9/23 - 30/2014 - New Orleans - Waiting for Weather Window

The weather was not cooperating with us to do the Mississippi Sound to Biloxi so we had to sit and wait!  If the forecast for the MS Sound is calling for 3 to 5 foot seas and 15 to 20 knots of wind, we stay put!!!!! 

Ponchartrain Landing is primarily an RV park and secondly a marina. It was interesting to check out all the different RV'ers as they arrived.  We noticed that some have signs just like the one my sister made for our sailboat that has our name engraved on a piece of wood.  We decided to hang ours!

S/V AGoode Ketch

 M/V Last Trade

M/V Cambria

Ernie and Camille had enough of New Orleans so they decided to head out on the 25th.  They have a sailboat and can handle the weather (wind and waves) much better than us!  This will be our last evening together so we decided to get together for a "Farewell Docktails" gathering for them.  

 

The next morning at 6:00 AM we all said our goodbyes and helped them untie their lines.  This will be the last time we see them for a long while.  They are officially cruisers!!!!  After they left, Jerry and Susan decided to move into their slip and as they were pulling in the Coast Guard decided to board them.  

Josh and I were getting a little "antsy" and decided to rent a car.  We did not know if we would drive home for a few days or drive over to Biloxi and other places around here.  We needed something to do besides working on the boat, going into the French Quarter or just sitting around.  Well, our decision was quickly made for us!  Right after we decided to rent the car, our son Daniel called, telling us that he was starting a new job and needed some documents from home.  That made our destination decision easy. The next day we drove home to Seabrook.  And, Oh yes, we found out that Teak still gets car sick!  We were ready for it with the whole back seat of the car covered with "potty pads"!!!!  We had a nice visit with Daniel and then Michael, Traci and Sammy and took care of our mail, then back to the boat we went.  We were planning to leave on Tuesday but the weather changed again to 10 to 15 knots of wind on the MS Sound so we stayed another day in N.O.  Our original departure date was September 25th but the weather forecast for the Sound kept changing so now it looks like tomorrow will be the day.  They are saying that the winds will be 5 to 10 with waves of one foot or less and that we can do!  Departure time will be at 6:00 AM!

9/22/2014 - Monday - New Orleans Play Day

The weather is not looking too good for our crossing to Biloxi on Wednesday.  They are calling for 15 to 20 kts wind with 3 to 5 foot seas.  This is not good for our kind of boat.  We don't do rock and roll!!!!  It looks like we will be staying in New Orleans until the weather decides to cooperate for us!

Today is downtown (French Quarter) play day!  We'll start with beignets and coffee at Cafe Du Monde.

We walked around the marketplace and up and down multiple french quarter streets looking in shops and listening to street musicians.  

 

The aroma in the french quarter still STINKS!  Maybe it was just really bad because it was a Monday, right after a weekend with a football game.  As we continued walking, Josh said "look, that looks like Barb and Barry's daughter-in-law's paintings".  Sure enough, it was and the store salesman said that we just missed her!  

We all gathered for lunch at Desire Bistro, part of the Royal Sonesta Hotel.  This is a favorite place of Al's.  

As we were walking around after lunch Ernie noticed he did not have his phone.  Back to the Restaurant he went but they said it was not there.  On to a bar where he earlier had a beer and it was not there either.  It was starting to look like Ernie was going to go phone shopping tomorrow, when Camille received a phone call from the restaurant saying they had the phone and would give it to the Hotel to keep until they could pick it up.  In the meantime Kay noticed that she did not have her glasses! Here we go again!  Backtrack time for Kay. She finally found them in a shop where she took them off to try on a hat.  While we were waiting for the bus back standing outside a restaurant, we noticed some mermaid statues inside the entrance.  They were really big mermaids!  The maitre d' said they were haunted and were part of the New Orleans haunted tour.  I asked if both were haunted and she said she was not sure, it may only be one of them.

We caught the 4:00 PM bus back to the marina, but first Ernie and Camille asked the bus driver if he would stop at the Royal Sonesta Hotel so they could pick up his phone.  He agreed. On the way to the Hotel we saw a "silver lady" walk by.  Oh yeah, she was topless and spray painted silver all over except for her small bikini bottom.  She was walking too fast to get a picture.  DARN... The talk on the bus was that we would see her again on the way to the Hotel, and we did - but could not get a picture because of the sun film on the bus.  Oh, the painted people of the french quarter!!!!

9/21/2014 - Sunday - New Orleans Pontchartrain Landing

Today was "boat chore" day!  We did laundry, I cleaned the inside of the of boat, cleaned a little outside of the boat, Josh cleaned out the dinghy and we went grocery shopping.

Early evening, we stopped by More Good Timin' for a shared drink and snack.  Camille had aerosol cheese-in-a-can  (something that we haven't had since we were little! LOL)

Around 6:00 PM, Josh grilled steaks on the grill and we had a nice diner on board.  Steak and salad, yummy!  Teak loves steak night!!!!!!

After all this, it was shower time and then we settled in to watch our TV shows.  Yes, it's that time again!  All the good shows are coming back on.

9/20/2014 - Saturday - BoomTown to New Orleans

Yesterday was a very stressful day so it was an early evening for us, especially knowing that we may not have a restful night with tows going by all night long.  We did rock and roll a little and we also had some light boats (boats without their tows) that pulled in behind us throughout the night.  I guess they wanted to gamble!

Departure time was at 7:00 AM and getting off the wall was easy.  Today was major lock and bridge day and the first lock (Harvey Lock) was a piece of cake.  The lockmaster was nice, very friendly and helpful.  He had us in and out in no time.  The rise was about 2 1/2 feet.

Down the Mississippi we went!  We had a little chop as the wind was blowing on our nose making it a pleasant ride except that Josh started sneezing and sneezing. We must have gone through a high pollen area! Time for an allergy pill!

The second lock (Industrial Lock) did not go so well.  This lockmaster must not have been a boater.  He wanted all five of us to tie up to a dock on the side of the lock until the tow that was in the lock came out (check out the pictures below).  More Good Timin' went up to the dock and disappeared.  We were thinking "you want us to do what"?  We did not understand why we just could not hang out in the Mississippi River until the tow came through.  The lockmaster said he needed us tied up so he could get us in right after the tow came out along with a light boat.  Duh!  It took us longer to untie and get off the dock than it would have if we had just stayed in the Mississippi circling around.  We are not boats that can maneuver easily, we only have one engine!  At this lock they pass down a line for you to attach your line to and they then attach your line to the top.  This was not a fast process!  The Lockmaster also wanted some of us to tie up together (raft) before we even had a line to hold on to.  This is not going real well!  After the gates opened they untied us from the back to the front, which I didn't understand. That's backwards!  We had to float around waiting for the front boats to move out.  Out of the lock, though the bridge and on to the next bridge where we had to wait until they lowered the first bridge (both bridges cannot be open at the same time).  We circled around waiting for a tow who was pushing an empty and not controlling it too well to go through the bridge by the lock so they could shut that one and open the next one for us.  We now are through that bridge and onto the next.  This bridge only needed to be opened for the sailboats.  We fit under without needed a raise. We did not realize that no one mans this bridge.  You must call a number that is posted on the bridge and someone will come out to open it.  The sailboats circled around waiting while the power boats headed on to the marina (Pontchartrain Landing).  

Do you think Ron's life vest is a little too small!  

This is a big boat "Yacht" shipyard!

Pontchartrain Landing has changed!  They added more rental houses.  The five of us are scattered around the marina.  We are here for several days so we can rest up, do laundry, resupply some food items and visit downtown New Orleans for beignets by the river! 

 

We all gathered for happy hour at 5:00 PM!