12/10/2014 - Wednesday - Morgan City to Intracoastal City

We headed out around 6:30 A.M. so we could get to Shell Morgan in time to get fuel and go to the little local store for bread, milk and (maybe) carrots for Teak.  Shortly after leaving Morgan City we got stuck behind a tow that just would not let us pass.  Josh thought we would have to eat his "prop-wash" all the way to Intracoastal City.  He finally had to slow down for some other tows coming around a bend so we snuck by!  

I'm not the type of person that can sit back and read a book while cruising.  I'm constantly watching the scenery because you never know what you will see.  Today we saw several different types of birds along with some wild pigs on the shore.  

We arrived at Shell Morgan around 2:30 PM, fueled up ($2.35 a gallon!), tied up and waited until a towboat turned his barge around so the other side could be filled with dirt.  This was exciting to watch!  The captain really knew how to maneuver his tug but you should have seen the prop-wash it was making.  This was all taking place right in front of our boat.  Shell Morgan may need to dredge their harbor after this is finished.  Once that was over, we walked to the store for our bread, chips, milk and coke.  As we were walking we noticed black things floating in the air and once back at the boat we saw that the boat was covered with this stuff.  Soot!  Someone said it must be coming from a burning field.  Our boat is going to need a washing but there is no water where we are docked and tomorrow is an "anchor out".  I guess we will have to scrubby dub dub in Lake Charles.

Bye bye Morgan City!

Wild boar(s)

This time we passed by Delcambre and went to Shell Morgan Landing for the night.

This is the tow moving the barge around so the other side could be filled with dirt.

Last Trade safely tucked in for the night!

12/9/2014 - Tuesday - Houma to Morgan City

This was kind of a short run so we headed out at 9:00 AM.  It was a beautiful day!  The sun was out and the temperature was around 70 degrees.  Saw big birds...not sure if they were eagles or osprey, but I saw a lot of them up in the trees.  We made it to Morgan City around 2:00 PM and were able to dock in our same spot as before.  Not much boat traffic until I decided to take my shower (soap all over me) when the wakes hit...thank goodness I have good balance otherwise I would have been thrown out of the shower with soap and water all over the place.  We decided to stay in and have pizza delivered to the boat.  Tomorrow will be an early start to Intracoastal City, LA.

Teak at home on the boat!

Catamaran "Blue" that was docked at Houma with us.

Bye bye Houma!

"Blue" at the bridge waiting for an opening.

Welcome to Morgan City!

12/8/2014 - Monday - Houma

This morning I went out to look at the Nina and Pinta.  They were getting ready to head out to Boomtown for the night before Biloxi and on to Alabama where they will be drydocked for repairs.  I went back to our boat and told Josh to get dressed, I wanted to watch them leave.  He got dressed and we headed out to watch the show.

Push dinghy for the Nina and Pinta

Look at all these people trying to push the boat out to get a double tire bumper out from between the boat and dock.  All they had to do was loosen the bow or stern line, but no.... they just kept on pushing.  Josh and I just sat back and chuckled!

What's wrong with this picture?  Wilmington DL!!!!!!!!  Someone goofed!  This was on both boats.

The Pinta was aground and they had to move forward and backward to get out.  They really turned up the mud!  Maybe they dredged the hump that everyone keeps saying is there.

After the two Columbus boats left, Josh and I walked over to the hospital for breakfast.  Can you believe they were out of scrambled eggs?  Josh was not happy so it was not such a good breakfast today!!!!  We went back to the boat, walked Teak and then headed out to explore Houma by foot.  We walked all over, even in the not-so-nice areas.  We had lunch in town (subway) and then walked some more.  We found the ice cream shop from two years ago and I got a cup of "Oil Spill" again.  I did give Josh a few bites!

Later in the afternoon a catamaran named Blue came in.  Josh helped the two gentleman dock.  The boat was purchased in Florida and the owner is taking her to Kemah.   Doug Kendell, the owner, came over to our boat to discuss stopping points later in the evening and we'll be together tomorrow in Morgan City.

12/7/2014 - Sunday - New Orleans to Houma

The plan was to leave at 6:00 AM but the wind was blowing 15 to 22 and there was no way we could get out of the slip that we were in without doing damage to our boat or others.  With this kinds of wind we really don't want to do the Mississippi River or the locks either.  Josh and I walked Teak and started looking at the wind situation.  Every once in a while it would die down, then pick back up again.  We took another look at the situation around 7:30 and Josh said "let's think about this, I think we can get out".  WindAlert was indicating low winds in the locks so our only problem was getting out of our slip.  At 8:00 AM we did it!  I untied the two lines we had left that were keep us in the slip and Josh used the thrusters to move us away from the pilings and he put it in reverse and we gunned it out of the slip without touching the poles.  We were on our way!  The plan was to make it to Houma and we were now two hours late leaving and we had bridges and locks to go through.  Sometimes things workout for the best!  We had no problem with the bridge openings and we were the only boat in each lock.  This was unbelievable!  We were through all of this by 10:30 AM.

Not us...

Someone had a bad day...

Downtown NOLA

We usually run Last Trade at 1800 rpm but today we ran her at 1900-2000 rpm whenever we could so we could make Houma by dark.  We did it and you should see the soot on her stern!  Our overheating problem is solved but I guess she needed a good clean out.

Invasion of the Birds 

Brand New ManCave

The airboats were out in full force going though Lafitte.  I think we saw six at one time heading out together.

ManCave aground

Deserted ManCave

Coming into Houma

The Nina and the Pinta were still docked when we arrived along with another sailboat so we had to pass them all and head further in to dock.  We will stay a day in Houma to rest before heading on to Morgan City, LA.

 Columbus beat us here!