Today we had a short but busy 61.1 mile trip to an anchorage just south of Port Arthur, TX. The first 10 miles took us back down the Lake Charles Ship Channel to the waterway. The L'Auberge Casino is on the south side of Port Arthur so we only went past about half of the refineries, and cargo terminals, etc. Never the less, I started a running count of "vessels". We also went through part of the ports at Beaumont and Port Arthur. Altogether we passed by 16 harbor tugs, which are used to help ocean going tankers and cargo ships dock and maneuver, 3 ocean going tug-barge combos, 9 ocean going tankers or cargo ships and nearly 100 tows (towboats with one or more barges) and 6 lite tows (towboats with no barges). In Lake Charles we saw several of the relatively new style "tractor tugs". In map or top view these tugs (picture above) have an elliptical (or egg) shape, and the drive unit with the propeller rotates 360 degrees, which makes them extremely maneuverable. In the count I attempted to avoid any vessel that appeared to be abandoned (and there are a number of vessels that hopefully will be scrapped soon).
Speaking of cutting up boats for scrap, we passed a row of oil storage tanks mounted on flat deck barges that were being cut up for scrap. It was truly a busy traffic day. We passed 8 tows going in our direction, which altogether took about 2 hours of our travel day. By the way our travel day lasted about 7.5 hours. We left our dock at the casino at 8:05 am and arrived at our anchorage at 3:45 pm.
Once we reached the waterway and turned west to head for Texas, we could see a large backlog of east bound tows that were waiting for the Calcaseau Lock just to the east. This is the same lock that we had passed through late yesterday, and it is closed daily from 7:00 am until 5:00 pm. This picture was taken at about 9:00 am, and it looks like there will be a huge traffic jam in another 8 hours when the lock re-opens...
Once we left the Lake Charles Ship Channel and turn west in the waterway, we resumed making positive progress toward the Texas-Louisiana state line. I guess that we were missed by our friends in Texas since someone kindly erected this huge bill board on the state line ha, ha... Well, minus the sign that I had pasted in using PowerPoint, this is pretty much what it looked like as we crossed the state line. Miles and miles of coastal marsh...
When you approach Beaumont from the east, the waterway joins the ship channel on the south side of Beaumont. The ship channel continues on north under these bridges into the center of town. As you can see, this is a very busy intersection.
Just before (east of) this intersection, at least one company has a major staging areas for tows, tow boats and barges. There were big and little tow boats moving everywhere. When I said earlier that we had passed a lot of (active) traffic today, I really was not kidding.
Another interesting sight was this ocean going tug in a floating dry dock for repairs. You can see the large steel cylinders that surround and protect the propellers. Obviously, the protection is not perfect since both propellers and drive shafts have been removed for repairs (?). This huge tug fits into a large notch at the stern of ocean going barges that are shaped more like small ships. There is a man in the picture for scale so that you can get an idea of the size of the propellers, etc.
The cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur are seemingly joined at least along the waterway/ship channel. The area along the shore is protected by a high (?) dike (picture at left). It is a strange sight because you can see a lot of roofs looking over the dike, but there are very few two story houses that therefore have a chance of a view.
It was in Port Arthur that we actually passed alongside 3 ocean going cargo ships (picture at right). Most of the dry cargo ships that we have seen along the Gulf Coast were being loaded with coal (and some with grain).
I included this picture of the bow of an empty ocean going freighter since you get a good view of the bulb on the bow below the water line. The bulb serves to reduce the effect of approaching waves and to increase speed. Below the level of the anchors, you can see the international signs for a bulbous bow and a bow thruster, which is below the waterline even when the ship is empty.
On the south side of Port Arthur the waterway turns off the ship channel and heads west along the coast. The ship channel continues south to the Gulf of Mexico. It was in this are that we saw several large fleets of Gulf shrimp boats. They are much larger that the coastal boats that make short one day trips. These larger boats range further out into the Gulf Of Mexico on multi-day trips.
Once the waterway turns off and heads west we went under a high fixed highway bridge, dodged a bunch of tows and this dredge. There is also a refinery in the background. Very soon we reached our turn off into a man made channel that goes to the north. The channel seems to serve no purpose, but it does head along the back (or west) side of the refinery in the picture. There were three tows "parked" in this side channel as well as a lot of long floating pipes for the dredge. We go about a mile up this side channel to a wide place where we can anchor and swing completely around without hitting anything during changing tides or winds. Then we had dinner and were about to settle in for a quiet evening when I remembered that half of the 360 degree white anchor light did not work. The anchor light is the highest point on the boat, and it contains two white (or clear) bulbs. The reason for the two bulbs is that the forward facing bulb is also turned on with the running or navigation lights. With the Admiral's help I removed the screws that hold a two foot long pipe that elevated the light fixture above the radar. To do this I had to stand on top of three seat cushions on top of a fiberglass storage chest. It was a pretty shaky set up at best, but fortunately the Admiral held me steady. Then of course, we discovered that the replacement bulbs that we had were about a 1/4 inch to long to fit into the snap in socket... Well, boaters are and have to be resourceful... I ended up using ordinary cotton string to tightly tie the bulb into place as best that I could. It worked, and in fact the light was still burning brightly the next morning. Not exactly the kind of repair that would pass a rigorous (official) inspection, but we were lighted as required while at anchor for the night.
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