't be the last time I hear from him.....I look at the anchor lines and go back inside.
About 5 minutes later..."KEVIN WHAT WAS THAT", I say "I don't know". it sounds like we just ran over a pile of stainless steel tubing. chang, chang, chang, cling, chang. this lasted for 2 seconds and then gone. What the fuck was that?
I go back out side. I see that damn bird flapping his wings and heading out into the water. The problem is his wings were banging against the stainless steel life lines which are held up by stainless steel posts. it makes quite a racket.
We didn't sleep much that night. Lesson learned. The weather man is wrong and anchor like the wind is going to blow 50 knots. Then at least I would not have had to spend so much time reanchoring at 1 am in the am.
Monday, November 4, 2013
Juan joined us in New Orleans for Halloween. Lots of Fun LOL, OMG.HAHAHAHA
We spent Halloween on Bourbon Street. Ya it's fun!!!! Last I heard we all had a good time. The next night we repeated and by the 3rd night we were in bed early.
We did get have a caricature picture of us drawn up. Spent the better part of the day waiting in line for that. Unfortunately the picture was lost. I seemed have lost the Picture, the plunger, the baguette and 2 bolts. Someone is going to be very disappointed when they find that bag.
It was a treat for us, for we stayed in a hotel for 3 nights, was only supposed to be 2 nights, then Juan got to spend the night on the boat.
My implant fell out on Friday night. Tried to find a dentist open sat, no luck. We ended up staying until Monday to go to the dentist. The implant is back in and i'm ready to try to lose it again.
Well we really need to get out of this place. It is fun to come here and probably just as much fun to leave.
PIctures
We did get have a caricature picture of us drawn up. Spent the better part of the day waiting in line for that. Unfortunately the picture was lost. I seemed have lost the Picture, the plunger, the baguette and 2 bolts. Someone is going to be very disappointed when they find that bag.
It was a treat for us, for we stayed in a hotel for 3 nights, was only supposed to be 2 nights, then Juan got to spend the night on the boat.
My implant fell out on Friday night. Tried to find a dentist open sat, no luck. We ended up staying until Monday to go to the dentist. The implant is back in and i'm ready to try to lose it again.
Well we really need to get out of this place. It is fun to come here and probably just as much fun to leave.
PIctures
Made it to New Orleans, here are some pictures along the way
We left Joe's Landing and headed toward New Orleans. Joe was a great guy, our intended anchorage did not work out, so we called a few marina's along the way and Joe let us tie up for the night. I did give him $20 in the morning and purchased some diesel from him. So he was happy.
pics of nola
pics of nola
Marinas Diary cont
Since we are trapped in Lake Charles waiting for the engine parts, we continued
discovering this little town via walking with our backpacks. Ended up in Starbucks
for free wifi catching up with
our blog and other stuff. As strange it's sound we are really enjoying walking -
nice excersize and can see more around than just driving.
10. Day 10 - Mon, Oct.21
This is a big day for us - we might get alternator fixed today. We walked carring
in our backpacks both original and replacement alternator to Auto Electric and
Magnito Shop nd it was a miracle that an owner hapenned to have our missing part!
We got lucky. He also checked our original alternator and verified that yes, it
was brocken. We rashed back to the boat to try new alternator, Kevin put it all
together, we started our engine, and .. there is no exhaust water coming out!
Piece by piece we checked all the cooling system of engine, looked through manuals
and disel engine books trying to troubleshoot a problem, until we disconnected and
connected back the last unchecked hose - water finally ran from exhaust. We were
so happy! However, seems Monday is not our very lucky day... and Kevin yelled
"stop engine" - he noticed a crack in the exhaust housing filter. Well, now we
need to find a replacement for our cracked piece, or otherwise we cannot go
anywhere. Unfortunatelly, cannot get this piece earlier than Thursday.
At the evening we finally decided to use our dinghy to drive around and made it to
"Jag's Bistro" - it's only place in Lake Charles on the waterfront, no cleats on
the docks, but can tie your dinghy around poles. We got some seafood and couple
drinks, it's so nice to be back in civilization!
11. Day 11 - Tu, Oct.22
Another idle day spent in Lake Charles...Kevin might get a little job today
working on network setup at appartment complex. To get there we decided to ride
our dinghy instead of walking. The
water way to McNeese University from BowTie is very nice - a lot of huge beuatiful
houses on both sides of the river, but the water is very very dirty with litter -
we even saw a dead squirell, would not want to end up in this water. There was not
any "parking" suitable places for our dinghy, so we returned back. Later we took
dinghy to Casino De Lauberginue (????) and spent wonderful time there - however,
seems luck is not on our side lately, gambling did not go well and after losing
$10 we returned back home. At this point seems that we exhausted all the
attractions in Lake Charles! But we still have to be here until our engine part
will show up - hopefully on Thurday.
12. Day 12 - Wed, Oct.23
We rented a car today, yea, it's kind of cheating, but we really wanted to visit
Tobasco factory. It's a bit off the way from ICW and we planned to go there, but
because we are late on our original schedule to make it to New Orleans, we decided
to drive to Avery Island (where Tobasco factory is).
Drive was boring, about 2 hours from Lake Charles. Even driving a boat on ICW is
more exciting that this drive. Along I-10 HW we saw a lot of Casinos situated
right in the gas stations! And a lot of eateries with typical south Louisiana
food: boudins and cracklings.
The Avery Island looked like oasis: very green and well kept. Kevin was excited to
try all varieties of the Tobasco souce currently produced. We even tried tobasco
ice cream at the Country Store - interesting taste...
Then we drove/walked through Jungle Gardens created by the founder and owner of
the Tobasco factory. In our quest of finding alligators we perused every marked
"Marsh trail" on the map of this island. They should be somewhere! It's been 6th
day in Louisiana and we still did not find any alligators, we were determined to
find one!
While carefully walking marsh trails we finally spotted an aligator, what
excitment it was for us! The poor little creature (about 4 feet long) was scared
of us more than we were scared of him, and hid immediatelly under the tree. Then
we realized that this environment is not a zoo! and we might stamped on another
bigger one.. Very carefully we traced our steps back to the main road and Kevin
wanted me to walk ahead (my husband is such a gentelman!).
Further on the little lake we spotted more alligators, they were backing on the
sun and not separated from public by the fence! The nearby sing "Aligators are
dangerous" finally took us back to reality and scared we ran back to the car and
closed doors - we decided not to take chanches with nature.
After Avery Island trip we went straight to the laundromat - we had a lot of
laundry to do for past week, spent there $20 on the "state of the art" washing and
drying machines. Then we found wifi in Starbucks and plotted our further trip to
New Orleans, this time was well spent, we are finally learning to plan ahead for
possible stoppes, bridges, locks, etc on the way. Shopped for groceries for the
next week, ate dinner at Mexican restaurant, and went far beyound our budget
again...
On the way home we drove through our "green mile" (as we call our section 8
neighborhood)! It feels good driving vs. walking through there.
13. Day 13 - Thu, Oct.24
Well, it's time to say goodby to civilization - took our rented car back.
We are back to walking with heavy backpacks! Nice workout opportunity (we keep
saying that to ourselves to feel better). In BigK Kevin bought a toilet sit - he
wants to make "patio toilet"on our boat, so we would not need to use our compost
bucket. Will see how that will go...
In the afternoon we received engine part we awaited for since Tuesday. And, we are
back to work on our engine. While fixing first problem, we found another one, then
another one, and finally figured out why our heater is not working. To fix it
would take very long time and we decided that we can go on without a water heater,
at least until the next big stop. Allright, we are back in business and leaving
tomorrow!
14. Day 14 - Fri, Oct.25
Big day today! We finally leaving Lake Charles after 7 days we spent here. We are
already 6 days behind our original schedule, but that's ok, we actually enjoyed
time spent in this little town, walking we learned all the places tourist would go
in the little industrial oasis.
Thanks to our BowTie marina - they were very friendly to us and patient. Hey, it
was our home for 7 nights (the last night we got for free!).
On ICW we passed the first locks and even did not have to wait for our turn. It
was fast.
Drove about 7 hours and dropped an anchore at Mermentaou River. We had some engine
overheatting problem, but Kevin added antifriz and engine survived the last hour
of our trip. At least we know where the problem is and Kevin refitted connections,
so tomorrow we should not lose any antifriz (as we hope!)
This anchorage is nice and very serenic... beautiful...
And we are still trying to spot some aligators... no luck..
15. Day 15 - Sat, Oct. 26
We spent nice quite night at Mermentaou River anchorage, serenity, beautiful
scenery on the water in the morning.
On the way to Shell Morgan Landing passed another locks, uneventfully arrived to
the docks. We tried to contact Shell Morgan Landing by phone (no services) and by
VHF radio (no answer), but the owner saw us approaching and helped us with
docking.
Kudos to Kevin: he finally figured out communications on VHF with passing bargers
and tugs, switching to right channels in time and not afraid to talk with skippers
(ch.11, 13, 14 - all except of ch.16! mean communication with local traffic, locks
and bridges operators). However, Marina still doesn't feel comfortable talking on
VHF and, doesn't understands anything what they are saing - too much slang and
southern accent.
16. Day 16 - Sun, Oct. 27
The night at Shell Morgan Landing was very loud - it's just a stop in the
industrial wharf area with big weird looking boats. But, at least it was safe and
this place had restrooms and showers! Just for $20/night! It's was so nice to take
warm shower after couple days of not washing.
We started very early today just with sunrise (about 7:15 am), we still don't feel
comfortable to travel in the dark, even though we have reliable chart plotter.
The scenery of ICW is the same on the way to Morgan City - marshes and swamps with
trees coverd by spanish moss, and we were still looking for alligators.. did not
spot any on the busy ICW "streets".
We docked at the Morgan City Pleasure Docks - parked behind a row of fisherman
shrimp boats and immediatelly made friends with a drunk skipper of one of those
boats. There are no any amenities at this place, but at least we thought it's
safer than on anchor. The city docks are right in the middle of the old downtown,
which is only about 2 blocks (Kevin related this city with Georgetown). All the
businesses were closed on Sunday, so..no internet connection for us today
either... We found a convinient store in the very bad poor drug area of the city,
the guy at the store mentioned to us not to walk around after dark, so trip back
through this drug area of the city was a bit intence. On the way back to docks we
found Rita May restaurant with very authentic black south Louiana cooking. Even
the restaurant was closed, the old black lady - owner - let us in and gave us
"really quick whatever is left in the kitchen". We had shrimp stew and seafood
gumbo - that was very HOT, but delisious food! We made it back to the boat and
locked all the hatches and the entrance door, turned off the lights and I heard
Keving was loading AK just in case. The night was very loud - to much work was
going on in this industrial city at night, heard couple times the lift bridge
going down for the trains, a lot of horns going off, car traffic.
17. Day 17 - Mon, Oct.28
Started early today. We were ready to leave the docks but the railroad lift bridge
came down again. At about 7:30 we are back on ICW. The destination for today is
Huma - and we really really need to find internet connection there.
Closer to Huma we noticed more industrial traffic, locks, lift/open bridges and
Kevin handled it as a professional talking with people in charge on VHF. Well,
sometimes they don't answer... especially in the time you really need the answer
if the lift bridge will be still open when you will be under it, or should we wait
for another opening? Or, what is the hight of the fixed bridge ahead of us? is
that 70" or 40"? Unfortunately this information is not on our chart plotter and we
are guessing most of the time - first Kevin counts how many length of one car you
can place under the bridge (one car - about 10"), so, if that's 6 then we are ok
to go under the bridge! Harder is when there are only tracks with gasoline are
passing on the bridge, those could be only 2 lengths, yea... the things we have to
figure out from the memory of our kindergarten age.
We made it to Huma Municipal City Docks - they are located right in the middle of
the public park/picknic area, right off the ICW. Since Huma is seems very
industrial town we did not see any downtown. The center of the city is huge
Hospital - which restrooms we used extencivelly (nice to sit on the normal water
flashing toilet!) The Hospital was 4 min walk from our boat. Searching for the
wifi we found cafe Liberty, however, had to leave soon - closed at 3pm. Seems
everything in Huma is closed at 3pm. The grocery shopping did not get well either
- the South Louisiana Groseries store doesn't exist anymore even though it's still
in YP and on the map's info. In the closeby gas station we asked where we can buy
groceries - the answer was "do you want to buy chicken for what? to cook? we have
fried chicken here for sale, do you want salad, what salad?"
Anyways, our long walking trip with backpacks in 100F in sun was not very
productive, but we found "Wash and wear" laundromat right near our boat. So, at
least we washed our clothes and had amazing converstaion with the loisianians -
some of the conversations are stratching your mind way too far and you start
loving your own life very much.
This docking place was just $25/night and pretty safe.
18. Day 18 - Tu, Oct.29
Restroom trip to the Hospital, coffe, breakfast and we are off again.
We counted for a short day today (should be 5 hours),but it took us 9 hours to get
to the mile marker 15 IGWW. Turns out that the place we wanted to anchore is
taking currently by a business, so we had to look for a new place for overnight
ad-hoc - and found "Jo's Landing" docking. It's a bit off the ICW, about 5 mi
going in the side channel (LaFettite), but depth is about 14" and we did not have
problems to dock at Jo's.
discovering this little town via walking with our backpacks. Ended up in Starbucks
for free wifi catching up with
our blog and other stuff. As strange it's sound we are really enjoying walking -
nice excersize and can see more around than just driving.
10. Day 10 - Mon, Oct.21
This is a big day for us - we might get alternator fixed today. We walked carring
in our backpacks both original and replacement alternator to Auto Electric and
Magnito Shop nd it was a miracle that an owner hapenned to have our missing part!
We got lucky. He also checked our original alternator and verified that yes, it
was brocken. We rashed back to the boat to try new alternator, Kevin put it all
together, we started our engine, and .. there is no exhaust water coming out!
Piece by piece we checked all the cooling system of engine, looked through manuals
and disel engine books trying to troubleshoot a problem, until we disconnected and
connected back the last unchecked hose - water finally ran from exhaust. We were
so happy! However, seems Monday is not our very lucky day... and Kevin yelled
"stop engine" - he noticed a crack in the exhaust housing filter. Well, now we
need to find a replacement for our cracked piece, or otherwise we cannot go
anywhere. Unfortunatelly, cannot get this piece earlier than Thursday.
At the evening we finally decided to use our dinghy to drive around and made it to
"Jag's Bistro" - it's only place in Lake Charles on the waterfront, no cleats on
the docks, but can tie your dinghy around poles. We got some seafood and couple
drinks, it's so nice to be back in civilization!
11. Day 11 - Tu, Oct.22
Another idle day spent in Lake Charles...Kevin might get a little job today
working on network setup at appartment complex. To get there we decided to ride
our dinghy instead of walking. The
water way to McNeese University from BowTie is very nice - a lot of huge beuatiful
houses on both sides of the river, but the water is very very dirty with litter -
we even saw a dead squirell, would not want to end up in this water. There was not
any "parking" suitable places for our dinghy, so we returned back. Later we took
dinghy to Casino De Lauberginue (????) and spent wonderful time there - however,
seems luck is not on our side lately, gambling did not go well and after losing
$10 we returned back home. At this point seems that we exhausted all the
attractions in Lake Charles! But we still have to be here until our engine part
will show up - hopefully on Thurday.
12. Day 12 - Wed, Oct.23
We rented a car today, yea, it's kind of cheating, but we really wanted to visit
Tobasco factory. It's a bit off the way from ICW and we planned to go there, but
because we are late on our original schedule to make it to New Orleans, we decided
to drive to Avery Island (where Tobasco factory is).
Drive was boring, about 2 hours from Lake Charles. Even driving a boat on ICW is
more exciting that this drive. Along I-10 HW we saw a lot of Casinos situated
right in the gas stations! And a lot of eateries with typical south Louisiana
food: boudins and cracklings.
The Avery Island looked like oasis: very green and well kept. Kevin was excited to
try all varieties of the Tobasco souce currently produced. We even tried tobasco
ice cream at the Country Store - interesting taste...
Then we drove/walked through Jungle Gardens created by the founder and owner of
the Tobasco factory. In our quest of finding alligators we perused every marked
"Marsh trail" on the map of this island. They should be somewhere! It's been 6th
day in Louisiana and we still did not find any alligators, we were determined to
find one!
While carefully walking marsh trails we finally spotted an aligator, what
excitment it was for us! The poor little creature (about 4 feet long) was scared
of us more than we were scared of him, and hid immediatelly under the tree. Then
we realized that this environment is not a zoo! and we might stamped on another
bigger one.. Very carefully we traced our steps back to the main road and Kevin
wanted me to walk ahead (my husband is such a gentelman!).
Further on the little lake we spotted more alligators, they were backing on the
sun and not separated from public by the fence! The nearby sing "Aligators are
dangerous" finally took us back to reality and scared we ran back to the car and
closed doors - we decided not to take chanches with nature.
After Avery Island trip we went straight to the laundromat - we had a lot of
laundry to do for past week, spent there $20 on the "state of the art" washing and
drying machines. Then we found wifi in Starbucks and plotted our further trip to
New Orleans, this time was well spent, we are finally learning to plan ahead for
possible stoppes, bridges, locks, etc on the way. Shopped for groceries for the
next week, ate dinner at Mexican restaurant, and went far beyound our budget
again...
On the way home we drove through our "green mile" (as we call our section 8
neighborhood)! It feels good driving vs. walking through there.
13. Day 13 - Thu, Oct.24
Well, it's time to say goodby to civilization - took our rented car back.
We are back to walking with heavy backpacks! Nice workout opportunity (we keep
saying that to ourselves to feel better). In BigK Kevin bought a toilet sit - he
wants to make "patio toilet"on our boat, so we would not need to use our compost
bucket. Will see how that will go...
In the afternoon we received engine part we awaited for since Tuesday. And, we are
back to work on our engine. While fixing first problem, we found another one, then
another one, and finally figured out why our heater is not working. To fix it
would take very long time and we decided that we can go on without a water heater,
at least until the next big stop. Allright, we are back in business and leaving
tomorrow!
14. Day 14 - Fri, Oct.25
Big day today! We finally leaving Lake Charles after 7 days we spent here. We are
already 6 days behind our original schedule, but that's ok, we actually enjoyed
time spent in this little town, walking we learned all the places tourist would go
in the little industrial oasis.
Thanks to our BowTie marina - they were very friendly to us and patient. Hey, it
was our home for 7 nights (the last night we got for free!).
On ICW we passed the first locks and even did not have to wait for our turn. It
was fast.
Drove about 7 hours and dropped an anchore at Mermentaou River. We had some engine
overheatting problem, but Kevin added antifriz and engine survived the last hour
of our trip. At least we know where the problem is and Kevin refitted connections,
so tomorrow we should not lose any antifriz (as we hope!)
This anchorage is nice and very serenic... beautiful...
And we are still trying to spot some aligators... no luck..
15. Day 15 - Sat, Oct. 26
We spent nice quite night at Mermentaou River anchorage, serenity, beautiful
scenery on the water in the morning.
On the way to Shell Morgan Landing passed another locks, uneventfully arrived to
the docks. We tried to contact Shell Morgan Landing by phone (no services) and by
VHF radio (no answer), but the owner saw us approaching and helped us with
docking.
Kudos to Kevin: he finally figured out communications on VHF with passing bargers
and tugs, switching to right channels in time and not afraid to talk with skippers
(ch.11, 13, 14 - all except of ch.16! mean communication with local traffic, locks
and bridges operators). However, Marina still doesn't feel comfortable talking on
VHF and, doesn't understands anything what they are saing - too much slang and
southern accent.
16. Day 16 - Sun, Oct. 27
The night at Shell Morgan Landing was very loud - it's just a stop in the
industrial wharf area with big weird looking boats. But, at least it was safe and
this place had restrooms and showers! Just for $20/night! It's was so nice to take
warm shower after couple days of not washing.
We started very early today just with sunrise (about 7:15 am), we still don't feel
comfortable to travel in the dark, even though we have reliable chart plotter.
The scenery of ICW is the same on the way to Morgan City - marshes and swamps with
trees coverd by spanish moss, and we were still looking for alligators.. did not
spot any on the busy ICW "streets".
We docked at the Morgan City Pleasure Docks - parked behind a row of fisherman
shrimp boats and immediatelly made friends with a drunk skipper of one of those
boats. There are no any amenities at this place, but at least we thought it's
safer than on anchor. The city docks are right in the middle of the old downtown,
which is only about 2 blocks (Kevin related this city with Georgetown). All the
businesses were closed on Sunday, so..no internet connection for us today
either... We found a convinient store in the very bad poor drug area of the city,
the guy at the store mentioned to us not to walk around after dark, so trip back
through this drug area of the city was a bit intence. On the way back to docks we
found Rita May restaurant with very authentic black south Louiana cooking. Even
the restaurant was closed, the old black lady - owner - let us in and gave us
"really quick whatever is left in the kitchen". We had shrimp stew and seafood
gumbo - that was very HOT, but delisious food! We made it back to the boat and
locked all the hatches and the entrance door, turned off the lights and I heard
Keving was loading AK just in case. The night was very loud - to much work was
going on in this industrial city at night, heard couple times the lift bridge
going down for the trains, a lot of horns going off, car traffic.
17. Day 17 - Mon, Oct.28
Started early today. We were ready to leave the docks but the railroad lift bridge
came down again. At about 7:30 we are back on ICW. The destination for today is
Huma - and we really really need to find internet connection there.
Closer to Huma we noticed more industrial traffic, locks, lift/open bridges and
Kevin handled it as a professional talking with people in charge on VHF. Well,
sometimes they don't answer... especially in the time you really need the answer
if the lift bridge will be still open when you will be under it, or should we wait
for another opening? Or, what is the hight of the fixed bridge ahead of us? is
that 70" or 40"? Unfortunately this information is not on our chart plotter and we
are guessing most of the time - first Kevin counts how many length of one car you
can place under the bridge (one car - about 10"), so, if that's 6 then we are ok
to go under the bridge! Harder is when there are only tracks with gasoline are
passing on the bridge, those could be only 2 lengths, yea... the things we have to
figure out from the memory of our kindergarten age.
We made it to Huma Municipal City Docks - they are located right in the middle of
the public park/picknic area, right off the ICW. Since Huma is seems very
industrial town we did not see any downtown. The center of the city is huge
Hospital - which restrooms we used extencivelly (nice to sit on the normal water
flashing toilet!) The Hospital was 4 min walk from our boat. Searching for the
wifi we found cafe Liberty, however, had to leave soon - closed at 3pm. Seems
everything in Huma is closed at 3pm. The grocery shopping did not get well either
- the South Louisiana Groseries store doesn't exist anymore even though it's still
in YP and on the map's info. In the closeby gas station we asked where we can buy
groceries - the answer was "do you want to buy chicken for what? to cook? we have
fried chicken here for sale, do you want salad, what salad?"
Anyways, our long walking trip with backpacks in 100F in sun was not very
productive, but we found "Wash and wear" laundromat right near our boat. So, at
least we washed our clothes and had amazing converstaion with the loisianians -
some of the conversations are stratching your mind way too far and you start
loving your own life very much.
This docking place was just $25/night and pretty safe.
18. Day 18 - Tu, Oct.29
Restroom trip to the Hospital, coffe, breakfast and we are off again.
We counted for a short day today (should be 5 hours),but it took us 9 hours to get
to the mile marker 15 IGWW. Turns out that the place we wanted to anchore is
taking currently by a business, so we had to look for a new place for overnight
ad-hoc - and found "Jo's Landing" docking. It's a bit off the ICW, about 5 mi
going in the side channel (LaFettite), but depth is about 14" and we did not have
problems to dock at Jo's.
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