Houma to Lake Pontchartrain

I am really behind in the blog. I tried to post more pictures but blogger quit working for me. So I will download more (of New Orleans, etc) next time I can...

We spent three days in Houma, receiving care packages in the mail and riding my bike around town. I found a Michaels Craft store even. The night before we left, some kids had untied two motorboats from the city docks we were at (one on either side of us) and they almost drifted into the busy Intercoastal waterway. Luckily we had not been untied as our lines were jumbled into a complicated state of knots.

After Houma, we headed to a store along a canal, 15 miles west of the famous Harvey Locks in New Orleans. we found the store closed and traveled 9 more miles South down a Bayou to stay at a busy powerboat marina called C&M FuelDock.

As we had headed down the bayou, we kept coasting by water hyacinth. Brett started calling it "salad". Then we started smelling different smells so I called it "smelly salad".

The next day, we left early and headed for the dreaded Harvey Locks. We had heard story after story of these locks as well as the Industrial Locks. We had two huge locks and thirteen bridges to tackle before heading into Lake Pontchartrain. We had noticed that our altenator was still not charging. Something else was wrong with it other than the cable...

The Harvey Locks ended up being a breeze. We were locked by ourselves and held onto lines as the current rose (dropped?) several feet. Then we headed out into the Mississippi River. It was beautiful, hot and calm for the river. It was even a pretty green color instead of the famous Mississippi Mud color. We made our way smoothly down the huge river, listening to the traffic controller notify huge foreign ships of our location. We watched all the small work boats and huge tug boats trying to clean up the oil from the collision the weak before between a barge and a tanker.

We found the Industrial Locks and ended up with a two hour wait, figure eighting in front of the locks in the river.

We locked with a towboat/barge. It was harder to control the boat with the lines they had thrown to us, being behind the barge but all went well and we soon scooted out of the locks, approaching our next several bridges. We passed under one bridge that was up that I didn't call which was an OOPS but all the other bridges went smoothly. We had a short wait at a railway bridge but soon, we got through it too. One of the operators had thought I said we had a 50 foot clearance so they almost didn't open a bridge for us but it got straigtened out that we were actually 6o foot and they had the bridge opened. We shot out into Lake Pontchartrain and headed for the Municipal Yacht Harbor.

I had a few tears and we cussed and hollered at each other a little over the stressful day but after entering the lake, we apologized to each other. Lake Pontchartrain was like glass as we glided toward the marinas.

We started to smell another odd smell. Then we saw huge gobs of green float through the water. We started to panic, thinking it was some sort of chemical spill but we soon thought it started looking like a type of algae. We also thought we saw objects surfacing the crest of the slight swells. I watched for a long time in the binocculars but couldn't identify what it was we were seeing.

We pulled into the Municipal Yacht Harbor. It looked tattered but there were hundreds of boats moored. We pulled up to the Harbor Master office in the back but they looked closed. We made our way to the New Orleans Yacht Club just next door in the same building. They opened their door, looking at us skeptically. We asked about the harbormaster. They laughed and said that there was no harbormaster. The marina hadn't been functional since the hurricane. There was no power or water anywhere except a small area next to the yacht club. After surveying our boat and asking us what yacht club we were with, they swept us into their beautiful and air conditioned clubhouse. They offered us drinks. Brett politely refused and they asked him if he really was a sailor. We laughed it off and accepted some lemonade from their full wetbar. They gave us pizza and offered to let us tie up to their tiny finger next to the ramp to use an outlet to cool off the boat for the night. We visited awhile and then moved the boat to the small finger. Later the security officer told us we hadn't asked the right people of the yacht club to tie up there. To keep the peace, we moved our boat to one of the slips without power and water and spent a very uncomfortable evening, without dinner, arguing over our situation.

AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA...

The day after that stressful yet successful day, we felt a ton better with some sleep. We had gotten up late and knew we'd have to stay another day. Our altenator was still not working either so our batteries were quickly depleting. We decided to spend a few days there after setting up the boat to scoop wind to inside the cabin. We found a shop to rebuild our altenator and a small store down the way to look up email. A grocery store was down even farther and I was able to pick up food and beverages. We also met the owner of the Moorings 43 next to us. Him and his son were very nice and even gave us a cooler full of ice from their watermaker.

We found a sail loft and asked the sailmaker about our sails. He filled us with excellent information on our sails. It was great to hear so much information from an expert.

Later, we discovered a Tropical Storm was very near us. Tropical Storm Edouard was to hit directly in Galveston, possibly becoming a hurricane before it hit. The strong winds and rain would reach as far East as Houma, where we had left just a few days before. We had narrowly missed another nasty storm. We truly felt blessed. We did get some rain but not much wind.

One night, we had some ducks come up to us so Brett started feeding them, as we did with the four ducks at Serendipity sometimes. All of a sudden, flocks of ducks started swimming toward us, even from across the marina! We laughed hysterically has I counted around fifty ducks and more coming. Benny had a great time with them..

See if you can find the ONE male duck in this picture... (See Dennis, your four ducks aren't so bad. LOL)

We also decided to make our way to the French Quarter on the bus. After failing to catch it the first time in the evening, we agreed that we'd stay one more day and go visit the French Quarter of New Orleans the next morning. I had been very bummed to have missed the last bus there and Brett knew I was bummed. He wanted me to see the French Quarter while we were in New Orleans. So we got up and slowly made our way to the bus stop that we'd found the previous evening. The bus driver filled us with info as she sped her way to the "cemetaries". At the cemeteries, she dropped us off and we ran for the street car, marveling at the massive tombs surrounding us on all four sides of the intersection!

We spent another forty minutes on the street car as it filled up with locals and tourists toward Bourbon Street. An older couple let us know when we got there and we piled out with many others. We started walking down the famous street. Immediately our noses were filled with a nasty garbage/sewer smell, like alcoholic sweat. Bars with tropical flavors lined the street. We found ourselves walking past X-rated posters that covered entrances to sex stores and dance halls. It was shocking.

The buildings were very cool- Old and each one was decorated with old wrought iron balconies, covered in ferns and flowers. There were souviener shops stuffed with colorful feather boas, thousands of plastic bead necklaces and fancy feathered masks.

We actually bumped into a True Value Hardware on Bourbon Street and made our way inside the familiar place. We had been searching for the street that Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Cafe. They directed us to Decature Street to find it. After quickly forgetting her directions, I popped into a coffee house and they repeated the directions. I started noticing that the Lousiana accent threw more of a Brooklyn sound than Southern. It was very interesting.
We finally found the cafe and happily bounced in. It was very cool and we got a seat immediately. Brett forced me to get a margarita (my first) since we were at Margaritaville Cafe. Then he ordered a Cajun Burger which had all kinds of interesting things in it (Crawfish, Hamburger, etc). I ordered - of course- Cheeseburger In Paradise. It was great fun. Since we paid only $3.00 for our bus ride, we used the $40 it would have cost for a cab on lunch. The food was ok but the experience was memorable.

We parused shops after lunch, gazing at artwork and staring at the Mississippi River along Decature. We headed down a different street and strolled by dozens of expensive antique stores and jewelry boutiques.

We soon meandered back to Bourbon Street to find those trinket shops we'd passed so I could buy some post cards. Then we headed back to Canal Street to catch the streetcar back to the bus. We hopped on and watched the streetcar, again, fill with all different walks of life. We were surprised to find mostly locals hopping on and off the old streetcar. At the cemetery, we hurried acrossed the highway toward the bus station where others were migrating to. We found our bus still waiting and were able to catch it. I managed to snap a couple shots of the famous New Orleans cemeteries.

We headed back to the boat and found it actually cooler inside than outside. We both collapsed on our bunks and heated the boat up with our hot, sweaty bodies while we slept. After our naps, we sat in the cockpit and started noticing boats heading out of the marina. The raceboat acrossed from us had been working on their halyards. It was called Turkey Wings. Brett loved it. Soon they, too, joined the traffic headed out into the lake. It was Wednesday night and the yacht club was having a regatta. Dozens of boats from twelve feet to forty feet headed out. Black carbon fiber sails, yellow Kevlar sails and plain old dacron sails were unfurled or raised. Some boats sailed out of the harbor while others motored. It was an amazing scene. There were dozens of boats actually being used in this graveyard. It was like ghosts coming up out of their graves to go race. Young racers and older sailors piled onto their boats to join in the fun. We sat and pouted in the cockpit. Brett was dying to go out on a boat like Turkey Wings to race around yellow buoys. But we had chosen the cruising life for our boat which had it's own rewards.

We headed to the store to show the girls my jewelry they had wanted to see. We spent an enjoyable hour with them as they oohed and awed over my pieces. It was really fun to see people enjoy my jewelry again. They made several purchases and then Brett and I checked our email and headed back to the boat in the dark. There was a huge volleyball court on the way to the marina so we had to dodge dozens of cars at the busy volleyball courts.

We were talking about our plans for the next day. I suggested we try to start the engine to try and charge the batteries so we could watch a movie. I pushed the start button and it refused to start. I tried it again. Brett had me switch the Perko switch to all and I tried again. The batteries had drained too low to start the engine. Brett cussed (which he doesn't do often). We turned everything off, lit a candle and sat in the cockpit, arranging to buy gas in the morning for the generator we hadn't used yet. After a half hour, Brett tried again and the engine started! So we let it run for an hour to charge the battery so we could leave in the morning. We went to bed without a movie. We read magazines instead.

The next day we headed out. We planned a long, 40 mile day to Rabbit Island to anchor where some friends of our had anchored on their trip. We slowly motored over to the fuel docks before leaving into the Lake. After filling our water tank and buying diesel, we headed out into the lake. I was below organizing and writing in our logbook when the boat lurched. Then it rolled and bucked. I looked at Brett, and lipped to him "What the HELL?"

I swung myself out of the companionway as the boat swung to port. I looked out to see huge swells and we were rolling right in their trough. I scrambled back down inside and scurried around to put things away. Benny crawled along the floor, meowing at the sudden violent change of his floating home. Jack shrieked at every roll. The three of us had not prepared for such rough weather. I looked out into the cockpit and swore I saw Brett smiling as he steered Benevolence through the monstrosity.

In actuality, they were only two footers but they were short which made them very frequent and uncomfortable. We were also right in their "trough" on our heading, the most uncomfortable position possible. Throwing up the sails went out the window as we motored through the rough water.

I started to get sick but was able to down my ginger pill (thank you Sue. Thank YOU) and put my armbands on. I swigged some Diet Coke and was able to fight off the urge to get sick. I asked Brett if I could drive awhile. It helped to have a task and watch ahead. As I drove, I watched the waves and tried to stop thinking about my queezy stomach. I do a lot of self talk when we are underway in uncomfortable situations and this time I told myself to enjoy the chop and the sun beating down on us with the breeze at our portside. It was a beautiful day. This chop we were experiencing was only a taste of a calm day on the Gulf.

With my navigation and Brett's skilled steering, we were soon almost to the two bridges we had to cross to get to the Rigolets (a body of water between Lake Pontchartrain and the Intercoastal Waterway) Rabbit Island was on the other end of the Rigolets, another twenty or so miles. The waves had gotten smaller as we headed North of the lake. Brett called it the "Fetch" and it got smaller the more you headed toward the land where the wind was coming from. Less water for it to get built up I guess. We watched Benny has he wandered around and then flopped on the floor in different spots, trying to get comfortable. He had already thrown up from seasickness. He finally found himself a spot inside his cubbyhole by the litter box. Jack was squaking at every roll.

Brett suggested that we stay at the marina I had written off because they wanted a credit card number on the phone. I humbled myself and called the marina. It was between the two bridges we had to go through so it was very close. It had all the facilites we could want (laundry, internet, power, water. Power.)

They were glad to have us and after we crossed the bridges, made our way to the marina. We had had a rough time waiting on two bridges to correlate together but got through ok. Brett had circled the boat several times in front of the bridges as the waves and wind tried to blow us into them.

We found our assigned slip tied the boat loosely with a couple of lines. It was a very nice marina with locked gates at each dock. Everything was very nice.

We paid our pricey $1.25/foot and made our way back to the boat. The marina was definitely much more worth the money than Freeport had been. The stop was definitely a brilliant idea. We were both very tired and it was so nice to have power after days at the Municipal Yacht Harbor with no power and almost no batteries even. I told him over and over all evening about what a great idea it was to pull into this marina for the night.

We walked to the restaurant and ate a wondeful dinner at the Marina Cafe. When we got back, it was just getting dark. We decided to go take a look at the pool. As Brett was coming out of the boat, we noticed the clouds bundling up together in a dark mass and lightening off in the distance. "Ooh- That doesn't look good. We'll need to resecure the boat before we head off to bead" Brett stated.

We walked out our gate and headed down the path to the pool. In about five minutes, we felt it. The wind. It hit us like a cement wall. It was an old familiar wind- A Northerly! In August?? We scrambled back to the boat as the wind started howling and sand started filling the air and our eyes. By the time we had gotten to our boat (about two minutes), it had been shoved forward into the dock and was being pinned in the corner of our huge slip. The docks were several feet over our boat and very difficult to get on and off. We scrambled around and around trying to tighten lines to get the boat off the dock. It was blowing about thirty to forty knots . Brett found the winch handle and winched the boat off the dock as I pushed the bow pulpit with my feet. We threw lines around pilings and managed to finally get the boat off the dock. We scrambled to retie the dinghy, Knot Yacht, as it bashed into the windvane. We both felt incredibly stupid for not securing the boat better earlier and for not checking the weather report that morning. We watched the storm go over us, an amazing light show from the lightening. We were extremely thankful that we had stopped at the marina. If we had anchored out at Rabbit Island like we'd planned, it could have been bad. Uncomfortable anyway. We thanks our guardian angel once again for veering us to this marina.

The next morning we got up late. It was the best sleep that Brett had had in days. We finally made our way to the office to see about staying a week with all the bad weather coming up. It was a lot of money for us to stay the week. I paid for one night and we went back to the boat to discuss more options. We met our neighbor on his Talayna 37 and had a great talk with him. He was very nice.

CHANGE IN PLANS...

We've decided to safely tie the boat in a marina and drive back to Oregon with the animals for six months. I called dozens of marinas from Louisiana to Gulfport and they were either closed from hurricane damage or had waiting lists. We wanted to stay at the harbor we're in now but they require insurance. We've had trouble getting insurance since our boat is so old... We need a haulout survey which costs several hundred dollars first. So I finally found a marina we'll be able to tie the boat at...

We will work to pay off some bills and build up our cruising kitty. We need to make improvements on the boat before we head offshore and I would feel better if we had a bit of a "kitty" to cruise on. Although we've found places to stay for a few nights at a time, we have also found that the hurricane damage has diminished the amount of marinas along the Louisiana, Mississippi coast for us to hole up in during the next two months of hurricane season.We've also had to make the heart-wrenching decision to find our beloved animals homes while we are cruising. The constant worry for their happiness and comfort is overwhelming and consumes most of our time and energy.

We will be flying back to the boat in January and do a lot of work on her for two months before heading toward South in March. March is a great time for winds and current to head toward Mexico.As this new branch of our adventure grows, I will continue our blog. A lot of cruisers who have to work along the way find themselves reorganizing so they can cruise. Since we have to wait until after hurricane season anyway, this seemed like the best way for us to build our kitty, visit our families, tie up the last of our loose ends and get the boat ready for offshore next Spring.

Thank you for continuing to share our adventure.Please keep in touch, keep us in your prayers and stay tuned for more...