June 14 - 15, 2016 Lake Charles to Home

June 14 - Lake Charles to Taylor Outfall - When we went out to take Teak for her walk before heading out we noticed that a small boat had sunk during last night's storm.  We're not surprised because these docks really rock when the wind picks up.  Some of the docks have detached from the main dock and bounce up and down separately with the wave action.  The only reason they do not float away is because the piling at the end of the dock is holding them in.  We were lucky to have a big boat docked on the outside blocking much of the wave action coming off the lake.

Around 7:30 am we untied from the dock and headed out to Taylor Outfall. 

Good size log floating down the ICW

It was getting a little windy, around 18/20 knots, with whitecaps and a good chop on Sabine Lake.

Anchored at Taylor Outfall

We have been running the generator and AC non stop from the time we left Pensacola with no problems but when I put our dinner in the microwave at 6:00 pm everything stopped!  Josh and I looked at each other and said NO............! we need the AC!  Josh tried to start the generator again and it would not start.  He looked at me and said we might have to go to SPAM (Sabine Port Authority Marina) to plug in to shore power.  I didn't want to do this because it's one of my least favorite places to dock.  He switched the fuel filters and checked the generator, then tried starting it for the third time and around 6:20 it started.  No more microwave tonight!  Everything was fine with just the fans and AC going. We hoped it would stay that way all through the night.

When we anchored the wind was blowing around 17 knots and we had to set the anchor twice.  After dinner we started to move in the opposite direction from the wind and waves.  This was strange!  The only thing we could think of was that they opened the flood gates at the end on the bayou.  Josh said around 11:00 pm we drifted back with the wind and waves.  

June 15 - Taylor Outfall to Laguna Harbor / Home - This was the first time that we ran the generator and AC all night so we really did not get a good night's sleep.  At 6:45 am we pulled up anchor and headed out to Laguna Harbor for a good night's sleep with shore power.  We arrived at Laguna Harbor at 1:30 pm, hooked up power and were relaxing when the AC and fans started to go off and on.  Not good!  We changed power outlets and after a while it started doing it again.  Josh saw the voltage spike at 150 volts! We really did not want to go the rest of the way home with the wind and wave action on Galveston Bay but at 3:00 pm we decided to head out for home.  Yup - we rocked and rolled all the way and arrived in our slip at 6:00 pm.  It was good to be home with good power.  Our friend E.J. put together a welcome home happy hour for us after we settled in.  

Yup, we are back in Texas!

Pretty good wind and chop

Unbelievable!  Did someone get the message?  This area became quite dangerous with tows disconnecting from their barges and pushing them up against the banks from the side, limiting access through the channel and creating dangerous prop wash across the ICW.  Take a look! The tows are attached and parallel to the shore and we did not have to dodge all their prop wash. Let's hope this continues.......

Home sweet home!  Back in our slip. We have the proof that we've been traveling with that nasty bow "moustache".  After we get settled the boat get a good cleaning!

The best parts of traveling by boat are the things that you see and the people that you meet.  Lasting friendships are made with continued communication with some, and others when you run into them again in the future.  Our next trip will be in October when we take the boat to Port Aransas.  No more summer cruising! Too Damn hot!

June 12 - 13, 2016 Lake Charles

June 12 - It was our rest day and we slept in.  I got up around 7:00 am, started making coffee and noticed that Dennis and Phyllis were backing out of their slip.  I ran out and said good bye!  They were heading to Port Arthur, the last stop for the boat delivery that they were doing for a friend.

After Josh got up, we decided to check out what was going on at the convention center because we saw several RV's the night before.  As we got close we saw cages by the RV's and when we entered the Convention Center we found out it was a AKC dog show.  We have never been to a dog show before. What a treat!  They had every dog type you could imagine, even dogs that look like lambs!  These dogs were being washed, blow dried, brushed, fluffed, teased, baby/talcum/corn starched (this is used to whiten up the paws and to make their hair stand up.  It is also used to take out mats behind the ears and other places.), hair sprayed, and even makeup.  These dogs stand still for hours on end being pampered.  We talked to some friendly people and learned a lot of things about show dogs and raising them.  It was awesome!

They had several locations through out the Convention Center where dogs were being groomed.  They start grooming several hours before it's their time to show.

Check out this dog.  He is lying down with his head on a pillow getting groomed.

Very interesting about these dogs.  Their hair is like human hair and when they are not shown anymore they cut the hair and use it for human wigs.  The owner told me that they have every color, even gray. The dog on the left had hair like Donald Trump!

Young Sheltie new to showing

Most of the people we talked to had several dogs in the show.

It's a family affair!

Shelties being prettied up for their showing! 

June 13 - Lake Charles weather day.  They were calling for 80% chance of thunderstorms so we decided to stay put.  We really did not want to be at anchor with thunderstorms!  Tomorrow looks good so we will head out to Taylor Outfall to anchor n the morning.  

Around 2:00 pm the sky went dark and the lightning was all around.  We're so glad we stayed.  It also gave me a chance to get our blog up to date!

June 10 - 11, 2016 Berwick 99 Marina to Lake Charles

June 10 - "99" Marina to Shell Morgan - Our plan was to go to Delcambre and hold up for a day or so waiting on weather but with the ever changing weather predictions we decided to push on to Shell Morgan and make it a long day the next day to Lake Charles.  They were calling for thunderstorms throughout the day and we could see them develop all around us but got lucky with just a sprinkle or two.  

We headed out of the "99" Marina about 6:15 am because around 5:00 am boaters starting using the launch and we started bouncing around.  It's good to start early to beat the afternoon heat!

 Just as we left the marina we saw a nice rainbow.

Dodged thunderstorms all day long.

Arrived at Shell Morgan, fueled up and docked by 1:30 pm.

As we were fueling up, we found out that our friends Phyllis and Dennis on the boat behind us were also heading in.

June 11 - Shell Morgan to Lake Charles - Today was a long day!  We headed out around 6:30 am, bypassed one of our favorite anchorages because of the heat and did a 12 hour day going at least 8 knots all the way to Lake Charles.  We made it, locks and all and had a breeze most of the way!

Our first lock (Leland-Bowman) and we went right through.

It's amazing what you see on the water.  Yup, it's a refrigerator!

Good day for seeing gators!  This one turned and started going after the boat behind us.  

  

This boat goes faster than us so we decided to wait until after the bridge to pass this tow.

Another gator! 

Cattle round up.

Not sure why this was placed at the waters edge.

After 11:00 am we did not see any more gators.  I guess they don't like the heat either! 

Last lock of the day (Calcasieu Lock) and we caught up with Dennis and Phyllis.

We arrived at the Lake Charles City Marina around 6:30 pm, hooked up power, walked the dog, took showers and headed to Blue Dog for dinner.  We were tired!  Tomorrow we will stay in Lake Charles and rest.

June 8 - 9, 2016 Houma to 99 Marina in Berwick

June 8 - Rest day in Houma - Ray the harbormaster told us that our ice cream shop is open again so Josh and I headed out in the heat to go.  They did not have Oil Spill (flavor) but they said it was coming soon!  If you are ever in Houma you must stop at the Scarlet Scoop.

The weather was so hot we decided not to walk or ride bikes to dinner but to just stay on board.  Houma is one of our favorite stops and we love just watching the boats go through the twin bridges.

June 9 - Houma to 99 Marina, Berwick - We headed out around 9:00 am hoping to be able to get into the 99 Marina just past the Berwick docks again.  A couple of people told us that they used the power when they stayed there so we were hoping we could too.  That would save us from running our generator all night for the AC.  We texted Capt. Ben and Trisha on M/V Contraband to ask if they used the power and what slip they were in.  It turned out that they were in the same slip that we were, slip 4, so we went in slowly and the depth was 6.6 all the way and power was good.  

Ray the Harbormaster came out to see us off.  He even went down to the end to make sure no boats were coming that did not show up on our AIS.   What a great guy!  We informed him that some friends of ours are right behind and to expect them in early evening.

You see all kinds of things traveling the ICW

I can't believe people can just sit and fish in this heat!  We were sweating to death and they just ignored us and kept on fishing.

99 Marina, Josh is going to kill the wasps first before testing the power.

This marina and boat launch is very busy.  People are coming and going all day long in small jon boats (bringing back sacks of crawfish), air boats, crew boats, fishing boats and other things.  It's good to see a park being used like this.