Day 5 Lake Charles to Intracoastal City, LA

     We left the dock in Lake Charles at 6:35 am and are heading to Shell Morgan Landing at Intracoastal City, LA.  This is a long day as we are traveling 91.6 miles and have two locks and two pontoon bridges to go through. That gives us 4 possible waits of unknown duration. Bridges are generally not a long wait, but as we will see tomorrow, some bridges close completely for morning and afternoon rush hours and even for school times. For the first hour we retraced our path back down the Calcasieu River/Lake Charles Ship Channel to the GICW where we headed East once again. Almost immediately we came to our Calcasieu Lock our first of the day. When the Admiral called to request a lock through, we were told to come up near the lock and "hang out" for about 20 minutes. That 20 minutes turned into almost 2 hours as they were performing routine maintenance and checks. With another lock and the 2 bridges yet to go our worries about a (too) long of a day began to loom large. However, the only thing to do is push on and find an anchorage if we run out of daylight...

     This is not a very scenic portion of the GICW since there are very few people let alone towns along this portion of the waterway.  Aside from an occasional small herd of cattle, this was much of the scenery. Usually there are just the Pipeline Crossing/Do Not Anchor or Dredge warning signs, but this location also included a small gas compressor.

     The rotating pontoon bridges are a vanishing breed along the Gulf Coast, except for more remote areas.  They are somewhat slow and no doubt present a hazard for safety vehicles and hurricane evacuations. They are slowly being replaced by fixed bridges with a vertical clearance of 50+ feet.  The "pontoon often looks like an old flat decked, cargo barge that is fixed at one corner by what amounts to as a big hinge. The rotation to open/close the bridge is provided by a series of cables.

In this photo you can see part of the hinge at the far right, and the cables would attach to the other end for leverage to swing the bridge.













The bridge rotates into position across the waterway in front of these ramps that lower to complete the bridge. It really is an interesting process to watch, but I suppose for local residents it grows tiresome after the first few hundred delays...











    The next photo is yet another towboat, but I included this for A&M friends. It is the David Vitter, and she is named for former Louisiana Senator David Vitter. For the A&M folks it will bring back "memories" of his brother who was the Provost at A&M for nearly 2 years about 10 years ago. I'll just leave it there with no additional comment...

















     After another pontoon bridge (and a few more cattle), we came to the Leland Bowman lock and nervously awaited the Lockmaster's reply to our request for a lock through. We waited a couple of minutes for a west bound tow to clear the lock and went right inside. The locks serve at least two purposes. First, they prevent salt water intrusion into the coastal wetlands. Second, they prevent sediment laden flood waters from entering the GICW. The second purpose is really important where major rivers, like the Brazos River in Texas, cross the waterway. We were told to enter and just "hang out" until the gates closed behind and opened in front. Today, the difference in water level was only 0.9 feet between the two sides of the lock. So, once the gate closed behind us, the Lockmaster slowly opened the gate in front to allow the water levels to equilibriate. The photo shows the Admiral on the foredeck ready to fend off if I lose control, especially with a 15 mph cross wind.





















     Fortunately, the lock walls blocked most of the wind so we had a relatively uneventful passage.  The next photo is looking back at the lock after we exited.This lock is newer and at 1150 feet long it has room for three of the longer barges in a double wide, row with the towboat behind. The will pretty much handle the largest tows.

     By this time Lucky was getting bored. We sometimes put her bed on the control console so she has a great view. Even this was no longer enough for Lucky, and here she has gotten up and has decided that the port tachometer needed to be attacked. Both tachometers are old school analog and sometimes the electrical connections must not be too good at the tacks will vibrate wildly. Evidently, this motion attracted Lucky's attention. Well, I did say that the scenery today was not great...

     Intracoastal City is a small center for the oil field service industry. We passed yards for Schlumberger and Halliburton as well as this yard for Baker-Hughes (see photo below).  All of them looked "abandoned" with no signs of activity although it was about 6:00 pm by then.  However, during boom times there probably have been some activity on a 24/7 basis.

     Our stop for the night was at the Shell Morgan Landing fuel dock. It is mainly a fuel dock with room for a half dozen permanent renters in slips and several transient boats (that is us) on the wall. One of the renters is the Louisiana Fish and Wildlife Service. They have this all aluminum speed boat about 39 feet long with 4 (count them) 300 horse power outboards for power. This "baby" must do at least 70 mph... I can just imagine them chasing 18 foot bass boats through the winding channels of the swampy Gulf coastal plain (No, I can't actually).

Last but not least, or maybe least, I don't know... Tonight on the marina wall next to Lucky Us was this lovely stack of new crab pots. I almost "borrowed" one because after all who knows when you might have to live off the land after some sort of Armageddon? Sure hope that I did not jinx the whole World?

     Well, I had hoped to end today's post here, but remember we are talking about a boat. After dinner (the Admiral's spaghetti using spaghetti squash for our noodles), we noticed the aft bilge pump light was staying on.  I explored the engine room for water leaks and found a leak associated with the water heater, but that did not account for the pump remaining on continuously.  Further exploration revealed that one of the pumps was not pumping.  Turning it on and off started it working again.  It appears that about half the time it works and half the time it does not, and the float switch does not seem to be functioning properly as well.  They are going on the list to be replaced.  Not to worry, we have another bilge pump further forward and an emergency pump even higher.  That doesn't include the three sump pumps that we also have for the shower/washer and air conditioners.  We should not sink today. So, now I can say "See ya tomorrow".