Morgan City to Bayou Petit Anse
11 June 2014 | Bayou Petit Anse, near Avery Island, LA
Beverly/sunny and warm
Bayou Petit Anse, looking south towards the ICW and the Avery Canal.
What a difference a day makes! Today dawned sunny with light winds. We motored out of Morgan City at about 7:15 am for the 51 mile trip and were anchored at Bayou Petit Anse in 9 hours. It was great! We got a lot of help from the current in the Atchafalaya River (6+ knots speed!) and saw over 5 knots most of the day. We chose the Bayou because we had read some nice reviews on Active Captain and friends have stopped there. It was really quiet, although there is a little boat traffic going to Avery Island and/or the port of Delcambre. (Avery Island is the home of Tabasco sauce.) We made sure our screens were up before dusk to keep the mosquitoes out and enjoyed our evening.
PS: In answer to Robert's comment, our speed on the river was boat speed plus current. Normal speed for our boat with its 20 hp Yanmar, without current, is 4.5-5 knots, depending on how clean the hull is. If current is against us our speed may drop to 3.5 knots or less. For example, leaving Fernandina to go offshore the tide was against us and slowed us down to 1.5 knots. (Obviously we wouldn't do this for a long period of time - it was just 2 miles or so til we got out of the inlet.)