Christmas in New Orleans

In City Park, Santa rides a pirogue pulled by alligators!

A good time was had by all (really!).  The family got together in New Orleans for Christmas & we all made it through the week without killing each other.  Actually, we all enjoyed each other's company, & tried our best to eat ourselves silly.  Someone received a bath scales from Santa, but I don't think we'll like the numbers it will tell us.

We went for a walk to City Park, where the "Christmas in the Oaks" was full of lights.  But, being New Orleans, there were unique light arrangements.

The best thing about Christmas being over, is that now we can eat King Cakes, all the way to Mardi Gras on Feb 9!

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus!
Sue's brother takes a selfie!

On Dec 29, the weather was warm enough to
go for a cruise on Lake Pontchartrain with
our Captain-in-training

Y'know you're in New Orleans, when....

... the largest food display at Walmart was red beans and rice!

Over 1000 pounds of rice with enough red beans to keep a smile on your face for a week!



In the hills of TN, this car has been sitting in one place
so long that the vines have grown up the radio antenna

We are doing our best to catch up on eating all the New Orleans cuisine, which we have missed during the past 7-8 months.  We got our shrimp po-boy (dressed, or course) right away, but Sue had to wait until this week to finally get some boiled crawfish.  And yes, we got our Popeye's chicken last week (when we got Popeye's around the Great Lakes, we were disappointed that the seasoning was not the same as what we get down here).

Late last month we spent an excellent week in the Chattanooga area, sharing Thanksgiving with about 30 relatives, and Sue's mother was basking in the attention all week.  Her mother loved having all the babies (all 4 great-great grandchildren) surrounding her most every day.  All in all, a very good family reunion.

So now we prepare for Christmas this week at Chris & Ali's new home.  Looking forward to another good week with family.



While in TN, we hiked through the mountain trail
to a beautiful waterfall



Touchdown!

At Gulfport marina, the sunset was gorgeous
as the cold front finally came through

After waiting 2 extra days for a slow-moving cold front to come through Gulfport, we set sail west to our winter home of New Orleans.  So now I ask the same question that I asked when we were departing Gulfport 4 years ago:  “Would you rather be stuck in morning rush-hour traffic on the Huey Long Bridge in New Orleans, or departing Gulfport harbor on your boat into a brightly-rising sun, being escorted by dolphins all around, and entertained by brown pelicans diving for their morning snack?”  This is an I.Q. test!

It was a good final day trip to our winter marina at South Shore Harbor on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, with the sun warming the sea breeze.  The wind was a bit more than forecast, E15-20, but it was all on our stern.  We hit the outgoing ebb tide trying to get into the Rigolets, so that slowed us a bit.

The shrimpers were working hard to
keep up with all the shrimp we're gonna eat!

And then we ran into all the crab traps!  Welcome to Louisiana!  And yes, they were in the middle of the channel, as usual.  Even after we went through the Highway 11 bridge (with the same lady bridge tender for the past many years…  “What’s the name of your vessel?”  “Fruition.”  “Say what?!?  How d’yall spell dat?”) we still played dodge ‘em with the crab traps. 

We found our marina & Admiral Sue made another excellent landing, backing the boat into the slip.  I’ll have to admit, the Admiral has become an excellent helmsman (should I say Helmswoman?) this year.  She is much more confident in her abilities & is usually confident that the boat will actually go in the direction she is trying to make it!

So we’ve come to the end of another cruising season.  We traveled about 4200 miles this season, most at only 10 mph.  Fuel prices were less than we had budgeted this year, so our kids may yet get some inheritance.  We learned a deep respect for other boaters who have completed the Loop, after we survived Lake Michigan as well as the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.  And after 6-1/2 months of travelling, we’re kinda ready to just sit at a marina for a while.

But we’ll be planning next year’s intended travel to Key West and the northern Bahamas.  We hope to travel with friends for part of the year, so we’ll start cussing & discussing with them next week.  Postings to this blog will become less frequent for the winter months as we find more ways to spend money on the boat.  “Fruition” is merely resting for a bit before her CATs fire up again with a resonating growl.

The Gulf Coast

As the water is let out of the lock, a white egret
sits on the lock gate looking for a free meal

We made the 450 miles from the Tennessee River down to Mobile Bay in 8 days, a day longer than the last time we took this route.  The biggest difference was the delays at all the locks to await towboats (which take priority over pleasure boats in locking through).

Another quiet anchorage at the river edge,
just "outside the reds"

The northern part of the Waterway has several marinas strategically placed but since we had stayed at most of them on our last 2 trips along here, we wanted to anchor most nights.  In the lower part of the Tenn-Tom, there are no marinas for the last 216 miles, so a boat must anchor for several nights along the way.  We ended up anchoring for all 7 nights on our way south, the first time we’ve been out anchoring for so long.  We did, however, make a quick pit stop in Demopolis for fuel, water, and a pumpout, and then headed to a nearby anchorage.

The Tenn-Tom water levels were all at normal pool, since all the rain water from prior weeks had already flowed over the dams into Mobile Bay.  It made our trip much more enjoyable and the anchorages accessible.



Our friendly towboat leapfrogged us again
while we're at anchor

There seemed to be quite a bit of commercial towboats this trip, more so than previous trips.  These guys run 24 hours per day to their destination, while pleasure boats only cruise during daylight hours.  Along about our 3^rd day of travel, we passed a towboat doing about 7 mph (we can zip along at 10 mph).  That night, while we were at anchor, that same tow passed us.  Then the next day, we passed him again, only to have him pass us that night.  We actually leapfrogged that tow 4 consecutive days.

The river still hasn't made up its mind which way to flow

After seeing all the big towboats along the river,
this little guy just north of Mobile was cute

As we continued down the Mobile River into the city of Mobile, the amount of commercial traffic increased considerably.  We passed all different types of activity – towboats, ocean-going cargo ships, Navy ship construction, etc.  Took some interesting photos.  We entered Mobile Bay, which can be quite rough under the wrong conditions, but was much calmer than we had expected.  After 5 months of cruising in fresh water, we were back in salt water again.  Brown pelicans diving for a fish, and dolphins swimming towards the boat became a common sight.

In Mobile, a drydock held this square-rigger.  Didn't find out
the name.

A new class of Navy ship, built by Austal in Mobile,
with all the stealth technology

Here's a view of the new tri-maran that you won't often see!

The Navy likes to sail catamarans too!

In Mobile Bay, an ocean-going tug passes by.
Hardly recognized it.

 

After staying in a marina just south of Mobile, we gambled on a marine weather forecast in Mississippi Sound (part of the Gulf of Mexico) & left the next day for Gulfport.  The waves were only 3’, but it was enough to cause a roly-poly ride for 8 hours.  At this point, we’re only 1 travel day away from our destination in New Orleans, but first we have to wait 2 days for the thunderstorms and cold front to come through.  So we’ll wait a bit longer to complete our cruising for this year.

And by the time we get the boat to New Orleans, we’ll turn around 2 days later to rent a car to drive back to Chattanooga for our Thanksgiving family reunion.  We gotta keep moving to stay ahead of our mistakes!

Our friends took this photo of us in a lock, sporting
our crusty "moustache"

Meandering down the Tenn-Tom

 

If there’s one section of the waterways that we should know by now, it would be the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  We first cruised this northbound from Mobile to the Tennessee River way back in 2009 when the rivers were in flood stage (and we found out what NOT to do).  Then we saw how bare the trees could get when we traveled south from Chattanooga to New Orleans in December 2011.  So now, we’re on our 3^rd trip down the waterway, stopping at some familiar spots and avoiding others.

The first lock on the Tenn-Tom has an 84' lift (or drop).
It seems like we're in the bowels of the earth!

Our travelling companion inside the lock

When the lower lock gates open, daylight comes in.
Sometimes we're surprised to see a tow boat and barges waiting outside the gates!

Our anchorage one night just off the river channel,
with the ubiquitous towboats passing by

Another anchorage at sunset, in a quiet cove

We departed the marina near the intersection of Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama on Nov 8 with another boat named “YOLO” (You Only Live Once).  He was a retired Army guy, so we let him travel with us so he wouldn’t get lost.  We enjoyed having them along, since we have cruised most of our 6000+ mile Loop by ourselves.  Since we had been to most of the marinas up & down the river, we decided this time to try to anchor most of the way.  Since it takes about 7-8 days to get to Mobile, we will be that long between setting foot on solid ground.  We’re on Day 5 now & for the most part it’s been a cold 55 degrees & we have seen the sun only 4 hours since we left.  We’ve been in winter jackets & gloves most of the time.

North of Demopolis AL, we pass under the I-20/I-59
bridge, which we had driven over about 1000 times
as we went from New Orleans to Chattanooga

Our biggest challenge has been going through the locks in a reasonable time.  There are 12 locks total to pass through (all of them let us down towards sea level) & we’ve had to wait for towboats & their barges at nearly all of them.  Right now this morning, we’re waiting for 1-1/2 hours at our next lock).  There were some times when the lock operator says to get to his gates within 20 minutes & we might get through before the tow arrives.  So we race (as much as a trawler can race) to the lock, arrive 5 minutes too late, and then wait for 1-2 hours.  Then we have to find another anchorage for that night because of the delay.  Ah well, the joys of boating!  Good thing we’re salt-encrusted experienced boaters possessing a wealth of knowledge!



All along the 450 mile waterway to Mobile,
the river banks are so different

Tree roots searching for that soil which has been
washed away during high water

We have about 3-4 more days of travel before we hit Mobile.  Most of our anchorages are remote without phone or wifi connections, so this blog may not be updated for a while yet.  I’m starting to look at weather in Mobile Bay & Mississippi Sound towards New Orleans, & it doesn’t look too nice.  Since we’re heading back into salt water, I’ll have to get back out my tide tables & re-learn all that.  Who says you can’t teach old dogs new tricks!?

With all these river bends, turns & twists, it's no wonder
that it takes 7-8 days to get down to Mobile!

Miscellaneous

(Did I spell that big word correctly?)

We made our trip to Chattanooga by car, and Sue’s mother is doing pretty well.  We drove back to Southport NC to retrieve our personal car & rediscovered that it is a heck of a long way there and back.  Our car will live at John & Susan’s house until we return to Chattanooga in a couple weeks for our Thanksgiving family reunion.

Our trip across Tennessee was at the height of color of the autumn leaves.  Driving over the mountains just full of the browns, yellows, reds and greens of the leaves was breathtaking.  I guess this is one good thing about being delayed in our boat travels.

A week or so ago, the remnants of a hurricane which came through Mexico, passed through here and went north.  The winds kicked up on the Great Lakes so I decided to see what’s happening on Lake Michigan.  With gale-force winds of 45 kts, the waves were 14-16 feet, with occasional 20 foot!  Can you think of any other reason NOT to be in Lake Michigan?!?

We came back to the boat a couple days ago to find a familiar boat on the next dock.  Kenny and Kathy aboard M/V “No Zip Code” had just returned from cruising to Chattanooga & were getting ready to head south down the Tenn-Tom.  We had last seen them in May of this year, when we docked next to them at both Cape May NJ and then again in Staten Island NY.  That’s a common event for all the Loopers during the year, meeting again and again somewhere farther down the road (or waterway).

We finally found a slip in New Orleans to stay for the winter, and it was the last one available in the marina.  Another marina we had tried to get into had no space available.  For some reason, there are a lot more boats around there, compared to 3 years ago when we were last there.  We’ll be staying on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain at South Shore Harbor Marina, a marina where we had stayed in early 2012.

So now we’re waiting for the cold front to come through tonight, and for the thunderstorms to cease, before we cast off our lines to head south.  We’ll need to watch river levels carefully, since the Tenn-Tom can get into flood very easily (we were caught in flood waters the first time we came up the Tenn-Tom).  Even if water levels don’t rise much, the dams will be spilling lots of water, which can lead to shoaling and shallow water in common anchorages.  I guess that if this were easy, most anyone could do it!  But travelling this waterway requires a crusty old sea dog with nerves of steel and salt water in his veins.  As soon as I find someone like this, I’ll let him drive my boat!

Crossing Our Wake

For the past 7 years or so, we have been members of America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association, with the goal of traveling around the 5000+ miles of waterways circling the eastern part of America.  The boaters of AGLCA (the “Loopers”) show their membership by flying a pennant or burgee on the bow of their boat: a white one for doing a “loop in progress”, and a gold one for “loop completion”.  On October 22, we completed our circumnavigation and qualified for the Gold Burgee.

Look! There's our wake from 4 years ago!!

The phrase we use for completing the loop is to “cross our wake” which we created some time ago when we were last at this exact spot.  Almost 4 years ago, we moved the boat from Chattanooga back to New Orleans, and passed through the junction of the Tennessee River and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (at the common border of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama).  Wouldn’t you know it, but our wake from 4 years ago was still there (yeah, right) & we happily crossed it to complete our circle.

Our white burgee was so old, faded & torn that I told
Sue that we had to either buy a new white one
or just go ahead & earn a gold one!

Because we live full-time on the boat, we traveled some extra miles during our 4-year loop.  I’m guessing that we went over 6000 miles cruising north for the summer & south for the winter, and all of it at 10 miles per hour!  We traveled from the Tennessee River, down the Tenn-Tom Waterway to Mobile Bay, across Florida to the east coast, up the Atlantic ICW, through the Chesapeake Bay, past New York City up the Hudson River, across the Erie Canal and through the Great Lakes, south from Chicago into the Illinois River, the Mississippi River, the Ohio River, the Cumberland River, and finally back to the Tennessee River.

We feel we did something "above & beyond the call of duty"
to earn this gold burgee.

Probably the biggest thing I learned during these travels is how different are the geographic areas of cruising.  Cruising on the Tennessee River is totally different from the knowledge and skills needed to cruise on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, or on the Great Lakes.  And even though some areas were relatively easy to cruise, there were many situations which challenged our seamanship skills and endurance.  I feel that we’ve really accomplished something by reaching this milestone.

But it all doesn’t stop here.  When we finish being landlubbers for the next 2 weeks, we’ll take the boat south to New Orleans this winter, and then over to the Florida Keys and to the Bahamas in the spring.  There’s more sights to see & we aim to see them!

The Beautiful Tennessee River

The bridge to nowhere.  Guess they needed a couple
million more to finish it!

If there were a river that was the direct antithesis (pretty big words for a retired guy!) of the Mississippi River, that would be the Tennessee River.  What a joy it was to be on the scenic, calm, quiet river with minimal head current and very few towboats.  It was just as we remembered it from 4-6 years ago when we lived in this neck of the woods.

 


An abandoned dock along the Tennessee River

Hey, TowBoatUS, I think I grounded on a sandbar!



We're in either Kentucky or Tennessee

We only spent 3 days on the Tennessee before we arrived at the turn onto the next waterway.  The first night out, we stopped at a quaint marina that was adequate, but nothing special.  That is, until breakfast the next morning, when the marina served free coffee and fresh-baked cinnamon rolls.  Did I mention that it was all free?  I had read about this marina on the Looper website, and it was an enjoyable stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical scenery along the Tennessee River

 

Our second night out, we anchored where the river split around an island.  As the sun was setting against the cliffs at water’s edge, the scenery was drop-dead gorgeous.  The river was calm & quiet, the birds were squawking, and the goats on the island came down to the river’s edge.  Yup, there were wild goats on the island.  Just another day cruising through America!  We really enjoyed our last night on the Tennessee River at this special anchorage.

The view out our "back door" at the anchorage

 

The next morning at anchor with wisps of fog on the river

Our friendly goats at our anchorage

Our last lock upbound.  From here to Mobile AL, it's all downhill.

The third day, we made our marina at the junction of the Tennessee River and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  This junction is right at the common boundary of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.  Our next leg of our trip will be down the Tenn-Tom for 450 miles to Mobile AL.  But first, we’ll take about 2 weeks to rent a car, drive to Chattanooga for dentist appointments & to visit with Sue’s mother, and then drive back east to Southport NC, where we started our journey this year, to retrieve our personal car.  Then we’ll drive to Birmingham AL to our storage unit to pull out some winter clothes.  We’ve been pretty much freezing these past few weeks with only our summer clothes.



When we arrived at this marina, we reached a major milestone in our cruising adventures by completing the “Great Loop” of the waterways around the eastern part of America.  More about that on my next post, after we’re presented our “gold burgee”.

Mississippi & Ohio Rivers

Our chartplotter shows our path waiting
at one of the locks

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, there’s the Mississippi River.

We’ve had terribly bad luck getting through all the locks (if it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all), having waited 2 hours on average for the tows & barges to go through, and as much as 5 hours wait time.  When we left Alton IL the first time, we were delayed at the marina to take fuel and get a pumpout, and then delayed at the nearby lock for 2 hours, at which time we cancelled our plans for the day & returned to Alton Marina to stay another night.

Some of these towboat captains need big signs to
see which way to go

The Arch at St Louis, from a view rarely seen

The leaves, they are a'changing

The next day, we made it through the two locks in a reasonable amount of time (timing is everything in arriving at the lock between the tows).  As we approached St. Louis, the turbulence in the river, the debris in the river, and the amount of towboat traffic increased dramatically.  From this point all the way south to New Orleans, there are no locks on the Mississippi to control water flow or flooding, so the river runs where it wants to.  Luckily, we came through in relatively low water, so turbulence and current were reduced, but we saw high water marks on the shore where the water had been 25 feet higher.  Even so, this river is not for the faint-of-heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the many many wing dams along the MS River

Our omnificent US Army Corps of Engineers built hundreds of stone wing dams along the river in order to control all the mud & silt from settling at the wrong place.  In doing so, these dams create considerable turbulence in the water, which is constantly present along our route, sometimes causing us to almost lose control of the boat.  And this is at low water with minimal current!

Our boat at Hoppie's Marina along the MS River

Our other bit of excitement was dealing with towboats with barges as much as 6 across by 7 deep.  It was like trying to pass an island that was moving.  And the upbound tows had to overcome a 4 mph river current, so they were pushing massive amounts of water as we passed.

We ended our first day at the famous (or infamous) Hoppie’s Marina in Kimmswick MO, the only “marina” along the rivers for 200+ miles.  And I use the word “marina” rather loosely, since Hoppie’s consists of 4 river barges tied together, anchored at the river’s edge.  But it is a common stopping point for all the Loopers, and we met two other boats which we traveled with during the next couple days.



Close quarters to anchor in the Diversion Canal.
Looking out the narrow entrance towards the MS River

The highlight of our 2^nd day on the Mississippi was finding and entering our night-time anchorage at Little River Diversion Canal.  This narrow canal, about 85 feet wide at low water (remember that our boat is 48 feet long), had to be entered from down river, since the river current was about 4 mph.  We set the throttles to slowly overcome the current, and then carefully angled the bow towards the canal entrance.  As soon as we got out of the current, we had to quickly cut throttles & turn hard to port to keep us from running aground on the canal banks.   And then we needed a stern anchor to keep us from swinging at anchor & sticking our rudders in the mud in the narrow canal.

Sunset on the Ohio River, still steaming to our anchorage

The next day we got underway before sunrise, made it through more turbulence on the Mississippi, and finally made the turn east onto the Ohio River.  After dodging numerous tows we became stalled at Lock 53 and the construction area for the new Olmsted Lock & Dam, as we entered their “security zone”.  After a 5-hour delay, we came out the other end of the zone & ran hard to make our anchorage for the night.  It was after dark when we dropped the hook on the side of the Ohio River, hopefully out of the way of the omnipresent towboats.  Quite a long & tiring day.

Tows stacked along the Ohio River waiting for the locks

And then we came to the really long delay on the Ohio – Lock 52.  Because of construction, maintenance of the lock chambers, and downriver construction, the tows are taking 3-4 DAYS to get through Lock 52.  They were stacked all along the river bank, having run their lead barge aground in the mud to wait their turn.  We ended up anchoring next to the lock to wait the 4 hours before our turn to lock through.  But the delay meant that we’d have to spend one more night at anchor on the river before getting to our marina on the Cumberland River.

Anchorage at the junction of the Ohio & Cumberland Rivers

Steaming up the calm, quiet, clear Cumberland River

But on Saturday 10/17, the moon & the stars all came into alignment, the moon was in the seventh hour, and Jupiter aligned with Mars, when we departed our anchorage before sunrise to travel the 30 miles up the Cumberland River, and the lock at the end had its lower gates wide open for us to steam right in!  Just above the lock we found our marina, where we stayed for a couple days to recuperate & make some minor repairs.  We also found a fantastic restaurant named Patti’s, which featured 2” thick pork chops, cooked slowly & tender as can be.  We made 2 meals out of the leftovers.

 

Inside the Barkley Lock on the Cumberland River

When we gotta dress like this, it's time to head south!

 

 

We are so glad to be off of the Mississippi, which was probably the nadir of our travels so far.  Tomorrow we head out on the beautiful Tennessee River for the 3-day trip to the beginning of the Tenn-Tom Waterway.  We feel that we’re back in our ol’ stomping grounds on the TN, having lived on the boat in Chattanooga for 2 years.  We’ll reach a significant milestone 3 days from now, and have a special celebration.  To be continued…