We passed s/v Brier Rabbitt heading west. This was the first sailboat we have seen. We tried hailing them on the radio but they didn't answer as they were up on deck exercising, tying to stay warm. We passed thru the Leland Bowman locks without incident. The trip was long with little barge traffic during the first half. She'll Morgan Landing was closed on Sundays but we we advised to tie up across from the fuel docks where there were two slips. Ed attempted backing in to the slip but was unsuccessful. We thought this was because of the way Slowdown backs up. You never are really sure which way she will start going as she has a mind of her own. We gave up and started approaching bow in when we ran aground at the mouth of the entrance. The approach was reported to have a depth of 7 feet but the strong north winds the day before blew some of the water out. We would have tied up to the fuel docks themselves except for a large sign that forbade us from doing so by order of the fire marshall. We were on to plan b which was 10 miles ahead up Bayou Petite Anse. We dropped the anchor around 4pm on the north side of the bayou. The tide was coming up and between the tide and the current, we were facing east although we had a north wind. We thought we would swing towards the west once we reached high tide around 6:45. We didn't stick around to find out after two tows pushing barges passed us. We didn't realize we would have to contend with barge traffic on this waterway. We spoke to the second tow who advised us there would be less traffic on the south side of the ICW in the Avery canal. On to plan C. We weighed anchor with only the full moon and our Q beam and flashlights to see by. We crossed the ICW and ran aground at the mouth of Avery Canal. It was clear we were not going to be able to enter this canal. What to do. We could backtrack a few miles and pull into a what we thought was a deep canal or we could go back and take our chances up Bayou Petite Anse. Plan D was to go back up the bayou as it was reported on Open Captain to be a good anchorage. This time we anchored on the south side at the widest spot we could find. After dropping our bow anchor, we set a stern anchor hoping that would be enough to keep us out of the barge traffic area. With the anchors set and still being a little spooked, we lit up Slowdown like a Christmas tree, turning on not only the anchor light but also the foredeck light and an led lantern in the cockpit. We also transmitted on AIS all night. Ther was no chance we were going to be mowed down by a tow without them knowing we were there.
We did not sleep well this night and woke early to barge traffic going by. The boat was wet with dew and we had a light fog to contend with as well.