We left the "Big Easy" at (what else) 7:10 am, and of course, our first picture (at right) is of a sunrise across the river from the marina. The good news was that the weather was cool but the sky was almost cloudless. We had 5 bridges in the first 4 miles, including 2 that needed to be raised before we could pass through. The trip for today was "only" 68.6 miles, but it included very busy locks on both sides of the Mississippi River, which can involve long waits.
The picture at the left shows our view back towards the marina as we departed. The marina has served us well in our stops here on both ends of the Loop. Although it is on an active canal that connects the Gulf Intra Coastal Waterway with Lake Pontchartrain, most of the commercial traffic stays in the waterway so our dock on the side of the canal was not very "bumpy" due to wakes.
A short distance from the marina we pass the yard for Trinity Yachts (picture at left), which produces custom yachts for private customers. The yard was closed up tight when we passed through here about 16 months ago. This time we could see 3 yachts in various stages of construction in aluminum. These are true yachts, but they are only about 90 feet and pale in comparison to the mega-yachts (of the mega-rich). If you want to believe that the economy has recovered then this would be a good sign.
The first railroad bridge was up so we slipped on through just before it went back down for a train. The photo was taken looking back over the stern so we had also gone under the other high spans as well. The twin spans just behind the railroad bridge are the very busy ones for Interstate 10. It was almost fun thinking about Lucky Us moving along with virtually no traffic and seeing the heavy commuter traffic on I-10. Wow, this retirement thing is just fine. We were going 8.3 mph and were happy. The commuters were probably also going 8.3 mph and were very upset...
We got to the Industrial Lock and were informed by the Lock master that we should tie up to the pilings and wait. Then we were called by the Lock master that we had tied up to pilings on the "restricted side" so we moved across the channel to tie up again. By this point we were thinking that it would be a long wait. However, as soon as we were tied up for the second time, the Lock master called and said it was okay to enter the lock (?). We could hardly complain, but it did seem strange. During our wait, we were joined by a couple from Texas on a 36 foot trawler. They had bought the boat in Florida and were headed home to Texas. They were new to the locking process (picture above), but as we all have done, they were learning fast. The locking process was quick since the lock just adjusts the water level between the river, which was not flooding, and the waterway. As soon as you exist, the St. Cloud Avenue bridge has to raise since they are so close to the lock. Fortunately, the bridge and the lock seem to coordinate the process without any calls from us.
... and then we were out into the Mississippi River almost immediately. One of the first views is the US Navy transport Cape Kennedy and a sister ship with a tow in the foreground. The river is about a mile wide so there is no traffic jam even though there is a lot of commercial traffic with both ships and tows.
The New Orleans skyline along the river is pretty impressive, but of course, most of us know the city more for the French Quarter. The French Quarter is out of the picture to the right, and even then most of the buildings are at least partially obscured by the high dike along the river. There are two locks on the west side of the river since most of the commercial barge traffic goes west. Since the river often flows very fast, where fast means 5+ mph, it makes a difference whether you want to go up or down river. However, Harvey Lock (the northern one) is the best lock for pleasure craft. The Harvey Lock is smaller at about 600 feet long and cannot accommodate the large commercial tows that can be up to 1,000 feet long. So, we headed up river into a relatively modest 2.5 mph current. We chose not to speed up the engine, but rather going slowly up river gave us a chance to enjoy the views.
We did also take the obligatory picture of one of the large stern wheeler cruise/party boats along the river front. It was also fun to see the boat from the water, and at the same time, we could remember standing only a few feet away from her two days earlier when we had gone to the French Quarter.
We called the Harvey Lock on the VHF radio, and they were most accommodating. The waterfront on both sides of the river is pretty heavily built up, and then you come upon what looks like an open grassy area. It is not until you are almost directly opposite the lock that you can see it even though it is almost at the edge of the river. Being close to the river also means that there is really no quiet area to idle in or any place to tie up to wait. So, we were really lucky that they could take us almost immediately.
As soon as you leave the lock, it is a very busy waterfront area. I did not count, but we must have gone past several dozen floating dry docks. Most had either one barge or several tow boats in them. The commercial boats have to be inspected every 5 (?) years so obviously this is also a good time to paint the bottoms, etc. I included the picture at the left, which shows two empty floating dry docks, because it also has a vehicle/passenger ferry that is being repaired.
The next several pictures are specifically for Grandson Will, and the first one shows a really good side view of a freshly painted towboat. I say freshly painted since it still does not have the name and company logo painted onto it.
One of the many other sights was this smaller ferry that was also being refurbished. Just a fun place to go through with all of the different sights. However, with all of the commercial activity also comes a no wake speed limit. We still had several miles and one last flood gate to pass through before we really could get back up to cruising speed. The flood gate is always open except during floods (duh?). However, even though we had great luck with bridges, locks, etc. it was already past Noon, and we had only gone about 18 miles in 5 hours. It hardly seemed possible since we were either busy working or watching the scenery. The bottom line was that we still had about 50 miles to go to our final destination of Houma, LA. Gonna be a long day...
Once past the last flood gate we were pretty much going through relatively uninhabited coastal plain. One fun sight that we did see was "Large Marge". There are actually two of these heavy lift crane barges in the photo at the right. These cranes are used to assemble drilling and production platforms. The "pieces" come in on barges and are lifted into place by these (and ones even larger) cranes.
As the sun was setting (picture at left), we were finally only a few miles from our destination at the Houma City Dock. Fortunately, with the clear sky the twilight lingered for a while. The marina is easy to find since it is between a pair of highway bridges with a vertical clearance of 70 feet. I forgot to mention that the trawler that joined us in the first lock had followed along behind us for the rest of the day, and they also stopped at the same marina so we finally met them in person. We had talked on the radio several times, but it was nice to actually saw hello in person.
The final picture for today shows the marina nestled between the twin bridges. This picture was actually from the next morning, but you can get an idea of how the marina is situated even though it was much darker when we arrived. It was pretty dark for the Admiral to handle the lines, but she managed wonderfully as always. There is a nice park here also, and there were still several families enjoying the last vestiges of what had been a great day. Lots of admiring young faces...
Whew! It was a long but very productive day. For those of you who might be worrying about our seeming to "push" hard to get to Houma, we did have at least one anchorage about 25 miles before Houma that the Admiral had pre-plotted on our route. When we passed that anchorage and made the decision to go on to Houma, we knew that we would arrive within minutes of sunset... Anyway, it worked for us, and as always after a long day, we slept very well..
About the only down side was that it was late and we were too tired to try any of the wonderful nearby restaurants. Luckily, the Admiral still had enough energy to cook...
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