Final repositioning - with a new crew

I guess Mark, it's time for you to cruise west one time, since you have been up and down the east coast. I checked on Mersea at the dock, and can tell she ain't liken being tied up like a bull in a shoot. But you have valid inquiries...

There is not much problem with legit marina's and fuel stop all the way to New Orleans. After that it is commercial locations that don't pop out of a map. In Morgan City, we fueled at a tug/crew boat facility, and docked at a city dock. We were the only ones there due to a large shoaling right off their dock, that was being broadcast to us by city dock dude, traffic control operator, and fuel attendant (his info us the best, go figure). Bottom line here is do not expect what you're used to and plan ahead. You will find places in cities like Lake Charles and Beaumont, but in-between which is where we usually end up, is pretty much taking on fuel from a barge and asking him if you can tied up to him for the night..great! And that is why we cut from the Affafalya River to Galveston bypassing the petro chemical part of the ICW .

Dealing with barges and tugs is in Capt. Rusty handbook under the laws of gross tonnage...Those dudes would crumble the 580DA like and empty beer can, or better yet, let us just keeping rolling under his 1,000'+ bottom surface till running us through its big blade prop at the end of that journey. 6 barges tied together with one tug on the back. Not to even mention the copious amounts of material their hauling that can go, boom! Best way to deal with them is obviously giving them the right of way, but as important is communicating with them. I can understand and attempt conversation with most 'merican's but in the bayou of Louisiana, even my southern understanding does not go far with these guys. Quick speaking, cajun/creole/French accents are hard to interpret for us foreigners, so we speak the common language of boat talk...." Good morning Mr. Thibideaux, I'm the pretty boat behind you sir and like to know which side you prefer I slow pass ya on?"....response- #*%*@^%$ on dar 2 witzels pelz #&%#%^*$@* and ya's aint gots to slow down fer me........uh, roger that capt, be safe hoss. And make you next move according to his request, not yours. They have narrow spots to go through and make turns with big swings, so I ask as I approach, "what'cho want me to do Capt". The same really applies in any port from NYC-Norfolk-even my space center port of Canaveral. The difference is the Mississippi boys do not have neutral. River and current running too fast to put on the brakes so get out their way, period!

*exec read- not too scenic past the Cresent City, motor through like walking on a mine-field

R


IMG_1957[1].JPG All's Well in Morgan City LA, framed by the flood wall, steel gate opening

IMG_1951[1].JPG Easy lock, no barges just tugs

IMG_1950[1].JPG You may think this is the Capt and I making the women folk do all the work handling the lines in the locks, but those two loved it and wouldn't let's us help if we wanted to.......we were okay with that.
 
MAN tech offered no logical explanation on what caused it to fail?
 
MAN tech offered no logical explanation on what caused it to fail?
No
He said due to sudden and complete power failure there were no codes or alarms stored
No issues since and we logged 50 hours since replacing the fuse
 
Simple item - shuts everything down.

It's not the cost of the part, but then checking everything out that runs up the dollars.
 
Friday’s adventure took us from Pensacola westward -
Weather reports weren’t good but as we were leaving Pensacola the outside didn’t look too bad so we took the opportunity to run outside and kept close to land to get a wind break and it worked for a while. Right before Mobile we started to get pounded by 3 - 5’s so we decided to duck inside at Mobile Bay and once we made a turn and got some narrower channels we started to catch a break. Once things got settled and we were committed to the inside we started to plan for a stopping point. We made it to the fringe of New Orleans and found a place that Rusty knew Sea Brook Marina. They had fuel and a few slips that got us out of the wind, then we headed into NOLA for a tasty treat at the Gumbo Shop.
 
Saturday morning we were ready to get moving and hoping to get out of the wind and find some warmer weather.
After an easy scheduled opening at the L&N railroad bridge it was time for our first lock experience
A941B79E-62ED-4113-8FC1-4413285E4A95.jpeg

We ran inside the rest of the day seeing the world up close and personal and found our way to the Morgan City docks which is a basic wall in lovely downtown Morgan City, LA
 
Finally Sunday rolls around and we were ALL ready to see Texas.
We made a quick run down the Atchafalaya river and out into the Gulf where we enjoyed 1-2 foot seas with a light east wind to our back.
795C217A-AB16-478C-BF82-FACEB11B57C2.jpeg

We had a peaceful day pretty much to ourselves until we got close to Galveston and the entrance to the ship channel
3933736D-B5E0-40F1-BD96-F5E393E689FB.jpeg


We had company now
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,946
Messages
1,422,778
Members
60,929
Latest member
Henchman
Back
Top