Day 17 Biloxi -weather delay continues

Well, I had my first real day off on the trip so far, and it felt good.  However, a relaxing day means a pretty short blog for today. Winds continued at 15+ mph out of the S-SE with gusts up to 25 mph, which really builds up the waves in the shallow water. The Admiral took the bus to Ocean Springs about 10 miles east. We are in the city run marina, which is behind the now Isle of Capri Casino and Resort and soon to be Golden Nugget Casino. The bus stops right in front of the casino and goes to within a block of Walmart. The bus ride was about 30 minutes and the next return bus was 1 1/2 hours later. Evidently this was just the proper amount of time to fill two shopping bags... After lunch onboard, we had a nice nap.  One thing about the wind is that the boat rocks constantly due to both the wind and waves that bounce around inside the marina. This gentle motion makes for great sleeping.

The picture was taken from the aft deck of Lucky Us, and it shows the entrance ino the marina with a small artificial barrier island (aka spoil or dredged sediment) in the background. This scene is at 5:00 pm, and it shows the dark skies with late afternoon thunder showers. We seem to be in that summer pattern with late afternoon showers in the predictions for the next 10 days. The good news is that we seem to be about to catch a break in the winds.  As "usual" the wind will die down to 5-10 mph over night, but it is predicted to rise slowly to 8-12 mph tomorrow. We plan to get up early and start about 6-6:30 am if the predictions do not change...

Day 16 weather delay in Biloxi, MS

     The one thing that you are supposed to have on a trip like the Great Loop is no itinerary... The wind of 10-15 mph predicted turned out to be stronger than that so when the Admiral got up early she (correctly) decided that we would stay over another day in Biloxi. The good news is that the Admiral let me sleep in.  During the morning, I got caught up on the blog while the Admiral made the drapes to hang from the ceiling track between the salon and the dinette-lower helm.

As you can see, the Admiral looks pleased with her new sewing machine. The next picture shows the curtain as it is viewed from the dinette/helm station.

The track for the curtain is behind the curved, varnished mahogany strip at the ceiling. The next photo shows how the new curtain shades the salon from the bright sunlight in the dinette which has windows all around (and is facing the sun). In the salon we have a 32 inch LCD TV, and the curtain greatly aids viewing by shielding the "bright" sunlight.

...and yes, that is the Cisco Kid and Pancho on the screen. As for having a sewing machine on board, I am happy if the Admiral is happy, and the sewing machine is also on my long list of things that I never ever thought that I would have on a boat.

     We had a nice lunch onboard, and then we adjourned to the engine room for another project. We have 4 diesel fuel tanks that measure about 2' x 2' x 5' with about 150 gallons in each.  Typical of diesel tanks there are no electrical fuel gauges just sight gauges of clear tubing that run vertically from top to bottom along the side.

We last replaced the tubing about 5 years ago, and it was getting brittle and very discolored from absorbing fuel. The photo shows the top of the diesel fuel (pink) at about 8 3/4 inches). The red handle is a shut off valve at the bottom of the sight gauge where it exits the fuel tank. It was one of those "when you have time" jobs, but since my pre-departue check list includes fuel, it will be a lot easier to measure the fuel levels.

   For dinner we boarded the Casino Hopper shuttle bus and headed about 2 miles west along the beach to the "Hard Rock Casino".

Note the crane in the background. In spite of recent reports about casino revenues being down (nationally?), there is casino related construction everywhere. We also did the obligatory walking tour of the casino as you can see:

     As for the future, the winds are supposed to die down to about 10 mph tonight, but they are predicted to strengthen again during the day tomorrow. So, we may be here another day (?). Stay tuned....

Day 15 a work day in Biloxi, Mississippi

     Terry took one of the electric scooters and went several miles west along the shore to pick up a rent car at Beau Rivage Casino and Resort while I had a late breakfast after enjoying the luxury of sleeping in until 7:30 am.  Fortunately, the rental agency was not inside the casino area, and the "gambling bug" did not strike. Much to my relief, she was back very promptly with the rent car. Our first stop was at West Marine to pick up the 115 volt water pump that we had orderred yesterday by phone. We also bought a couple of plastic fittings with hose barbs on one end and pipe threads on the other designed to make the transition from the metal pump with pipe threads to flexible hose using a hose barb and clamp. Other purchases included some nylon webing and an extra fender to protect the side of the boat. This West Marine store is brand new and at least twice the size of one of their regular stores so fortunately for us, their inventory was very good. Then our journey continued to an autoparts store to buy 4 gallons of 30W motor oil for the diesels. The engines use some, but we are also trying to build up a supply for an oil change down the road. Then we went to Hancocks Fabrics to buy some navy blue cloth for a removeable curtain between the salon and the dinette. They just happened to have this "cute" sewing machine that runs on battery or shore/generator power. The Admiral thought that would work much better than iron on tape to make the curtain.  Personally, I had no thoughts at this point...
   As we started to drive away from Hancocks, we noticed that there was a Harbor Tools Store next door.  Well, neither of us can pass up a chance to visit Harbor Tools. One thing that the Admiral and I agree on is that you can never have too many tools!
   That pretty well took up the morrning so it was back to the boat for lunch. While I took a short nap Terry drove to Pascagoula (20 miles East) to pick up a prescription for me at Walgreens and to make a quick stop at Walmart. Then she went to Sams in Gulfport (20 miles West of Biloxi.). Lots of driving, but after 15 days of travel, our supplies are back up to shape. After a short nap (less than an hour), I went down into the engine room and replaced the pump. I delayed turning off the air conditioning as long as possible since the engine room heats up quickly, especially in the middle of the afternoon. Since I had laid out all of the parts and tools as carefully as possible before I started, the pump was back up and running in about 45 minutes. The engine room is not air conditioned, but with the large hatch (about 3x4 feet) opening into the engine room below, the cool air makes its way down into the engine room.


New pump motor (black) with the rotor vanes in the off white section on the right end (raw or sea water enters through black hose). Water is pumped up vertically into the T-fitting. Red handle on right controls flow to the 12,000BTU unit for the galley and master stateroom. Red handle on left controls flow to the 16,000 BTU unit for the salon, dinette and lower helm station.

      I was just finishing installing the new pump when the Admiral returned from her shopping adventure. After a relaxing shower, it was time for a second trip to West Marine for some additional parts to replace those used during the last couple of repairs. After that, the Admiral chose a charming local restaurant for dinner.
     Not a very exciting day, but repairs and maintenance are an every day part of life on a boat... Tomorrow, if the weather prediction holds, we will be off to Mobile Bay in Alabama (about 51 miles).

Day 14 Nawlins to Biloxi, MS

   When we got back to the boat last night, both air conditioning units were off and had error messages on their control consoles. After a "short" diagnosis, we discovered that a sea water cooling pump was "failing".  The two heat pump units require sea water to be pumped through them in order to heat or cool.  When either heat pump turns on, it also start a pump that circulated the water through them.  The rubber diaphram that is alternately pushed and pulled to provide the pumping action is wearing out. Fortunately, the pump still pumps enough water to run the smaller heat pump that cools the master stateroom. Thus, we had a good nights sleep last night and will again tonight. However, we need to replace the pump before long...  So, we extended our run from New Orleans to make is all 83 miles to Biloxi, Mississippi. We called ahead, West Marine has the pump in stock, and they are holding it for us to pick up in the morning.
     Now, back to today's trip. We left the marina a little before 9:00 am after the holding tank was pumped out.  Almost immediately we had to call the L&N railroad bridge for an opening. The day was obviously off to a very good start when the bridge opened without our having to even slow down. The even better news was that was the only bridge (or lock) required for today's trip.
    Our only real "odd" view for the day was passing this huge barge.

The barge was pulled by a tug (left), pushed by a tug (right) and held straight in the strong cross winds by the tug in the center.  It was going very slow as it was so tall that the cross winds must have made it very difficult to control.  My only thought was that it looks like a mobil "Super 8 Motel" with drive under parking...

     After about 2 hours we left the more forested Mississippi Delta behind and returned to more grassy coastal plain.  It's all "swamp" of a kind, but the scenery and vegetation are quite different.  We also enterred a section of the Intracoastal Waterway where the channel is out in a wide bay between the shore and offshore barrier islands.  The barrier islands are often 5 or more miles offshore so the waterway is not well protected from waves. Thus, the last 8 hours of the just over 10 hours that we were underway today were spent in waves that averaged 2 1/2 feet but ranged up to 4 feet. Lucky Us is big enough to handle those waves pretty well, but we do have to hang on at times and certainly be careful when moving about or going up/down the fly bridge ladder. We both have safety lines that are about 5 feet long with stainless steel carabiners on both ends. We have a safety line that runs along the deck of the fly bridge and down the ladder to the salon door on the aft deck. We also hold on to railings, etc. when it is rough.  So far, this system works well. Thus, a day like today turns out being more physically tiring than you realize at the time.  In other words, getting out of bed tomorrow may be more difficult than usual...

   However, the sky was beautiful all day, and I will close with a picture taken of the sky/water behind Lucky Us as we arrived in Biloxi.

On this Memorial Day, we say thanks!

Day 13 "Doin Nawlins" -Well, sort of...

     Yesterday we did the repairs, rested and did the obligatory grocery shopping, and today we played...  We took the 10:00 am shuttle bus from the marina down to near the heart of the French Quarter. We started with the usual tourist type stops:

We did not sample the beignets and justified that decision by the fact that we had both been there before. Also, in reality the line to get inside was over 2 blocks long and beignets really are not THAT great.

As you can see the Memorial Weekend weather and the classic views were just superb.

Two days earlier  we had passed under those bridges and down the Mississippi River past where the Admiral is standing. After this "intense" half hour of sight seeing, we walked 5 blocks to the Canal Cinemas Dinner Theatre to watch "Hangover 3".  The seats were wide, deep and had 6 inch wide armrests that also had folding tables. We shared a Margarita Pizza and large popcorn.  There was a 20 minute delay due to projection problems, and then they moved us to another theater to watch the movie.  In addition, they were so embarassed that they gave us an additional "free movie pass".  After the movie, we did some more rubber necking.

This was obviously back along the river. After 45 more minutes of the tourist thing, we went back to the theater to see the new "Star Wars". Well, after all, we just couldn't let those free tickets go to waste...
     We finished off the time after the movie with more sight seeing:

and we even saw three wedding marches complete with umbrellas for the bride and groom as well as marching jazz bands.

We finished off the day with a delightful cajun dinner, and by then it was 8:00 pm and time to catch the shuttle back "home".
     Not exactly a typical day of touring the French Quarter, but it had been over two weeks since we had seen a first run movie, and neither of us realized how much "withdrawal" we had been going through! Back home in League City we had been going to 2 or 3 movies a week, and it had become a habit, I guess. Well, it was a fun if not terribly relaxing day. Tomorrow the adventure continues...

Lazy Day (12) in Nawlins

After a VERY long 14 hour day to get to New Orleans, we slept in, took naps and are going to bed early. Since we arrived after dark, we did not get much of a view of the marina (and RV park). Our neighbors are very different. On one side we have a new 2 story houseboat.

On the other side there is an equally new "land yacht".

We are on the edge of the marina facing the main channel between Lake Ponchartrain and the Intracoastal Waterway, which connect to the Mississippi River. It is a 3 day holiday weekend (Memorial Day) so there is not much commercial traffic but plenty of pleasure boaters.

   We stated by repairing the rudder angle indicator (RAI). There are twin rudders which are connected by an arm to keep them parallel. The RAI is an essential tool since most of our maneuvering is at low speed. Unlike in a car, which turns quickly, at low speed it is not possible to "feel" where the rudders are pointed so the RAI is essential since to maneuver at low speed the rudders need to be centered straight ahead. Then at low speed you turn by putting one engine in forward and the other in reverse.  It is a lever arm that turns as the rudders move, and it had broken lose.  A couple of stainless steel radiator hose clamps are now very securely holding the bracket in place. Thank goodness for all of the parts and tools that we brought along on the trip!

    We also replaced a 12 volt switch on a pump.  We have 4 sump pump boxes on the boat.  They consist of a "box' that collectes water. Inside is a small bilge pump that collects water and as the box fills up, a switch activates the pump to pump the water overboard.  In this case, the sump collected water from the head (or bathroom) sink and shower.  If the switch and pump do not activate, the box will eventually over flow and the soapy water would flow into the bilge...

    After a lunch onboard, we had short naps and then road our electric scooters about 1 1/2 miles to a large Winn-Dixie Supermarket. Not real exciting but fresh fruit and vegetables greatly improve the quality of life while travelling. For dinner we went to the restaurant on site. When we walked into the large patio, I took one look and said "Wow, that looks like Rod Stewart!" Sure enough there was a guy dressed like I would expect with the hair standing up, etc.  I asked the waitress if he was a regular, and she laughed and said that he had just shown up... "Rod" (the impersonator) was obviously enjoying himself having pictures taken with "fans" in the bar.  The patio was covered, and it had begun to cool off. However, the food and entertainment made for a pretty good experience.

     Tomorrow we are taking the shuttle to the French Quarter and hopefully one of the new movies, like "Star Trek".

Day 11 arrived in "the Big Easy"

     Wow, we had an unintentionally very long day! We left Houma, LA at 7:30 am and arrived at the Ponchartrain Landing Marina in New Orleans at 9:35 pm. Thus, the run time on the engines was 14+ hours, but we spent a lot of time just "waiting", but I digress...
     Shortly after leaving Houma, we went through a "classic" pontoon swing bridge. It was the kind with what amounts to a barge that pivots on one corner and is pulled open and closed by cables. There used to be many of these in Texas, but in recent years many of them have been replaced by high fixed bridges.

     Around mid day we went under this lift bridge as it went up.   It has a clearance of 35 feet, and we only need about 18 feet with the radar mast up. However, a tow coming in the opposite direction had requested a lift.

This is the barge that had the bridge go up.  I included the picture as a personal reminder of the differences in the traffic in the Intracoastal Waterway.  In Texas most of the commercial traffic is barges with various petroleum products as well as some with sand and gravel.  In Louisiana, we have also passed a lot more drilling barges, as well as oilfield service equipment (this picture). This is an indication of the active exploration and production in the coastal plain where we are travelling.

     The day continued with remote natural areas and the chart plotter kept telling us that we would arrive at our destination at 3:24 pm. As we approached New Orleans, we passed through a very new flood gate providing protection from flooding not from the Mississippi River but from the swamp to the West.

The flood gates (yellow, directly ahead) were open, and on the right there are pumps in the grey buildings to pump water out of the protected area (ahead) behind the dike. There is no lock here so when the flood gates are closed, all traffic on the Intracoastal will be stopped until the flood waters recede.

   As we approached the Harvey Lock where we would enter the Mississippi River, we passed under several high, fixed bridges.  When we were about 4 miles out, we called the Lock Master to "request a pass". He said to approach the lock and "hang out" until he could fit us into the mix. We went right up to the front while passing by 20 or more tows tied up and/or grounded on the sides of the channel. We tied up to the wall only a 100 yards from the lock entrance, and the wait began...  By law, pleasure craft cannot enter the lock with "red flagged" vessels, which means that they contain flammable or explosive cargoes. After a "short" four hour wait, we along with a shrimp boat were allowed to enter the lock with a tug that had no barges, and a half hour later we were clear of the lock, nearly 9 feet higher and in the Mississippi River! Then we began a "wild" ride down river through New Orleans. This is a picture of the chart plotter, and things to notice are:

1. Our normal cruising speed is about 8 mph and thanks to the river we are doing 13.3 mph in the swift current. Wow!

2. The water depth is shown as 115.2 feet plus add 4 feet for our draft (to bottom of boat). The depth got as deep as about 150 feet... The Intracoastal Waterway is supposed to be 12 feet deep so we are used to seeing much smaller numbers.

3. Notice that our estimated arrival time has gone from 3:25 up to 8:08 pm.

  We did get a nice view of New Orleans in the setting Sun.

After a (very) quick 6 mile ride down river, we exited on the East side into the Industrial Canal. This is where we began our next wait, which fortunately was only about 30 minutes plus 20 minutes to go down about 3 feet in the Industrial Lock. In order to actually enter the lock we also had to schedule a bridge lift to actually get into the lock. Anyway, the calculated arrival time at our destination had now gone up to 9:15 pm, but we were not done yet... There was one more (railroad) bridge. Railroad bridges are often left open and close only for train traffic. Just our luck. The bridge was down, and when we called the bridgemaster, he said "hang out for a few minutes". Sure enough, in a couple of minutes a train started to cross the bridge. By this time to stave off boredom and stay awake, I was counting the train cars.  Car #38 stopped just as it was about to finish crossing the bridge.  After a few minutes, the train backed up and exited the bridge just as it had entered... Finally, the bridge went up, and we were able to reach our marina in just a few minutes...  Well, once again it was an interesting, eventful and most importantly, safe day on the water.

     Just as a teaser for tomorrow's report, we did develop an issue with the steering system, which made the manuevering in and out of the two locks more than a little interesting.  Tomorrow, we solve the problem.



Day 10 Alligator -the other white meat

     We depated from the anchorage about 8:30 am.  Very good anchorage with excellent holding (mud bottom). The strong down river current continued the whole time that we were there with no reversal during incoming/high tide. After an hour we started through Morgan City, LA with miles of shipyards, oil field fabrication, etc. For most of today's trip, we encountered varying amounts of floating (pieces of) water Lillies that had been cut loose by currents and boat propellors.

Some of the clumps were big and high enough to look like little islands, and a few of these also contained good sized pieces of wood.
The plants themselves presented little problem, except we wanted to avoid sucking them into the raw water intakes for the engine cooling system.  That could cause an engine to overheat and... Well, you get the picture - it would become very expensive very quickly.
     We had a U.S Customs and Border Patrol boat pull along side and ask some questions over the radio. I guess that we "passed the test" since they did not board for an inspection. After a few questions, they wished us a good trip and went off at a high rate of speed.
     We arrived in Houma, LA at their city dock around 2:30 pm. Son Bob e-mailed two recommendations for dinner that he had gotten from oil company co-workers that had lived here.  We chose Big Al's, and we went there on our electric scooters. Great seafood(!) in a family atmosphere.  I had an alligator por-boy, which was my second adventure with gator meat. I think that it tastes a lot like chicken...

The Admiral and I had our picture taken with this artistic rendition of Big Al. We are spending the night at the Houma City Marina, which connects with the Intracoastal Waterway and is only a couple of blocks from the "old" downtown. Nice stop!

     Tomorrow we are off to Nawlins for three nights.  Should be fun.

Day 9 onward to near Morgan City, LA

     Sadly we departed Delcambre, LA at 10:30 this morning and resumed our trek East. Last night I moved all of the fuel from the two port tanks to the two starboard tanks, which more or less filled them up... This meant that we had nearly 300 gallons of fuel or nearly 2400 pounds on the starboard side.  We slept last night with a few degrees of list (or tilt) to starboard.  Before heading out we went to the local fuel dock and put 255 gallons of diesel fuel at $3.19 per gallon.  Marine diesel is not subject to the highway taxes and is colored pink like farm diesel to indicate this.  Most marinas are low volume so the fuel is still more expensive, but in a shrimping port, the volume is high and prices are lower so we filled up! Anyway, this removed the starboard list on the boat as well as saving up to $1.50/gallon. 
     We also started late as a cold front was supposee to finish passing through by mid morning...  Not so!  We got about an hour out, and a rain storm built up on the back side (want to guess where we were?). The rain was hard at times, but the visibility was never less than 1/2 mile.  By mid afternoon the Sun was starting to peak through. 
     We passed a cable ferry that was fun to watch. There were big wheels/pulleys to move the ferry.  There were dire warnings to not pass the ferry until it reached the other side and allowed the cables to settle to the bottom.

It really scooted across the channel, but I suppose it will sadly be replaced by a bridge some day far too soon. A little further along we passed a barge oil rig that was being set up to drill.  They had dredged (or dug) out a small area for the barge so that it was outside of the waterway, but yet the drill rig could be easily serviced by barges.

Note the sky... Black clouds to the left (or East), which was the direction that we were headed. We anchored for the night 12.75 miles West of Morgan City, LA. The marinas in Morgan City are closed as the dike that protects the city from floods has its flood gates closed due to some flooding. Thus, we will pass through the city tomorrow, but we cannot stop.

     We are anchored for the night in an "artificial" oxbow lake created when they straightened and widened the Wax Lake (drainage) channel. The current in the main channel is very strong, and on the map there is a small delta formed where this channel flows into the Gulf of Mexico.  The oxbow/old channel where we are anchored is 16 feet deep but less than 100 feet wide.  We had to put out over 100 feet of anchor line so you do the math...  A strong cross wind, etc. could provide some problems if the boat decided to move around. The wind is supposed to be little to none so we should be okay.  Also, we will not need to run the generator for the air conditioning thanks to the cold front so it should be good sleeping tonight!

   ...and one final note (from the retired geology prof). After having visited Jefferson Island and Avery Islands (salt domes), today I got to go close by the remaining three Louisiana salt dome islands (Weeks, Cote Blanche and Belle Isle). It seems that the Intracoastal Waterway goes right by the last three.  In fact, much of the salt mined at all of them was (and still is) taken out by barge.

Day 8 a small repair and our second salt dome

Today was our second full day in Delcambre, LA (Delcambre is pronounced like delcome)  We spent about 5 hours beefing up one of the rotating dingy davits. We added extra Starboard and extra stainless steel bolts with large fender washers to stiffen it. The stern of the dingy with the nearly 150 pound motor is much heavier than the bow, and the starboard had bent under the weight.  Starboard is a wonderful marine plastic (rot proof), but it does flex/bend. Don't know what Starboard is? Well, it is essentially the same material as the white plastic cutting boards...
     After the repair, we took the dingy up river, which involved this very low bridge.

About a mile up river is the Jefferson Island salt dome. We had visited Avery Island salt dome yesterday) The center of the salt dome is collapsed due to salt solution and removal so it is filled by a lake (Lake Peigneur).  We had been driven around the mansion (and chased by a peacock) after we arrived on Day 6. Nice trip and a pretty way to close our last full day here. We are off in the morning to the Morgan City area. Here is a view of Lucky Us at the dock -

The last photo shows one of out neighbors - a "little" 90 foot yacht. Gotta keep buying those lottery tickets!

Day 7 Exploring Avery Island

The wonderful Katherine Kenworthy, cruiser manager of the North Pier Marina in Delcambre, continues to show us wonderful hospitality as she escorted us and another cruiser to Avery Island.  Here we toured the Tabasco factory, sampled the many varieties of sauces, and took a driving tour of the Jungle Gardens. 

Avery Island is on top of a salt dome so John was able to explain how salt domes were formed, the importance of finding this salt dome during early in the Civil War, and demonstrated salt dome formation using a paper towel and sissors (in his Swiss Army knife).

Although the majority of the peppers are now grown in other parts of the world, they are all processed on Avery Island into the many different tabasco sauce products.

The factory floor with a bottle counter.  They process around 700,000 bottles each day during the 4 day work week.  This was mid morning and they were almost at 65,000. 



John and Terry outside the Tabasco Shop

Tabasco Shop where John got to taste Tobasco ice cream

At the Jungle Gardens we saw gators, a Buddhist Temple, "bird city" of snowy egrets, and beautiful grounds. Bird City played an important role in bringing back Snowy Egrets from the point of near extinction. Here are a few pictures:



One of the many small gators we saw. 

Terry contemplating world events in front of Buddist Temple.

John waving from scenic bridge - he is facing the Buddah Temple.

We ended the day with our lovely hostess at a seafood restaruant in a nearby town called Shucks!  We were told the bread pudding was a 12 on a scale from 1 to 10 and they did not lie!!!! 

Day 6 Delcambre, Louisianna

At the boat show in March there was a booth promoting the North Pier Marina. Today we left the beautiful anchorage and headed toward the quaint little town of Delcambre. It was a great day that included:

1) the first lock requiring us to attach a line (Leland Bowman Lock - picture from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bowmanlock.jpg)

2) kids playing in our wake (our wake isn't very big so you know they were desperate)

3) a wonderful welcome basket from our new friends in Delcambre, including shrimp and sausage

4) a ride to Lowe's in a nearby town, dinner, and a driving tour of Delcambre and Jefferson Island where we raced a peacock (also on YouTube at:  http://youtu.be/LaXMlCAM1is)

100%

All and all, a wonderful day! 

Day 5 Off again, headed East

We left L'Auberge with our finances nearly fully intact and headed East about 8:00am.  It was not all "progress" as we had to go about 8 miles South to get back into the Gulf Intra Coastal Waterway. We are at a beautiful spot on an oxbow lake on the Mermentau River about 3 miles North of the Intracoastal.

Obviously, the dingy is off the swim platform since we are sitting in it taking this picture...

The only sign of "civilization" that we can see is the remants of a small dock, probably related to a cabin long lost in a hurricane.  We took a ride up river about 4 miles and saw an osprey anlong with 4 large flocks of Ibis.  Our trip was special since we had bought the dingy for just this sort of side trip as well as going ashore to shop in small towns along the Loop.

Obviously, the Captain is enjoying the dingy trip...  It is a thrill to be running along at 24 mph after a day of a slow but steady 8 mph. Speed aside, Lucky Us has all of the comforts of "home", including air conditioning, which felt very good after the dingy trip in bright sun with 88F.
     We also had plenty of opportunities to see many cypress knees along the shoreline.

This was the first day where we really saw very few boats, tugs and civilization in general. However, we did navigate through a lock and two pontoon bridges.  A good day indeed!

Day 4 Honey, I lost my winnings and a little more...

How is this for a wake-up call?  "Honey, I woke up early and went to the casino after my breakfast..."  The rest is history, and so is the "profit" from yesterday's gambling.
     Otherwise, we spent a relaxing but unprofitable day at L'Auberge Casino and Resort.  This morning we rode our electric scooters about 1.5 miles to shop at West Marine, Target, Sam's Club and Bed, Bath and Beyond. After 3 days on the water we needed some perishables as well as buying several items that we "forgot" to bring. We followed the shopping with a nice lunch before heading back to the boat. The Captain even managed a short nap this afternoon followed by dinner in the hotel.

Tomorrow we will head off towards New Orleans, which is 4 plus days away... Gotta love this relaxed life with no itinerary! Besides, we need to leave the casino before the Admiral even thinks about mortgaging the boat...

Day 3 onward to L'Auberge Casino (and resort)

We pulled up the anchor and departed from Port Arthur, TX a little after 8:00 am and arrived in Lake Charles, LA a little after 3:00 pm.  A distance of about 55 miles with scattered clouds and temps in the 70s. After registering, we headed to the pools, and the Admiral took this lovely self portrait of her toes with one of the pools in the background.

We then had a lovely dinner followed with some "obligatory" gambling . The good news is that she tripled her money, but the bad news is that she only started with ten dollars...

We are staying here for two nights so that tomorrow we will have time for shopping, a little check up for the boat and oh yes, more swimming and gambling.

If you walk out the rear entrance to the casino, this is the view from the door (literally). Lucky Us is attracting a lot of admirers. I suppose the name has something to do with the attention.

Day 2 Galveston to Port Arthur

     We left the Galveston Yacht Basin a little after 8:30 am.. The Captain tried to sleep in, but the Admiral prevailed... The weather forecast was for (just) 40-60% chance of showers.  Not great weather, but we have travelled this route 4 times before so we decided to go and not plan on seeing much.  As it turned out, the only rain consisted of just enough to get the windows wet (twice).  With a high temperature in the mid 70s, we had a very enjoyable trip.
     Our journey lasted a little over 7 hours and covered 55.7 miles. The photo highlight of the day was when we passed a drill barge in the waterway. When I e-mailed this photo to son Bob, his reply was:
"Brings back memories of the first drilling rigs I went to. Directions to the rig were always the same: when the road goes into the water, the boat dock is on the right side of the road." Needless to say, he was working in New Orleans at the time.


     Today's other photo is of the Admiral manning the helm. ...and by the way, she is giving a shameless plug for the Texas A&M branch campus in Doha, Qatar.



Tomorrow's desitnation is the L'Auberge Casino and Resort in Lake Charles.  The Captain will be doing his best to control the Admiral - you know how successful that will be? Ha!  Hopefully, we will not have to end the trip there due to lack of funds... Stay tuned!

Day 1 The Start of our adventure

Third times a charm - we hope! After two previous attempts:

1. -February, 2012 We started out, but after 2 days one of the diesel main engines failed and needed a re-build that took 2 months. Given the delay, we decided to spend the Fall Semester at Texas A&M University at Qatar.  Terry worked for three months as Interim COO of the branch campus, and John Taught Introductory Physical Geology to 11 Petroleum Engineering majors

2. - We had hoped to leave in February of this year, but John had a little health scare in mid January. Not to worry! He seems fine now and is leaving with the doctors full knowledge. So after a 4 month delay and no re-occurence of the problem...

3. - NOW!!! Let the boating adventure begin! Here we are leaving our home port at 12:40 pm today (Tuesday, May 14, 2013).

     We arrived at Galveston Yacht Basin after a leisurely trip of about 4 hours. About half of the trip is in the Houston Ship Channel, which is the busiest in the world. It used to be kind of scary passing the huge tankers and container ships, but after 7 years, we have gotten used to it. Upon arrival at the Galveston Yacht Basin, we did top off the fuel tanks with 188 gallons of diesel (we carry 600 gallons plus as well as 300 gallons of fresh water). Diesel is about 70 cents a gallon cheaper in Galveston...

  The admiral fixed dinner on board, and we are now watching the sun moving toward the horizon over the Galveston ship channel. Something tells me that it is going to be “early to bed” tonight. It was a short day on the water, but the morning was spent running a couple of last minute errands and finishing loading clothes on the boat.

 

     As a side note, as we were leaving our home dock in League City, Texas, we noticed that a family of Mallard ducks had already "adopted" our dingy dock as their new home...