Outer Reef

Saturday, February 21

Rabbit Island Anchorage Mile 32.5 (East of Harvey Lock)

The water was like a mirror this morning when Larry pulled up the muddy anchor. The sun hadn’t come up yet and it was cold. Going east, the morning sun is so bright that it is a problem sometimes.

Today was the much-dreaded trip through New Orleans. Not that we have anything against Cajun food and Hurricane drinks! There are two locks that can be difficult and the current on the Mississippi River is very strong. There is also a lot of debris in the river.

The Harvey Lock was easier than we expected and the lock operator was very helpful. He told us exactly what would happen and what we needed to do. We tied onto cleats on the starboard wall. The water rose five feet. Everything went as planned and we were relieved to have such a smooth experience.

That pleasant trend did not continue when we got to the Industrial Lock. We had to wait almost two hours before we could enter. Since there wasn’t a good place for us to tie up, we just drove around in the Mississippi all that time, avoiding floating logs and very big ships. The lock operator threw down lines for us to tie to the boat. The water went down about three feet.

Immediately after the Industrial Lock, there were three bridges in a very short distance. Boats are required to radio the bridge operators and request an opening, even though it should be obvious when a boat leaves a lock and approaches a bridge that an opening would be needed.

Between the Harvey Lock and the Industrial Lock, the Mississippi River passes the center of Downtown New Orleans. Under the New Orleans Bridge, which is 150 feet above the water, our depth sounder showed the Mississippi to be 120 feet deep!

We saw a large towboat this afternoon pushing 12 barges. That’s a record for us. The captain of the tow Mathew Reed took our picture when we passed.

We arrived at the Rabbit Island anchorage (Mile 32.5) at about 5 o’clock. We are hoping the no-see-ums aren’t biting tonight! Maybe it’s too cold for them!

A cold front is coming in tonight, which means another difficult night for Larry, who must get up several times to check that the anchor is holding. This is a new anchorage for us and in the morning, we'll be able to tell how good it was!

Friday, February 20

Lafitte, Louisiana, Anchorage, near Mile Marker 15

What a beautiful day! Cool and sunny. We had a smooth departure from the Houma marina, with the help of a gentleman bike rider, who had stopped to visit several times during our stay.

It was good to get underway again, although we really enjoyed our “down” time in Houma.

The kind bridge tender at Bayou Blue Bridge opened the bridge before we even asked. The gruff tender at the West Larose Bridge was a stark contrast. We were somewhat comforted to hear him bark at the tow captains just as much as he barked at us over the radio.

This afternoon, we saw a tow named “Jesus Saves.” So when the other tugs radio him, they say “Jesus Saves. Jesus Saves.” and it sounds like a revival.

We arrived at the Lafitte anchorage at about 4 o’clock. We were surprised to discover that we both have Internet access here. In fact, Terry has 3G service in this remote anchorage, but she couldn’t get it at home in Austin. Terry has AT&T and Larry, Verizon, so one of us surely can get Internet access at an anchorage.

When we get to the Bahamas, that will change.

Tomorrow we plan to go through New Orleans. Terry is dreading going through the New Orleans locks because they require tying the boat to the side of the lock. We’ve easily driven through all the previous locks this trip without a problem. Last time all the lock masters seemed grumpy. We hope that has changed!

Wednesday, February 18---Thursday, February 19

Downtown Marina of Houma, Louisiana

Our errands took longer than we expected, so we decided to stay another day in Houma.

What a friendly place! Everyone is very welcoming and helpful. When we visited the museum, we commented on this Cajun hospitality to an employee, who said that if we ran into anyone who was not friendly, they “aren’t from here.”

The museum was interesting. It was recommended by one of the older gentlemen who visited with us during his morning walks. There were audio/visual presentations about the fishing industry, including the influx of fishermen from the Philippines, Croatia, and China in the last century. There were also exhibits about the alligator and hurricanes that have struck the area.

On our last long cruise, we were surprised to discover such museums in small communities along the waterway. Although we have stopped in Houma twice before, this is our first visit to this interesting museum.

A catamaran showed up at the marina last night and left early this morning, too early for us to get to visit, so we don’t know if they are heading east or west.

Friday we’ll head for an anchorage near Lafitte, LA.

Not optimistic about an Internet connection.

Monday, February 16-Tuesday, February 17

Downtown Marina of Houma, Louisiana

Monday we got a rental car for a day and went to Wal-Mart for groceries, picked up our forwarded mail at the UPS Store, and drove around Houma a bit.

Grocery shopping is more of an ordeal on our boat because everything in a cardboard box (except frozen goods) must be repackaged in a plastic bag or container because critters can sneak on a boat in cardboard. All our canned goods are stored in a locker, so we write each can’s contents on the top of the can, so we won’t have to pick each one up to identify it. We miss our HEB and its familiar brands and good luck finding anything fat-free at Wal-Mart!

We are lucky to be here during Mardi Gras season. We thought the parade we stumbled upon Sunday afternoon was the only one. Wrong! There had already been two before we arrived on Sunday and there will be 12 others in Houma alone. In Terrebonne Parish, where Houma is located, there will be 36 parades by February 24.

The Alcohol & Drug Abuse Council and the Louisiana Highway Department sponsor a special fenced parade-viewing zone they advertise as free of alcohol, drugs, and tobacco.

There are decorations of purple, green, and gold all over town and beads, masks, etc are everywhere in the stores. We even saw a warehouse that stores AND RENTS floats!

Tuesday we ran errands and did two weeks’ worth of laundry at a nice Laundromat close by. Cruising is not all umbrella drinks and sun screen.

Tonight there will be a free Cajun music concert in a park close by.

The marina area is pretty with landscaping and nice sidewalks, so a lot of folks walking for exercise pass by the boat. One nice fellow in his eighties stopped by to tell us how to get to all the museums in Houma (and there are a surprising number) and where to catch the bus. The people are very friendly.

The plan now is to stay here ‘till Thursday.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Downtown Marina of Houma, Louisiana

The Morgan City public docks near the railroad bridge are reasonable ($20), easy to find, and not under siege by urban mosquitoes. The bad news is there is a lot of noise from trains and a lot of boat traffic passing by, which makes us rock and roll when we’re at dock.

It rained overnight, but had cleared up by the time we left in early morning. We were able to motor straight through the Bayou Le Boeuf Lock. We’ve been lucky so far with locks. No rude lockmasters and no tying lines to the sides of the locks, which can be difficult and risky.

The Atchafalaya River here is a bigger industrial area than Lake Charles. Soon, however, we came into huge cypress swamps and a very scenic area, where it was easy to imagine getting lost in a small boat. The tall cypress, covered with Spanish moss, were somewhat ghostly, especially on this gray day.

One of the things that has amused us along the way is the names of the tugboats. We suspect that the board members who own the tug companies name the tugs after their grandchildren. It is so funny to hear these deep masculine voices call each other on the radio: “Lillian, Lillian calling Minnie. Come back, Minnie.”

We arrived at the Downtown Marina of Houma ($25 per night) before 3 PM. How great to have a relatively short day! We plan to stay here at least three days. Our mail is being forwarded here and we have laundry and shopping to do.

We showered and struck out for an early Sunday dinner about 5 o’clock. The dock master had recommended a place half a dozen blocks away, near the town square. We hadn’t walked far before we came upon a Mardi Gras parade! The streets were packed and people were throwing beads and prizes from tall floats. There were many floats! The streets were crowded with celebrants and very littered with beads.

Of course, Terry forgot the camera.

We had a good Asian meal at the Samurai Dragon. It doesn’t seem right to come to a small Cajun town and go to an Asian restaurant, but the food was good and the margarita was ok. When we left, the parade was over and the streets were covered with beads and litter. We had to be careful not to slip on the beads, there were that many of them.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Morgan City Dock, Lower Atchefalaya River, Louisiana

The wind died overnight and the current had pulled us almost out into the channel this morning. Larry hoisted the anchor (muddy) and we made a quick getaway before the sun came up and before we could get run down by an enormous barge.

The water was the smoothest of the trip so far and the ubiquitous mosquitoes were as frenetic as ever.

Today we saw two tugs that were pushing FIVE barges each. We couldn’t figure out how they could turn corners. We also counted today all the pleasure boats we’ve seen since we left Texas: two.

The afternoon became rainy and very foggy as we got nearer to Morgan City.

All boat traffic is required to check in by radio near Morgan City and at various check points along the way.

We reached the dock at about 6 o’clock. The docking process was easy, in spite of the rain. The cost here is reasonable: $20 a night, which includes electricity.

We didn’t relish walking to a restaurant in the rain, so we postponed our Valentine’s Day celebration until tomorrow night. 

Friday, February 13, 2009

Old Vermillion Lock Anchorage, Mile 162

We got off to a late start this morning (10 AM) because Larry had some maintenance projects.

We noticed that steering seemed difficult. We hope that the keel was not damaged by our going aground or the subsequent rescue effort yesterday. Today a passing tug captain pointed out some deer grazing near the shore. We saw them, but by the time Terry fumbled around with the camera, the photo op was gone.

We passed through the Leland-Bowman Lock (Mile 162) right before we anchored. Once more we didn’t have to tie up and just floated through. We anchored at the Old Vermillion Lock, immediately on the other side at 5 PM. We put out two anchors to avoid swinging into the channel.

We have changed our plans and now we’ll take off after every third anchorage, if we’re at a good spot. Getting up early and running ‘till late and then doing it again and again is no fun. We’ll move on tomorrow, since this isn’t a very desirable anchorage because it’s right off the channel.

No Internet service here.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Mermentau River Anchorage, Mile 202

Today was not our best day.

First, we overslept. We intended to leave early because of the long stretch down the Calcasieu River to the Intracoastal from Lake Charles. Mosquitoes from LC followed us all the way, lurking in protected areas on deck. They stayed with us all day.

Then we had to wait at the Calcasieu Lock, but there were no tows with barges, so we had the staging area to ourselves and just had to cruise through the lock without tying up, which was nice.

This lock is one of the busiest in the waterway. It prevents salt water from getting into this agricultural area.

Next were two pontoon bridges. Both bridge masters were polite and gave clear directions, which is such a help to cruisers.

Then, at 2 o’clock we ran aground at the mouth of Little Lake Misere. We tried every trick we knew to get loose. Two tow captains tried to help by making a wake in our direction, but no success. One tug totally ignored our radio calls for help.

Finally, a tug without barges, the Sarah Grace from Morgan City, LA, came by and offered to help. They got us off, but when the towboat pulled us off of the sand, because his bow was so high from the water, the line pulled upward and cracked the hawse pipe leading to the cleat on the inside of the hull. This did minor damage to the fiberglass below the cleat and cracked the cap rail in two places.

They say that there are only two kinds of boaters: those who have run aground and those who will. That is little comfort.

We realized that this is the exact spot where we ran aground on our trip back to Texas on our last long cruise. Larry was recovering from a stomach bug, Terry was driving and got disoriented. This time Larry was the one who got turned around. If two such expert sailors as we (LOL) can get confused here, it’s time the Coast Guard put out some markers to show the shallow areea. There are no reds or greens in the area.

We anchored for the night at a beautiful spot just off the Intracoastal, the Mermentau River. We stopped at an oxbow anchorage, very isolated with good protection from any weather. It is near Lake Arthur. The tug in front of us recommended it.

Our biggest challenge tonight is discovering how mosquitoes are getting into the cabin. We have our bug-proof screens over both pilot house doors and yet the little devils continue to show up on the ceiling and near the lights. Larry is the one they love, but they don’t seem to be biting a lot, just buzzing. Larry has now put weather stripping on the inside of all the windows, so we can’t open the windows.

And if mosquitoes weren’t bad enough, there’s no Internet.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Lake Charles, Louisiana, Anchorage 

Taylor Outfall Canal is an excellent anchorage. Our anchor held without a problem when a thunderstorm came through with gusts of 38 mph late last night.

Larry spent most of the night in the pilot house to make sure the high winds didn’t create anchor problems, and Terry went to the forward cabin where the winds sounded VERY scary. The boat was facing east and it turned 180 degrees west when the cold front came through at 3 AM. The good news is that the rain washed our dirty decks.

Today was sunny and warm, a very nice contrast to yesterday’s grayness. There were mosquitoes at the anchorage. Not the huge, man-eating kind, but the pesky little ones that obviously don’t know they’re not supposed to show up until summer.

There was a lot of commercial boat traffic today around Port Arthur and it continued until the Calcasieu River, on the way to Lake Charles.

For some reason, this morning we were going very slowly, 4 mph, all the way through Port Arthur! We could WALK faster than that! The speed eventually picked up, thank goodness.

We changed our original anchoring plans and decided to go to Lake Charles. We expected the trip up the Calcasieu River to take about an hour and a half, but it took us 45 minutes longer and we had to run the last half hour in the dark, which we DO NOT LIKE TO DO. Thank goodness, we have stopped here two or three times before and are familiar with the area.

Coming up the river we met two huge ships with their tugs. We had to get out of their way, but they were helpful and told us which side to pass on. Talking directly to the bridge personnel of those large ships was cool.

Today we saw two huge flocks of white pelicans. We haven’t seen any brown ones, which are so prevalent in South Texas.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Taylor Bayou Outfall Canal, Mile Marker 290

The anchor came up almost clean this morning and there was a slight fog. We caught the Galveston Railroad Bridge when it was open, so we didn’t have to wait to go through.

We encountered more tows with barges today than ever before. The commercial traffic between Galveston and Houston was heavy and continued all day.

We saw lots of wreckage from Hurricane Ike and were sad to see that Steve’s Landing, which we had visited with the Texas Mariners Cruising Association, was severely, possibly terminally, damaged with no obvious repair efforts.

Today was a long, long, very gray day. It looked grim and wintry, but it wasn’t cold. We put in 12 hours before we pulled into Taylor Bayou Outfall Canal (Mile Marker 290) where we’ve anchored once before. We were tired. We’ve been gone five days and we’re still in Texas.

Tomorrow we should be in Louisiana, where Internet access is intermittent along the coast.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Offatt’s Bayou, Galveston

High winds kept us at the anchorage today and we took advantage of this opportunity to sleep late and take care of some maintenance items.

We’re anchored at the east end of the Bayou. We’ve stopped at Offatt’s four or five times before, but we usually anchor near the pyramid at Moody Gardens.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Offatt’s Bayou, Galveston

The San Barnard River Anchorage was comfortable last night. No one ran over our anchor chain and the anchor came up clean today. The wind really blew last night but because of its protection, the anchorage was fairly calm.

For the third consecutive morning, we left at 6:50. This is not a trend we want to continue, but we’re in a hurry to get to Florida, and the first step in that direction is to get out of Texas.

The wind blew hard all day and we heard a tow captain say it was blowing 40 mph. A high wind makes it difficult to control barges, so we wanted to avoid meeting them in narrow places. Naturally, we met three as we entered and exited Chocolate Bayou.

One incident was particularly scary. We radioed to ask the tow captain on which side he wanted us to pass. He told us to pass on one whistle (port to port). However, he headed right for us! We called him frantically and THEN he said he’d changed his mind and that we should turn immediately to pass him starboard to starboard. He had changed his mind but didn’t bother to tell us! He was about to run us over!

Damage caused by Hurricane Ike is still obvious in the part of Galveston we could see from the water. Reconstruction projects are everywhere and many new roofs are being built.

We're glad to have Internet access again!

If the wind and seas don’t calm, we will stay here tomorrow because we have to cross the Houston Ship Channel where the Gulf of Mexico enters Galveston Bay at Galveston. The waters there are normally turbulent and rough, but with winds 30 mph or more it could be really bad. We’ll be going west to east and the winds will be going south to north, so the waves hitting the boat will be in the worst place they can be for a comfortable ride.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

San Barnard River Anchorage, Mile Marker 405

This morning, the south wind pinned us to the dock, but with some help from a neighboring boater, we were able to push ourselves off. It took a mighty effort, but we were able to get away without damaging the boat, which is always a plus.

This was our third visit to the Matagorda Harbor Marina and we like it. There’s a long wharf for transient boaters and a restaurant close by. We enjoyed visiting with the owner of the 80’ blue motorsailer (see photo) and a guy who was delivering a trawler to Galveston.

We saw another cruising boat today! It was a small sailboat, Audrey Ellen, from Palm Beach, FL, with an older couple aboard. (Probably they were our age!)

Today was another short cruising day for us. We anchored on the San Barnard River just south of the Intracoastal Waterway shortly after noon. We wouldn’t have been able to make it to the next anchorage before dark.

The harbormaster at the marina had told us that in a couple of months they’ll be dredging the south end of the San Barnard River, so we were surprised when we turned into the river and saw dredging equipment alongside the banks. No work appeared to be taking place, so we anchored. After a while a crew boat came by and assured us that we are safe here.

A lot of speeding fishing boats passed us on their way to the Gulf, which is a very short distance down the river. Some mindlessly drove over our anchor. We hoped that they wouldn’t catch its chain.

No Internet service here.

Tomorrow we hope to make it to Galveston. The wind, which has really been blowing, is supposed to be worse, but the sun is shining and it’s warm.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Matagorda Harbor Marina, Mile Marker 440

The high winds predicted for last night hadn’t arrived by early morning and we had a comfortable trip across Matagorda Bay.

The barge traffic on the Intracoastal Waterway was heavier than yesterday and the captains were polite and helpful. One took pictures of Outer Reef and asked questions over the radio about her. We’re about to be convinced that the rude tow captain who laughed when he ran us aground and into a channel marker in 2006 was the exception and not the rule.

Today’s highlight was going through the Colorado River Locks and the Matagorda Swing Bridge. We had to wait for a west-bound towboat that was pushing four barges. The current was very strong in the locks.

We plan our trip as we travel along each day and we continue to be frustrated about the lack of support along the Texas Gulf Coast for the cruising community. There are no improved anchorages and not a lot of marinas that provide for cruising boaters. Compared to Florida and the Chesapeake, Texas should be embarrassed. Admittedly, there isn’t much cruising done here and most boaters are fishermen, but there would be more cruisers if there were more amenities. Boaters who travel as we are doing now spend a lot when they come ashore for groceries, a restaurant meal, boat supplies, etc. In fact, more cruisers might just be the answer to the United States’ economic crisis.

We decided to have an early day and stopped at 12:45 PM at the Matagorda Harbor Marina ($1 per foot) just east of the swing bridge at Mile Marker 440 . The wind had picked up a lot by then and blew us right up to the dock for a practically stress-free arrival.

We’ll use this time to finish stowing all the supplies that didn’t get put away before we left Rockport. What we really need is a trailer to pull behind the boat for all our stuff.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Matagorda Bay, South of Green Can 121

We did it! Finally! After a SEVEN-month delay, we left the dock in Rockport at 8:30 AM and headed out for the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. Hooray! The morning was beautiful and the water smooth. We saw several whooping cranes as we passed the Aransas Wildlife Refuge.

There was some barge traffic, but no problems. The captains were courteous. We had been spoiled on our shakedown cruise to South Padre Island, when we saw only one commercial barge.

The only problem on our first day was when we approached our planned anchorage in Greens Bayou in late afternoon. Suddenly the green and red markers ended. Of course, they are very important to boaters wanting to avoid going aground or running into a hidden obstruction. We were trying to follow the course on the computer screen when the depth sounder went off and suddenly were in very shallow water. We bumped ground, but didn’t get stuck.

Larry called the Coast Guard on the radio. (We had just passed the Coast Guard Station in Port O‘Connor.) They told us the route we were trying to follow across Matagorda Bay had been eliminated because of silting. That meant we had to find another place to anchor fast. The sun was setting and we don’t travel after dark.

Finally, we pulled out of the way of boat traffic and dropped the anchor in an unprotected spot in Matagorda Bay at 6 PM. The wind is supposed to pick up quite a bit tonight, so it may be rough. We will leave as soon as the sun is up in the morning.

The Coast Guard stopped by to check on us. They didn’t board us this time like they did on our last cruise. They came back later and gave us a new chart, but it had the bad information on it, too.