Intracoastal City to Morgan City


After arriving at the Shell-Morgan dock for fuel, sailing is not always sailing if one’s course is directly into the wind in a narrow channel, we needed to lay on some fuel and the fuel dock was closed for who knows what—or wait, could it be Superbowl with the Saints in contention? We decided to stay in the only transient slip in town, right across from the fuel dock and wait for 0600 Monday. That gave us some down time and the green house was very nice in the afternoon sun. The town is there solely for the petroleum industry so Sunday is definitely quiet time there. The town was nearly smitten from the earth during Rita in 2005 so sparse services were more so. There was a small, well stocked for maritime industry needs, kinda place. I walked the 400 yards just to see what they had. What a surprise, fresh vegetables and apples, no less. Now that is cool. We had a moving night in the slip since it was exposed to the GIWW and the wakes from passing boats. That was ok since we had no short supply of power, hence a warm cabin in the morning. Thinking about the apples, at 0530 next morning I hiked back to that little store and picked up veggies and some of those apples. Great boat food. Got Bear some cucumbers which are her favorite snack food. We left the dock at 0700 bound for Morgan City some 60 miles away. All went well until about 4 hours into the day when a friend asked, via e-mail, if we were having fun yet. I was literally in the process of texting that we were when the boat told me something changed. Yeah, that’s right, the boat and I communicate. Instantly, in the middle of tow traffic in a narrow channel I had a decision to make. It wasn’t really a decision more than which way we wanted to die. We could get run over by 6,000 tons of tows following us or die from the fire resulting from running the engine without cooling seawater. Well, it wasn’t that critical but as time goes by, the story will be way more dramatic. Anyway, we slid over to the side of the “ditch”, reported to the tows that we were in need of “slow bells” and were making emergency repairs. They were very professional and cut us some slack. Bear communicated with them as they passed and I went to work replacing the seawater impeller. First, I had to check the inventory to see where the heck the spare part was, get the tools out and get-r-done. 16 minutes later we were underway again. Since owning this boat, I have been able to hone that little exercise to the point I can fieldstrip that pump faster than I could my M-16 in Vietnam.

By 1000 hours, we were having a little nip just to celebrate that we were not “Cuisinarted” by one of those tows and allowed to continue the dream. The tallest terrain in the area are ancient salt domes which, like High Island, Texas, can be 100 feet high. That makes them mountains. Underway, we are always cleaning stuff or doing boat duties. One thing that amazes us is that there is dust, dust everywhere aboard. Gee, I hope we are not flaking off to the end. On the water and dust everywhere. Globs of it every day. We wear socks to help do two things; keep the feet warm and help dust. That little tidbit is most like TMI for most readers, but it is a fact. Back to the salt domes; there are tows that run from the mines on those domes to railheads, some only two miles away. In fact, Tobasco hot sauce is on Avery Island, a salt dome. We had to cross the Wax Lake Outlet. That is a channel that diverts a large percentage of the Mississippi River around New Orleans. That means that at times, it can be flowing big time. So, there is concern as to whether or not a 42 horsepower vessel can handle the current. I started asking westbound tows about the current getting mixed reports about this or that vessel that had a heavy “set” by the current. Naturally, there was some concern about crossing it which proved to be unfounded. No problems. No dragons.

We made Morgan City at 1745 hours and tied up to the city docks. I called the dock master and requested to do what I had already done. Joe was very nice and said we could stay as long as we wanted. It turns out that he is just an example of the Southern Hospitality known about Cajun Country. Dock fee is $20 per night on the honor system. That includes water and electricity. Cheapest of all our experiences. Today, Joe stopped by the boat and offered to take us to the store or anywhere we wanted to go.

Bear and I walked the historical district today and enjoyed some really good shore food. While we were hobbling around, we walked passed a fellow that said “you must be boat people”. From that introduction, we learned that he is Asst. Fire Chief of Morgan City. He gave us the local scoop on where to eat within walking distance, where to get hardware and groceries. He stopped by the boat a few minutes ago, 1730 and offered to take us anywhere we needed to go. Now folks, that is true hospitality.



I hope to get this posted tonight but I am having troubles with the old computer. Here is a pitch for Dell. When I purchased this notebook, I also did the extended warranty and service thing. I don’t usually buy those things but this turned out to be a good decision. You see, Dell and I spent much of the morning diagnosing the problem and tomorrow, by noon, there will be a factory authorized technician aboard with parts to replace the mother board on this thing. Way cool! I will post photos when I get to a faster internet spot.

It is 1730 and I think I will join Bear in the greenhouse for a glass of rotten grapes.



Bligh—out.
Update:  0930, 2/11/10
Still in Morgan City because the Dell guy could not get here yesterday.  Still amazing we could even get a tech here.  This is not the worst place to stop.