The crew boat that first came to our aid, told us about Venice shipyard. Keep in mind, we are communicating with the crew boat by yelling from their boat to our's. A crew boat is a particular type of boat designed to carry crew and equipment to the oil rigs. Crew boats are very loud and reasonably fast for their size. So, we got the gist that we should follow them to the Southwest entrance of the Mississippi. Once there, they contacted a Pilot boat to give us further instructions. The Pilot guided us to an anchorage so that we could wait until day light to enter this unfamilar port. We rocked and rolled the remainder of the night as the tankers, crew boats, and fishing boats passed while the dangling part of the mast clanged and banged.

At first light (we didn't sleep), we got moving up the river. Per the Pilot captain's directions we would find the shipyard about 35 miles up river, the first major spot we see to the left. He also warned that there was a 2knot head current we would have to motor against. This would take us a several hours. After a few hours we saw a "major spot" to our left. It was a huge conglamerate of cranes, tanks and commercial stuff. This looks like the place but we have only gone 16 miles. So we tread on. At this point we still have no cell signal to make phone calls. After about another 15 plus miles, we get a cell signal. Nicki starts making calls and sure enough we passed it up. Coming about! Nicki finally gets someone on the phone at Bud's only to find out that they close at 4. It is 4:05PM.

We find an out of the way spot to anchor for the night. Early the next morning we get into our little 8 foot dinghy with it's little 2hp engine and mix among the big dogs to locate the shipyard among all this conglamerate of buildings and cranes. Oh, do you think one building has a sign on it? Nooooo! We look for the travel lift. That is the sign of the shipyard. After crossing behind that tanker we head to a canal and find Bud's. Which by the way is ran by Gary. We tell him our needs and he tells us sure, bring the boat and tie up to those barges over there and we'll figure something out. Tie up to Barges?! That's a first.

When we return in Hello Texas we notice we are getting plenty of odd looks and stares. We are later told that they seldom see sailboats here, maybe about 3 in the last 5 years. The guys in the boat yard did not know much about sailboat rigging. So Richard explained what we needed to do and they supplied us with a lift and a crane. Richard rode up in the lift and freed the still deployed main sail that was stuck and also the furled genoa and attached the crane bridle. Richard and I worked to get everything detached from the mast and prepped to be lifted out of the boat. We also had them cut the stainless steel stantions to removed the bow pulpit. We were done and out by noon.