We are back home after a very hurried trip from Panama City. We left PC on Thursday morning at 6 AM. Ran the ICW to Pensacola a distance of 110 miles. Got anchored shortly after dark. We had originally planned to stop earlier but after watching the 6 PM Penscola news we decided to push on as far as possible. They kept predicting the oil would be in Mobile Bay and Pensacola by Saturday and we didn't want to get into that. When we got to Pensacola there were booms all over the place and a big Coast Guard cutter was anchored in the spot we normally anchor so we kept going farther into Big Lagoon and anchored. Got up and left at daylight so we could get across Mobile Bay early in the day. Made it all the way to Cat Island off Gulfport, Miss. by dark. Saw no oil the entire trip but did see lots of related activity. We left Cat Island at 7 AM Saturday. Had planned to stop in the Rigolets but we got there around noon and decided to push on toward home. Got into a major thunderstorm in Lake Ponchatrain (see previous blog). Other than the major swells in the Gulfsteam on the way across in January, this was the worst weather we had the entire trip. Lake Ponchartrain has always had the reputation of having nasty storms. When we got our first sailboat back in the 80's, we used to go out in the Lake during small craft warnings to learn about storm sailing so that we would be prepared for cruising. We were told if we could sail in Lake Ponchartrain we could sail anywhere. Oh well, we're safely home now. Hooray!!
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We felt like we were finally home when we saw the lighthouse at the entrance to the Tcheufuncta River in Madisonville. This is on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain. Our home marina, Marina Beau Chene is six miles up the Tcheufuncta. We arrived here at about 6 pm Saturday, June 5. Good to be home.
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After dodging thunderstorms all day, we arrived in Lake Ponchartrain just in time for a huge thunderstorm. It hit just as we were about to go under the Causeway bridge. It was raining so hard we couldn't see the bridge and the winds were about 40-45 with lots of lightning. We decided to circle around instead of trying to go under the bridge during this. Luckily it passed over in about 30 minutes and we were able to head for Madisonville.
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