We are going to start the New Year off with a BANG and BLOG for the first time in many years. We were asked by family, friends, and people Levi and I (Amy) would meet on the beach to start back blogging. This first one will be a little long for a blog because we have also been asked to summarize our trip to Gulfport, MS from Houston, TX. Bear with us since many of you may have heard some of the stories by now. We promise to try to keep current after this long drawn out first post. Also, we have some photos we would like to share since our internet access was scarce for the first part of our trip.
10-9-2012 Departed Harborwalk Yacht Club Hitchcock, TX at 7:07AM and arrived at Taylor Outflow Canal at 8:23PM
74 SM (statute miles)
We were up before the chickens getting ready to leave… should we try to get out? The water was still WAY down!? Yep…. Let’s go for it. We got to hug Larry and Crystal Morrison “good-bye”… we will miss our good friends at Harborwalk but it was time to GO! We managed to break the HW curse and plowed through less than 6 feet of water more than 50% of the way out the HW channel. We popped out the end into the GICW and turned East. I had the song Eastbound and Down by Jerry Reed stuck in my head
Eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin',
We're gonna do what they say can't be done.
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
I'm eastbound, just watch ol' "Bandit" run.
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| SAD to leave Harborwalk & Granny :( |
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| Sunrise in Harborwalk Channel |
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| Harborwalk homes from the GICW |
It turned out to be a beautiful sunny and warm day. Unfortunately, we were held up crossing the Houston Ship Channel because of heavy ship traffic and then for over an hour at
Rollover Pass waiting on some slow Westbound tows. Levi encountered his first dolphins along Bolivar Peninsula. We knew we had a long way to go and a short time to get there but there was NO place to stop prior to Taylor Outflow canal so we pressed on after dark (the ONE thing we had promised to never do again). We followed a tow named "Colt" (THANKS Colt crew!) to the entrance of Taylor for what seemed like an eternity in the DARK. When we arrived at Taylor Outflow canal more tows were tied along the banks and into the entrance to the Outflow canal… it was REALLY hard to see where they were but we tiptoed in and anchored just inside the entrance of the canal in 14 feet of water.
10-10-2012 Departed Taylor Outflow Canal at 6:45AM and arrived at L'Auberge Du Lac Casino in Lake Charles, LA at 5:30 PM
60 SM
Another BEAUTIFUL day to be on the water. We feel very fortunate to be back underway again and we make the promise AGAIN to each other and La Strada that we will NOT run the Intracoastal Waterway after dark… again… EVER!!!! PLEASE!!!! We all had a pretty peaceful night sleep for our first night anchored out. Levi wasn’t too happy about not being able to get to shore but he tinkled on the jerry cans and into the scuppers and assumed his position being head cruise director in his green chair. He is such a laid back little guy and he is happy just being along for the ride. We encountered heavy tow traffic at the Port Arthur bridges. As we were motoring through Port Arthur, we were contacted by a ship wanting to pass us. “Hey little sailboat… this is the BIG ship off your stern. We sure appreciate you holding the starboard side of the channel. We just wanted to let you know we are BIGGER, LONGER, HEAVIER, and a little bit FASTER and want to go ahead and come around you.” We answered back that YES, we knew that he was back there and for him to come on around us…. We would hug that side of the channel even tighter and slow it back for him to get by. Ha Ha!!!! They had a good laugh I am sure! He passed before entering Sabine Lake.
Tow traffic lightened up after leaving Port Arthur but we made slow progress up the Sabine River and only averaged 5 mph. We started adding up all of the things we had added to La Strada since we were out cruising last time. What exactly weighed so MUCH that we were going so slowly???? We added another solar panel, 2 extra sails, 2 inflatable kayaks, 12 volt refrigeration, a few other things and oh yeah…. We now have a heavier boat dog 14 pounds versus 4 pounds who eats more food and has bigger toys!
We departed GICW at Mile Marker 240 and motored up the Calcasieu River to dock at L'Auberge Du Lac Casino, Lake Charles, LA.
10 11-14 2012 L'Auberge Du Lac Casino, Lake Charles, LA
We had only planned on staying at the casino for 2 nights for a mini vacation. The night prior to us leaving a 60 plus foot motor vessel decided to dock behind us and prevented us from leaving the next morning. Their lines were tied OVER our lines and there was no way they were leaving to let us out. We decided to make the best of it and we gambled a little more money away, ate some really good Cajun food and seafood, walked to West Marine and Target, and hung out on Levi’s new beach. The funniest thing to do was get off of the boat and watch from a short distance at all of the tourist who used La Strada as a backdrop for photos. They must not get many sailboats as transients? During one afternoon in about an hour, I counted 14 sets of 2 to 5 people each taking turns posing in front of the boat. Most of them were respectful and only touched a stanchion or lifeline. Levi had to step in once to forbid two teenage girls in their 5-inch heels from stepping aboard. Besides the beach, Levi was so excited to see GRASS after his one whole day boat bound that he absolutely fell in LOVE with one patch of artificial grass around a tree. This was the softest and most natural fake grass I have ever felt. He could spend hours rolling and scooting around in this stuff.
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| Swimming, swimming, swimming... |
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| I saw a fish jump! |
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| I love GRASS! Do they sell this at Home Depot? |
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| Content... this is HEAVEN |
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| Dogs are people too! |
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| Is that a supermodel at our boat? |
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| No, I am THE supermodel! |
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| More photo op people |
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| BIG boat behind us.... stuck for a few more days |
10-15-2012 Departed L'Auberge Du Lac Casino at 6:45AM and arrived at the
Mermentau River at 3:30PM
51 SM
We departed L'Auberge Du Lac at first light and motored South on the Calcasieu River to the GICW. It was another day filled with sunshine. Levi was a little reluctant to leave his new favorite beach and shady tree spot but we promised him that we would look for more beaches along the way and at Home Depot for fake grass. We entered the GICW at Mile Marker 240 and motored East through the Calcasieu Lock. We only encountered light tow traffic. At Mile Marker 202 we entered the Mermentau River and motored up the Mermentau River for 3 miles and anchored in an oxbow in 16 feet of water. I made dinner as the boys relaxed on the deck. This was our first time anchoring in the Mermentau. We had decided it was a “must stop” after our friends Sam and Ginger Christo had described it as “drop-dead gorgeous”. It was EXACTLY that! No other boats around. No sounds of cars or trains or planes. Just beautiful scenery of moss filled trees and birds calling. It was a quiet and peaceful night. We could not go to shore in the swamp but Levi got the hang of being a boat dog and did all of his business on the boat. Woo hoo! What a relief!
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| Tired pups from dodging below debris |
10-16-2012 Departed the Mermentau River at 7:15AM and arrived at Shell Morgan at 3:00 PM We motored South on the Mermentau River to the GICW and entered the GICW at Mile Marker 202. We motored East on the GICW with light tow traffic. We motored through the Leland Bowman Lock with minimal wait. We passed Talen's 193 Boat Store and were glad we anchored instead of stopping there. HEAVY tow traffic and super high walls. We docked at Shell Morgan in Intracoastal City, LA in super shallow water, 4.5 feet, for the night. Actually, we more or less just planted ourselves next to the dock and waited for the tide to come back in to inch over a little closer. Levi enjoyed seeing land again and discovered a vacant field full of pecans. He had a ball running and jumping and discovering pecans along the way each one bigger and better than the last. I wouldn’t let him eat any since they were on my “questionable list” for dogs. I knew that some nuts are poisonous to dogs and we didn’t have internet access to look them up for sure. I have since learned that my Dad’s dog Miss Daisy cracks her own pecans and eats them…. better safe than sorry.. and some sites say that they can cause GI distress. We wouldn’t want that now would we? While Levi and I walked the town, Rob filled the boat up with diesel with jerry cans. We were planted for the night and weren’t sure the water would be much higher in the morning plus we wanted to get an early start. He would walk over to the fuel store around the basin with his empty jugs and their employee Jade would drive him back around with his filled jugs. Such GREAT customer service!
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| I have discovered peanut butter crackers..... YUMMY |
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| Traffic in IC city |
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| Creatures live below |
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| Shell Morgan Marina |
10-17-2012 We departed Shell Morgan at 6:57AM and arrived at the Berwick Town Dock at
5:00 PM We stayed at Berwick 10-18-2012 also.
64 SM
We departed Shell Morgan at first light. I really love these BEAUTIFUL sunrises. The photos do not do them justice! We continued to motor East on the GICW with light tow traffic.
We arrived in Berwick to a police reception! Officer Michael helped us tie up. I asked him if I could throw him a line to help us tie up and his response was “ Girl, I don’t water-ski!” Ha Ha I had a laugh and threw him a line anyway. It would have been almost impossible for us to have docked here without his assistance since the tide was WAY out and we are so low in the water and these docks are more commercial than recreational…. Or at least more for motor vessels than sailboats. We still enjoyed being the ONLY boat on the dock versus the crowded Morgan City docks and liked that their new pilings weren’t coated in creosote to get all over our lines and fenders. A few minutes after we were docked and cleaned up enough to walk into town to find some food, we heard a knock on the boat. We instead enjoyed a nice meal of crab, sausage and potatoes that were cooked and delivered by Mr. Slaughter (CAO and Town Clerk). Talk about Southern hospitality!!!! This town is just like a newer Mayberry! Everyone was so friendly we decided to stay an extra night so we could check it out further. There were plenty of clean parks and squirrels for Levi to chase, a couple of thrift stores for me to check out, and a nice little café called Bee Bee’s seafood. There was also a convenience store in walking distance. The Crappell’s fish market next to the docks allowed us to fill a couple of jerry cans of water since the water had not been installed yet on the town’s new docks. Thanks again Berwick!!!!
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| I walked up on the bridge ALONE to get a photo of La Strada |
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| Under the boardwalk???? |
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| Bridge is down and a train coming through |
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| Looking across from Berwick to Morgan City, LA |
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| Spicy GOOD stuff! |
10-19-2012 Departed Berwick Town Docks at 7:58AM and arrived at Houma Downtown Marina at 2:10 PM
39 SM
We departed Berwick Town Docks at 7:58AM and waited on heavy barge traffic as directed by Berwick vessel traffic control.
We proceeded East on the GICW and passed through the Bayou Boeuf Lock outside of Morgan City, LA. There was light tow traffic until the Bayou Dularge Bridge. We had tows gaining on us from a blind spot behind and we could see many tows on AIS heading towards us through the bridge (also a blind spot in the curve). I was contacting them as fast as I could on the VHF to let everyone know we were there. We were forced to the South shore by two barges exiting the bridge as one decided that it was a good time to pass the other one. We were sandwiched between the two of them and a moored huge ship on the South bank. I wish I had a photo or video to show exactly how close this all looked. I wanted so badly to just shut my eyes… it was really a tight squeeze… so thankful we were spared …WHEW!!!! We proceeded to Houma Downtown Marina, Houma, LA. We had expected to find the first slip in deep water unoccupied. This was the other reason we had stayed an extra night in Berwick was that we had seen three boats depart from Morgan City the day before we left Berwick and figured at least one of them was Eastbound and had stopped in Houma for the night. We had called Ray the harbormaster in Houma and he said that the marina was empty. We knew that the marina was first come first serve so when we heard another sailboat calling the Bayou Dularge bridge about an hour ahead of us we were surprised. I called Ray and asked him to save us the spot if he could or at least ask the other couple on the sailboat if they had a shallower draft than our 6.5 feet to have them move up a slip and save the deeper end for us. Well….S/V Viper arrived before us and took the only deep-water slip. We decided to motor into the second slip (what choice did we have?) and we once again planted La Strada in 4.5 feet of water and 2 feet of mud. We tied up and had to WINCH ourselves over closer to the dock and out of the middle of the channel as the tide came up. We were forced to realize we were “cruising” again and NOT meant to keep a schedule and plans were meant to be changed. We had originally scheduled to rent a car in Gulfport to go back to Houston for Rob’s dental appointment. We realized since Viper was not leaving until Monday at the earliest that we would have to drive back from Houma instead. We certainly never expected to stay in Houma until 11-1-2012! The water got even shallower as a cold front passed through and the North wind pushed it out. Luckily Houma is a neat little town with Enterprise rental cars, a public bus system, a hospital with WI-FI across the street, convenience stores, restaurants and a laundromat within walking distance. Levi’s favorite part of Houma was the park alongside the marina with LOTS of kids to play with and the neighborhood with at least one dog in each yard to get stirred up when we walked by, lots of cats and Halloween decorations like tiny graveyards in the front yards! We were sad not to get to see the old Houma Harbormaster Mr. Ellender and his wife Velma. When we visited in 2003 they opened their home and garden to us and we drank Muscadine wine under their huge tree in their front yard. I LOVED their house then and it looks even better now since their daughter took it over when they moved out and she turned over every board that they had painted gray and replaced rotten ones with new ones. She then decided to downsize and sold the house. I missed all of Velma’s Clematis which had completely covered the chainlink fence in various colors and the old swing that use to hang from the old tree out front.
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| Houma City Park & Marina |
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| From across the Bayou |
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| Old Ellender home |
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| I love this old place |
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| FULL of boats between the bridges |
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| Just one more with the BIG tree! |
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| Tows pass by really close to our stern |
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| Grapefruit tree fully loaded... notice the blocks and stakes to support heavy limbs |
11-1-2012 Departed Houma Downtown Marina at 7:20AM and arrived at Boomtown Casino Bulkhead at 5:00PM
53 SM
We departed Houma Downtown Marina at 7:20AM and motored East on the GICW for 2 miles. We had heard heavy fog reports on the VHF but I had walked Levi around the block prior to leaving and had seen some fog but nothing TOO bad. We ran into SUPER HEAVY fog and had to wait over an hour circling in it and watching AIS for tow traffic. You could not see the mast in front of us much less the bow of our boat! It finally lifted a little and we continued motoring East on the GICW. At Mile Marker 46 (9:30AM) the boat started a horrible vibration and sound! We had wrapped something around the prop. We had been dodging the floating Water Hyacinths our whole trip because they are known to carry various debris. We anchored in the GICW and Rob dove on the prop. He removed +/- 50 feet of heavy (1 1/2") hemp type line. We had a new pet “Creature.” We got the anchor up and were back underway at 10:30AM. Wow! Houma really didn’t want us to leave did she? The fishing boat that had been headed towards us wanted to see what Rob had found under the boat so we had to hold “Creature” up for them to see! Five minutes after getting back underway we encountered our first swimming alligator of our trip (Rob says that the 2 HUGE ones we saw on the golf course at L'Auberge Du Lac Casino did not count).
I am glad I hadn’t mentioned gators before Rob took his dive or he might have made ME get in that swamp water! EEK! We encountered major construction at the new floodgate at the Hero Canal. We were glad we didn’t plan on anchoring there. We tied up at the Boomtown Casino bulkhead, New Orleans, LA at 5:00PM. Almost dark but not quite! We watched the water come back in and sink our little wall we were tied to…. Talk about a reversal of fortunes… too much water????
11-2-2012 Departed Boomtown Casino Bulkhead at 10:40AM and arrived at Rabbit Island (The Rigolets) at 5:40PM
38 SM
We waited for heavy fog to lift until 10:30AM. When we departed the Boomtown Casino bulkhead at 10:40AM we weren’t sure just how far we would be able to travel or if we would get caught between bridges or travelling after dark if we were held up at the locks. We called ahead to Seabrook Marina and reserved a slip just in case. We motored North to the Harvey Lock and locked through with one tow. We were told to tie to the FIRST pin in the wall however this pin had been removed. We had some difficulty getting tied to the second pin because the tow decided to back down a little and pushed us all crazy in the lock. THIS is exactly the SECOND thing we both promised ourselves and La Strada we would NEVER EVER do again… go through the MS River locks!!!! SO STRESSFUL!!!! At least we weren’t being raised and lowered 14 feet like the first time we came through. We thought we would be better prepared but getting off to a late start threw us off. On top of the heavy fog, our remote RAM mic in the cockpit for the VHF decided to stop working and then our handheld VHF battery died… OH NO! What else??? We lost our GPS fix on our chartplotter and were not moving along on our charts! We entered the
Mississippi River at 11:30AM and motored down river to the Industrial Lock. We used this time to charge our handheld VHF and fix our chartplotter Cap’n / GPS problem. We locked through with minimal trouble (the guy waited until the last 2 feet of the lock to throw us a line and there were no pins to go ahead and tie ourselves off)!! NEVER EVER AGAIN!!!! These locks are NOT for recreational boats with gelcoat and fiberglass and pretty paint… NOPE! We exited the Industrial Lock at 1:30PM. We decided to bypass the marinas on the Inner Harbor Canal and “chance it” to get to Rabbit Island anchorage before dark. If we had stopped in New Orleans, we knew we would be caught the next night with a passing cold front and then it could be 4-5 days before leaving. We motored East on the GICW and had our anchor down at Rabbit Island, The Rigolets, LA at 5:40PM. We first tried the Eastside entrance but it shoaled in to less than 6 feet very quickly. We then found a nice spot on the Westside entrance and were met by a pod of dolphins. They circled the boat feeding for over an hour and put on a show for Levi.
Just when we thought all was GREAT with this anchorage another sailboat s/v Obsession anchored within 40 ft of La Strada at +/- 6:00PM. I expressed concern to Obsession’s crew about their closeness since there were NO other boats around. The crew of four gentlemen told me that as soon as they had something to eat that they would move… yeah right! I didn’t believe them since it was already pretty dark…. but an hour later they moved 150 feet away. YAY!!! We had a great night’s sleep after all. At 5:00AM we were wide-awake and listening to the weather reports. I looked out my berth port and saw lights from a tow less than 100 feet away! I jumped up and ran to the companionway and thought our anchor had come unset and we were in the middle of the ICW! I was screaming for Rob to come look and it turned out the tow was coming in to anchor with us since the fog was so dense. It really scared me! Rob had already seen him on AIS and knew what was happening. Grrrrrr…..
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| Rabbit Island, Rigolets |
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| Circling |
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| Abandoned |
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| Could you anchor any closer? |
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| The next morning FOG |
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| Across the Mississippi Sound |
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| Another fellow came in to anchor |
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11-3-2012 Departed Rabbit Island (Rigolets) at 9:30AM and arrived at Gulfport Small Craft Harbor at 3:30 PM
40 SM
We were socked in with super heavy fog until around 9:30AM we decided to nose out and see if it had lifted across Mississippi Sound. I had already called a couple of Westbound tow Captains and asked what they were seeing 5 miles away. They were going super slow less than 2 knots so I was assuming it was pretty bad. We ended up not making it even a mile before we pulled North of ICW marker #23 outside the channel and threw out the anchor. We stayed anchored until just after 10:30AM and then proceeded East. It stayed foggy for several more hours but finally lifted enough that we felt comfortable proceeding. We met several tows and shrimpers. We were really happy to see so many happy healthy dolphins playing in the sound. We called ahead on the cell phone and got our slip assignment for Gulfport Small Craft Harbor. Bobby met us at our slip and helped us tie up. John came out and got us checked in and then Levi and I were off to the BEACH! The people at this marina are super helpful and you can tell LOVE their job. We have much more to tell about Gulfport but we will save it for the next POST lol!
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| Fog lifted... looking for Gulfport, MS |
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| Shrimper and birds |
If you actually made it this far reading you either REALLY love one or both of us or there isn’t anything on TV LOL! Thanks for your interest and look for more to come. Please feel free to post any comments or questions.
If we are moving, you can track our progress on La Strada’s SPOT shared page:
La Strada's SPOT
