Day 2-347 to Houma, LA

     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...

Days 345-6 in N'Awlins

Day 345
      New Orleans is the city with many names, such as N'Awlins, Nawlins, Nola and The Big Easy... It is also a city where "what happens in Nawlins stays in Nawlins" not that I would know anything about that.
     We left Lucky Us here at this very scenic dock on the canal along side the park (picture at right). The shuttle bus departed from the marina (and RV park) at 10:00 or more precisely at 10:07 am. We got to the edge of the French Quarter about 20 minutes later. We had about an hour to walk around before the first movie started so we drifted toward the riverfront. We were last here in May 2013 on our way to start the Great Loop. Thus it was with mixed blessing that we looked out at the river knowing that in two days we would be crossing the river again, but this time we might not be back by boat for a while.

    We got to the Theaters at Canal Place, which is attached to the Westin Hotel on the edge of the French Quarter. We did visit several stores, but we (fortunately for me) only looked in the windows at several other stores, such as Tiffany's. "Fury" started at 11:30 am, and we had time to order our meal before the previews began. They have 7 theaters, with all over-size reclining chairs, and the Admiral can be seen seeming to enjoy sitting in luxury in the picture at the left. Everything is done with a dinner theater concept, including shared tables that rotate out. I had a rather bland Margarita pizza, but the lunch did not matter since, of course, we also ordered popcorn for "dessert" with the movie. The movie was action packed and very bloody.  After the movie, our original plan had been to wander around the French Quarter for a while, and the we would go to another movie later.

     We headed for Café du Monde for beignets and coffee to discuss our plan. Surely, no visit to New Orleans can be complete without stopping at Café du Monde even if it is in the middle of the afternoon. And there must be a technique to eating beignets without getting covered in powdered sugar, but if there is a proper way to eat them, I have yet to discover it. It seems that after walking a couple of miles that we were losing interest in another movie and arriving back late on the last shuttle. So, we decided to walk through several of the market areas and in general work our way back to catch the 4:00 pm shuttle.
      After relaxing for a bit back on board Lucky Us, we rallied enough to go to the hot tub too sooth our tired "walking" muscles. The soothing part was great, but we were both so relaxed enough that I do not know how the Admiral could muster up the energy to make dinner after we got back to the boat. I have mentioned before how nice it is to be back in the Central Time Zone where the nightly news comes on at 10:00 pm. That is true, but tonight was definitely another night that I did not see the nightly news no matter what time it might have started...

Day 346

      Finally, we actually had a low key day! I would hesitate to say restful, but it was pretty restful since I even got a nap. We went to the marina restaurant (and bar) for lunch. The marina has two channels for boats. This one seems to be for much smaller transients. The multipurpose store, office, restaurant, laundry, etc. is all in the big building at the head of this channel. The hot tub is at ground level to the left of the main building. The two story buildings are pre-fabricated complexes that consist of two lower units with an upper unit that spans the deck between the lower units.

      Two guys started all of this after hurricane Katrina in 2005, and they have steadily added more permanent units as well as additional dock and RV spaces. They even have some two story floating units. The pool deck is on the upper level of the club house, and we had not checked it out before today... Good thing because we would have been disappointed because they were only now refilling it after some repairs.

   We spent the afternoon doing the "usual" paper work, blogging and of course, napping.  And the Admiral rode her bike to the grocery store for a quick shopping spree. 

      This is a view from the stern of Lucky Us looking along the shore toward some of the waterfront 2-story units  and waterfront parking spots for large (bus like) RVs. In spite of all of the water around (and in) New Orleans, there is not a lot of waterfront living here. Many hones that boarder Lake Pontchartrain, for example, have a partial view of the lake over a high levee system. The city and actually the whole Mississippi delta is slowly sinking due to compaction of the very young sediments at the surface, and reportedly, there are parts of the city that are over 20 feet below sea level. Thus, this kind of waterfront view is pretty rare. Mind you that it is the waterfront view of a fairly commercial channel (not shown).

     Tomorrow we will be moving on westward, but our last day in town ended with a beautiful sky at sunset. A lovely ending to what is always a too short visit to Nawlins.

Day 2-344 to New Orleans via Lake Pontchartrain

     Ho hum! Guess what time we departed from Gulfport, Mississippi? Need a hint? The picture at the right shows yet another sunrise as we departed. As you can see, the sky was cloudless, and there is a very light breeze as can be seen from the small ripples on the water. The truth be told, we might have stayed longer in Biloxi, or Gulfport or both, but we had fairly open water crossings here. The longer term weather forecasts indicated that reaching New Orleans sooner rather than later would be in our best interests. So, here we are headed for New Orleans while the weather is still perfect...

     Our trip today was 72.6 miles with about the first 40 miles in the Mississippi Sound, and the remainder in Lake Pontchartrain. After the first 40 miles we could have turned into the GICW and taken a more protected inland route to New Orleans, which is the way that we had come on the way east last year. However, we decided to go into Lake Pontchartrain instead. Our destination was the same marina that we had stayed at last year, which is on a canal between the lake and the GICW. We did have a number of bridges before the GICW turned off to head inland to New Orleans, including these highway and railroad bridges. All of the railroad bridges today were ones that remain open unless is train is crossing so that speeded things up a bit. This picture was taken about Noon, and you can see that the wind is still only a few mph.

       You can tell that this railroad bridge is after the GICW has turned off since it is "open" but only about half way. A normal tow could not fit through that narrow opening. With a clearance of only 4 feet obviously we needed to maneuver around the bridge.

      Lake Pontchartrain is tidal with a relatively narrow opening. The current here can be strong given the size of the lake. The chart showed depths of 51 feet, which was not a surprise. However, I took this picture of the chartplotter, which had a reading of 72.8. and to that number we can add 4 feet since the depth shown is from the keel down. However, the lake is generally shallow with depths often in the range of 11 to 15 feet. We did follow the marked navigation channel just in case.. That might seem shallow, but it would provide easy access to most pleasure craft.

     We only had one bridge that required an opening to pass through between entering the lake and reaching the canal. That bridge worked very well with us to be able to pass through without having to wait. At this point we were maybe 10 miles from our destination. The Admiral does a great job of not only plotting the course, but she also checks aerial views of seemingly difficult places to maneuver, such as at locks, multiple bridges, etc. It was about at this time that I heard a rather loud "Oh no!!!".

     In the picture above, Part A. is what the chartplotter showed. Lake Pontchartrain is just off the bottom. The white area is deeper water and the two brown lines are bridges. The railroad bridge has a clearance of 4 feet, but it is left up (open) when there are no trains due. The other bridge is a bascule bridge, but it has a clearance of 40 feet in the down position. Everything is a go, or so it seemed.  Part B. When the Admiral checked the bridges on iMaps, she saw this picture which shows the channel completely blocked by a man made dike. Whoa! If this view is accurate, then we have to go back around for a distance of about 48 miles... Skip to Part D, which is the next view that she found on Google Maps, and this view agrees with the navigation chart. After a nervous call to the marina, they confirmed that there had been a temporary earthen dike, but it was now gone. The temporary dike was built so that new flood gates could be built across the channel. Panic over! Part C. shows are view after we had passed through the two bridges. At this point we are about 1/4 mile from the marina (and not 48 miles!). I am sure that some day we will see the humor in seeing the old outdated aerial view on line. All kinds of lessons learned and/or confirmed in this little "exercise"...
     We docked with no further problems and had a nice dinner in the marina restaurant. We debated going back later for a visit to the hot tub, but after a long day that debate did not last long.

     Tomorrow, we will take the marina shuttle bus to "The Big Easy" for some good old fashioned fun.

Day 2-343 in Gulfport, MS

       After a very (for me any way) lazy morning, we headed back to downtown Gulfport on our bikes. The park between the marina and downtown has many paths for walking, jogging and cycling as well as a number of pavilions. Everything, including the marina would appear to be post-Katrina. The structures are elevated and very sturdy looking. My guess is that this entire several block area was destroyed during Katrina and has been turned into parks, etc. to help shield the town from waves in future hurricanes. At any rate, it is now a tremendous resource for both locals and tourists.

      The picture at the left is from the edge of downtown looking back toward the marina and beach areas. The view also shows another pavilion as well as a small "forest" of 2 story white finger like structures in the marina. The marina is indeed full of these small towers that are used to elevated transformers and other equipment in the marina. The intent is to preserve these items during future large storm surges, especially during hurricanes.

     For lunch we chose an Italian restaurant about a block away from the Half Shell Oyster House where we ate last night. I had a rather strange Margarita pizza. I say strange since it had some sort of orange cheese that had been sprinkled over the crust before the (thick) crust had been pre-cooked. That cheese added a rather sour taste to what was otherwise a standard Margarita pizza... Oh well, it did not effect my nap later...

     It was a beautiful day after a cool start, and the plan for the late afternoon was to catch the heat of the day on the beach. I took the picture at the right while standing in 6 inches of very clear water about 150 feet off the shore. Obviously (?), the tide was out and the various sand bars were covered with gulls. The very shallow water was a very comfortable 85+ degrees since it had been easily heated by the sun. I walked much further out, but it never did get very deep. However, it did start to cool off dramatically as I approached more open water. So, I never did get to swim, but I did enjoy the sights.

      Those sights included a variety of sea gulls  and black skimmers that allowed me to approach as close as 20 feet or so. Sea gulls are not high on my list of favorite birds, but this was fun enough.

     The Admiral captured this great picture of skimmers in flight.

     The Admiral also took this picture of some handsome guy (me) sunning on the beach...

     It has been probably 2 months since I have spent quality time on a real beach and that was probably back in Michigan (both state and lake).

     After dinner on the boat, the Admiral got this picture of one of the pavilions, which are lighted at night. All together, the waterfront at Gulfport is quite pretty, but it is also sad that the city had to suffer a lot during hurricane Katrina to get to this point...

Day 2-342 a short trip to Gulfport, MS

      "Honey, it's a beautiful day. Let's cruise onward to Gulfport" said the Admiral. Well, it was a glorious day, and she caught me off guard. So, after a little stammering, I said "Sure, Why not? We've never been to Gulfport". ...and so it happened. Thus, so much for another day off as we went 15.5 miles west to Gulfport, Mississippi. The picture at the right shows our audience as we headed out through the breakwater at the marina. They (i.e. the sea gulls) seemed indifferent at best as we departed so maybe that was a sign of some sort (?).

      The weather was perfect with a cloudless sky and a light 7 mph breeze out of the east. We had a leisurely cruise of about 2.5 hours (dock to dock) at less than our normal cruising speed in order to enjoy the beautiful weather. One of the first sights was the Beau Rivage Casino and Resort. There are several marinas here, including the one in the foreground, that were never repaired after hurricane Katrina in 2005, but other wise, the place is quite attractive from the water.

     A short distance later, we passed the historic Biloxi lighthouse. The plantation style building to the right of the lighthouse in the picture at the right is the Chamber of Commerce Visitor's Information Center. The lighthouse is one of the few remaining cast iron lighthouses from the 19th century. It was cast in sections in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and shipped down the river system by barge. During the Civil War, it was dismantled and buried in the sand so that the "enemy" could not use it... Today, it sits in the median of a beautiful four lane divided boulevard that runs along the shoreline.

      The main shipping channel into Gulfport splits into two channels just off the shore. The one to the west is for the barges and ocean going ships while we took the smaller, eastern channel to the Gulfport Small Craft Harbor. The breakwater was lined with fishermen, which often included whole families. The marina is behind a bend to the right in the channel. The old downtown is between the marina and the tallest building toward the left in the picture. To the right (east) is a marvelous, wide sand beach that stretches all of the way back to Biloxi.

     We had not visited Gulfport when we started the Great Loop, but the marina is all quite new, i.e. definitely post-Katrina. After the usual pump out at the fuel dock, we docked successfully just in time for my "nap". Now that's timing.

     Later, we headed out to walk into downtown and tour around a bit before finding "food". The picture at the right shows a huge mural inside of, you guessed it, the Half Shell Oyster House. I did not have oysters, but I did have excellent broiled shrimp and grilled flounder.

The trip today was short, but it served a greater overall purpose. Our next destination is New Orleans, which is now "only" 72.6 miles away rather than the 88.1 miles that it was before today's trip. Today's trip also shortened the amount of time that we will spend truly in the Gulf Of Mexico before we enter the more sheltered, inland portion of the Gulf Intra Coastal Waterway where we will be until we get back to Galveston, TX.

      Well, once again it was early to bed, but tomorrow we will do some exploring around the marina.

Day 2-341 in Biloxi, MS where we are supposed to be relaxing???

    What is the first picture on a day of rest and relaxation? Evidently the Admiral was up early since I found this picture on my camera...  Well, by now you know that I did not take a sunrise picture when I was in fact sound asleep. This beautiful sunrise is a little misleading if you believe the old adage of "red sky in the morning, sailors take warning" since the weather was quite nice all day.
     When I "finally" got up at 9:00 am, the Admiral had left to take the city bus to go grocery shopping, and I spent the rest of the morning working on the blog.

      Like most marinas around here, the boats are a mix of charter fishing boats and pleasure craft. Several of the charter boats are 75+ feet long and carry  6 or 8 -16 foot long Boston Whaler type fishing boats on their flybridge. So, I guess that the mother ship is for transport while the small boats fish the flats (shallow waters) around the barrier islands. The Golden Nugget (upper left) is in the background.





     We had lunch on board followed by a quick nap for me since Aggie Football was on TV at 2:30 pm. Well, I should have just stayed asleep.... The Aggies did not "show up" for the game. They played the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Aggie offense, which had been ripping off yardage all season at a rate of 500 to 600 yards a game, but they managed only 160 yards for the game. The final score as an embarrassing 52-0. Like I have said before, you never know which Aggie Team is going to show up...

    Well, it was "tough love", but we did watch the whole game. At least the Admiral enjoyed the Kettle Corn popcorn that she had bought especially for the game. For dinner we had planned to go to one of the restaurants in the Golden Nugget, which turned out to be a good idea to help forget the miserable football game. We had a lovely view of the waterfront at dinner (picture at right), and we even managed to have a relatively quiet dinner away from the gambling, which is hard to do. I had a grilled shrimp and flounder combo that was quite good, and it certainly helped to improve my mood. Cameras are frowned upon in casinos since not all of the couples are married ( or at least married to each other). So, I kind of hid the camera when taking this picture...
      After dinner, we had to walk through the casino, of course, to reach the exit. The Admiral announced that she was feeling lucky. Indeed she was! In a relatively short period she almost doubled her money at roulette. THEN, in a really amazing move, she cashed out and was ready to leave. Well, she certainly helped to brighten an otherwise  disastrous day.

      We got back to Lucky Us in time to watch a beautiful sunset over Mississippi Sound. The picture at the left shows the sunset just starting. The view shows some pelicans and the new Gold Burgee now proudly flying on the bow of Lucky Us.

 The last picture shows the actual sunset in progress. All in all, the dinner, casino and sunset really helped to end an otherwise disastrous (football) day on a definite upbeat note...

     Just as a side note, we know that the Aggies cannot lose next weekend (they don't play)...

Day 2-340 We cross our wake in Mobile Bay

     We had planned to spend two nights at Dog River Marina, but the weather was so beautiful that we decided to take advantage of the weather and go for it... Go for it we did! Besides, the excitement of crossing our wake was WAY too much!

      We easily adapted to get back to checking the tides before departing, and found that we would be riding a falling (out going) tide for 3.5 hours after we left the Dog River Marina, and then later in the day we would probably be going into the current as we approached our destination at Biloxi, MS. We also continued to enjoy seeing many pelicans and cormorants, and the Admiral was back in form telling me not to go too close to the markers so that I wouldn't "scare" the birds. Evidently it scares her more than the birds. Well, in all honesty I did hit one once but that was a different matter...

     We also saw the familiar shrimp boats with their ever present flotilla of (mainly) sea gulls and pelicans. Pure greed in action...

      For the first 6 miles we retraced our path from yesterday east back out to the Mobile Ship Channel and headed south to the Intra Coastal Waterway. Once we were in the ship channel we were passed by what looked like a new car carrier (ship). It was not until the ship passed us that we could actually see that the cargo was railroad cars. It looked like there were 7 tracks on each of two decks. Judging from the modest length of the carrier, my guess was that there were about 10 cars in each row or about 140 cars in all. Anyway, this was definitely a first for us...

      We went south in the Mobile Ship Channel for about 12 miles before turning to the west to head toward the Intra Coastal Waterway. About 3 miles later MAGIC HAPPENED! We crossed our wake to complete America's Great Loop. We slowed the boat to idle speed and took the remote control for the auto-pilot with us down to the bow of Lucky Us. The picture of me (below, left) shows me with the original America's Great Loop Cruising Association (white, for Loop in progress) burgee that has flown on the bow since we began the Loop on May 31, 2013. It has gotten very faded, but the tear is a recent addition. At the rate that it was finally falling apart, it is a good thing that we crossed our wake...

     No single photograph nor indeed a few words can hardly express the feeling of actually having completed the Loop. So, I won't really try, but here are a few numbers:
1. travel from League City, TX to start the Loop = 572 miles
2. Our trip around the Loop including side trips like the St. Johns River in Florida, going up the Potomac River to Washington, D.C. and going to the Thousand Islands = 6,330 miles
3. Our estimate of the distance to return home is 535 miles (slightly different route) = 535 miles.

For the whole trip our estimate is a Grand Total = 7,437 miles.

The picture at the left shows the Admiral with our new gold burgee that signifies "Loop Completed".

   Also, our best estimate of the number of days is about 355 days (plus additional time on the boat in Wilmington, NC where we left Lucky Us for the winter. ...and every minute, mile, etc. has been well worth it!

      Back to reality, since we still had about 53 miles to go across Mississippi Sound to our destination of Biloxi, Mississippi for today. The clear skies continued, but a westerly breeze of about 12 mph came up for the afternoon. We passed one tow in the ICW, and we also passed a USCG Buoy Tender that was replacing one of the channel markers. Otherwise, the rest of the trip was very nice but uneventful or perhaps when compared to the Wake Crossing, it just seemed ordinary.
   So, there you have it! We have closed the Loop by crossing our wake, but the trip and the blog will continue for 2+ weeks as we travel home at a "leisurely" pace.

     In Biloxi we are staying at the Point Cadet Marina, which is owned by the City of Biloxi, and it is between the Golden Nugget Casino and Resort and the water (Mississippi Sound). The picture at the left shows the marina as we approach from the south. We went to Bubba Gump's in the casino for dinner, and of course, the designated gambler (aka the Admiral) did spend a few minutes playing the slots on the way out. You gotta love those casinos... You cannot even go from the front door to the front desk without going across the casino. They do not miss a bet when it comes to giving you opportunities to spend money.

       The marina office is on the third (top) floor of the building that also houses the bathroom and laundry. It has a commanding view of the marina and also Mississippi Sound in the background. Lucky Us is at the end of the pier in the middle. We are on the outside of the T-head so we were a little expose to wakes coming in through the entrance on the right.

     Who knows? A lot of people cross their wakes and just keep on going to other adventures...