Free At Last

Our time lost in the yard had some positive aspects. We are definitely in warmer weather and the boat is in good shape once again. We have met some nice folks at the yard. Most of them are heading the same direction as we and we will see them again along the way.
At 0900 yesterday, we arrived at the Danzinger Bridge, after having made the appointment for it to open some two hours earlier. Typically, the bridge was late opening but that made little impact on the exit from New Orleans as the next bridge, a railroad bascule bridge, had a train switching and preventing opening. What did we do? We did circles between the bridges until the rail bridge opened. Our chart plotter marked 47 circles. Once through that, we were free to leave. We cannot ever see ourselves returning to New Orleans. That place left us with a general feeling that Katrina removed her soul.
Our destination for the day was to make an anchorage at Rabbit Island. Said anchorage is not pretty but it is in a good place to stop before entering Mississippi Sound. We were underway only four hours when we arrived at the anchorage. It is just large enough to allow two boats to swing freely on the anchor. The old derrick is still there as pictured in the cruising guides, but it is greatly deteriorated and about to fall over. There were three barges tied up there and they sheltered us a bit from the wind coming from the Sound. We spent about four hours there snoozing and reading when another sail boat came by and mentioned that several tows were approaching with intent to stop there. We thought it best to be absent when they arrived since we did not really want to become fenders for the barges. One captain suggested another place. We found it to be much better anyway except for the wind. Did I mention the trains? The anchorages are very close to at CSX rail road, say 300 yards. So boys and girls, we were serenaded several times during the night. They sound like a tow from a distance but must faster. Did I mention no-see-ums? Tiny flying critters that like to fly up one’s nose, ears and swim in your wine. They don’t last long in the wine but they keep coming. Before long one has protein in the wine. This morning, the deck was covered with gnats that drowned in the dew on deck. The good news is that there were no mosquitoes except for the lone ranger who made it below.
Faces with some questionable weather, the crew of Why Knot decided to spend another night here and sail to Biloxi tomorrow---- or not. Sitting in the cockpit enjoying coffee this morning and watching locals out fishing, I noticed that we were moving ever so slowly down wind. I watched this for a few minutes thinking that the hook would grab soon. It did not. Decision: reset number one and put out number two. Good thing we caught it during the day since this was the first time we have deployed a second anchor in some time. We have two anchors on the bow roller but one was not ready to use. It would have been difficult to rig in the dark. With two down, we have not moved in several hours. There is possibly a gotcha setting two anchors forward in this place. The tides will reverse flow in this outlet and we will float over both anchors before morning. That might create a situation making it difficult to retrieve them in the morning. We will see. Until then, we have peace of mind. So here we sit, free at last.

Note: We only have one bar at this anchorage so uploading pictures now is not possible