11/22/2012, Lafitte, LA
Happy Thanksgiving! Today we left Houma at about 7:30. It was calm with a little mist rising off the water. It was an easy day - 45 miles - with 1 fixed bridge, a pontoon bridge, and a lift bridge. They all went pretty smoothly and we were anchored here by 2:30. Tomorrow we enter New Orleans via the Harvey locks, negotiating several bridge openings, the Mississippi river, and the Industrial lock to arrive at a marina where we plan to spend a couple of days. Should be fun!
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11/21/2012
Here is a shot of Fugue tied up here at Houma.
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11/21/2012, Houma, LA
Well, we cannot recommend the Morgan City docks for a restful night: lots of noise from the bridges, the train, and the passing boats, plus wakes. Not a lot of choice on that leg though. What a contrast here in Houma at the downtown marina! It's clean with a little park, we have it all to ourselves, there's no water action, and even though it's between 2 bridges, it's much quieter. Today was a very short day. Even though we left Morgan City at 8:30, we were still here by a little after 2:30. We travelled past a cable ferry, through another set of locks, and under a bascule bridge on the way here. We were approached by a Customs and Border Patrol boat along the way. They pulled up next to us and asked where we were from and where we were going and wished us well. We were early enough to take a walk, visit an ATM, and have an early dinner at The Pit Stop.
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11/20/2012, Morgan City, LA
It was a long 10 hour day. We left Shell Morgan in Intracoastal City just after sunrise, around 7:00 on the misty ICW. It's weird to see a barge appear out of the mist! We went under 2 fixed 73 ft. clearance bridges and had to wait for a cable ferry to clear at one point. At one of the bridges we were delayed by barge traffic, but still made it to the Morgan City docks just before sunset. Today we saw our first sailboat since Galveston Bay. It was westbound towards Galveston and we enjoyed talking to them on our way past each other.
We saw several bald eagles, hawks, herons and seagulls. There have been lots of geese flying over. We even saw a raccoon swimming across the ICW!
Here's a shot of the sunrise at our anchorage at the Mermentau River.
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11/19/2012, shell morgan marina, Intracoastal city, LA
Today we had a close encounter with a barge on a curve. Ralph maneuvered us around and it went well but it was scary. We also transited another lock. (FYI, put on a life jacket before you go out to handle the lines so they don't tell you to go back and get one.) The rest of today was pretty calm and easy. We are tied up at a marina this evening. We got here around 3, filled up with diesel and gas, walked to a little store for a few groceries, cooked dinner and had the luxury of warm showers. We've been charging phones and the laptop since we have shore power. The hotspot on my phone works great so we're able to update daily. Tomorrow will be our longest run to date at 65 miles.
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11/18/2012, Mermentau river anchorage
Today I saw an alligator sunning on a log! Yay! We also went through our first lock - they didn't even make us stop; we just idled on through. Then we went through 2 pontoon bridges. The rest of the day was mostly straight runs down the intracoastal. We saw bald eagles, big hawks, white pelicans and other seabirds. We were anchored here and having a glass of wine by 4. It's a beautiful spot and really quiet.
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