David & Jolie found their home on Bayou Lacombe in 1992 when searching for a place to keep their "future" sailboat. That first sailboat "Gusto" came soon after. A 27 ft Pearson on which many weekends and holidays were spent with friends and family sailing around Lake Ponchartrain, The [...]

Mississippi Gulf Coast, Cat and Ship Islands. The name Okwa Naholo came when searching for a name for another boat we had, a dive boat, that was used mainly for offshore scuba diving and spearfishing on the rigs. We didn't have that dive boat long, but always loved the story and now, several boats later, are happy to be able to use the name and tell the story again. This story was taken from "The Choctaw of Bayou Lacombe", St. Tammany Parish Library The Okwa Naholo (“White People of the Water”) dwell in deep pools in rivers and bayous. There is said to be such a place in Bayou Lacombe; the pool is clear and cold and it is easy to see far down into the depths, but the surrounding water of the bayou is dark and muddy. Many of the Okwa Naholo live in this pool, which is known to all of the Choctaw. As their name signifies, the Okwa Naholo resemble light skinned people more than they do Choctaw; their skin is rather light in color, resembling the skin of a trout. When the Choctaw swim in The Bayou near the pool, the Okwa Naholo attempt to seize them and to draw them down into the pool into their homes, where they may live and become Okwa Naholo. After the third day their skin begins to change and soon resembles the skin of a trout. They learn to live, eat, and swim in the same way as fish. Whenever the friends of a person who has become one of the Okwa Naholo gather on the banks near the pool and sing, they often rise to the surface and talk with them, sometimes even joining in the singing. But after living in the pool three days, the newly made Okwa Naholo can not leave it for any length of time; if they should go out of the water they would die in the manner of a fish, for they can not live in the air.