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.

Day 10

East Bound and Out of Texas




Anchor Down 30 degrees00’07”N, 93degrees 46’06”W

The day started with a cold, very cold for a native south Texan, wet and foggy. At 0630, I gently awoke the Admiral and said that we should get underway soon. We had the Houston Ship Channel to cross and that meant we needed extra time to deal with all the ships. The day started with my almost removing the port solar panel on the piling. Next came the traffic which caused us to take more than expected to get to the GIWW eastbound. I tried to put the slight damage in perspective so that the day was not ruined. Got that done at about noon. Barge traffic was heavy and we are now about to learn the lingo of the commercial captains. Again, the AIS helps us seem a bit more professional than we are. We spent the day getting to Port Arthur where the Sabine and Neches river allow large ships to make port in Arthur. About the time we got to Port Arthur we saw the first sun in 6 days. That lifts the spirit and we actually saw the only two other pleasure boats of the trim so far.

Port Arthur Bridge

Lunch was the excellent soup that Bear prepared in our new pressure cooker last night. Well, so was breakfast along with some strong, and I do mean strong coffee made by the nut on the end of the wrench, me. Bear managed to read a whole novel today. At that rate, we will need a huge account at Amazon or Half Price Books. When she finished a book, she used to toss them overboard. Now, we leave them at harbors. Today was the first day we are actually feeling that we are on a cruise. Before now, we had what we called weird emotions. Now we are into the moment.

Tow Leading Us Up Sabine River

We have had a long day. It was good to get the anchor down. Dinner done and soon, we will be in the rack. Another day living the dream. Be well.

Turning the Corner- Heading East

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Cool Ship Name

Last night in Galveston, we sail tomorrow even though the weather is to be windy, cold and raining. But wait, that’s what it has been the past week. This is day 10 and we have not seen the sun in over a week. We rented a car for three days and toured the area, hustled parts and reconned Port Arthur to see if there are any boater’s facilities there. There aren’t. Not only that, all of the little rest stops in the guides between here and there are no more. So, tomorrow will be a long haul but hopefully not as long as Matagorda to Galveston.

Ike really did a number on Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula communities nearby. Thousands of homes are gone. The amazing thing is that the debris from those homes has been removed. Galveston’s commercial world is back to normal but there are many homes that still have the famous FEMA blue tarp roofing. The seawall and the businesses along it were really devastated. The Flagship hotel that was built on concrete pilings is still close off with barricades. The shore side of it has a three story hole in the side. It looks like the concrete pilings that support the hotel are seriously compromised. Several of the historic buildings on the “Strand” are under stabilization work. This town took it on the chin. Unlike New Orleans, it appears much of the vegetation such as large trees have survived. I am guessing it is because the sea water did not stand long.

As of today, we have spent 666 days aboard Why Knot. Of all that time, and just 10 days into the adventure, this is the longest time aboard in a row. So, fellow universe travelers, every day we don’t go get a hotel room adds to the count.

I toured a submarine in Seawolf Park yesterday. It is the USS Cavalla, a WWII Gato class sub. At her commissioning, she was state-or-the-art. She sailed in harms’ way and was credited with sinking a Japanese Carrier. Now here is what occurred to me whilst in that sub. She was 306 feet in length. She had over 80 officers and crew. That works out to just 3.825 feet per person. We have it made. We have about 21 feet each and we don’t sleep in a bunk shared by two other hairy legged guys.

We will depart Galveston and enter the ICW heading for Port Arthur. That means we have turned the corner and will be heading east at last. When we brought Why Knot back from New Orleans, post Katrina and Rita, this area was in shambles. Looks like it will be no different this time. If the weather was a bit better, we would punch offshore for the leg to the Sabine. Alas, we are to be stuck in the ditch for a very dull section, except for the tows. It’s past time to leave Galveston.

Galveston

Pelican Island Bridge

We decided to stay a few days in Galveston just to do some maintenance such as oil changes and see the town, rather how it changes after the hurricane. The first night was spent just getting over the eleven and one half hours of motor sailing from Matagorda to the area. We faced high cold winds on the nose all the way. The tow traffic was, at times; pretty heavy but the AIS system which reports transponder signals from commercial vessels was really a great addition to the boat. It allows us to see the name and other information about oncoming traffic in the area. Before AIS, we had to guess at the name of the vessels and their location then place a call “westbound tow at (about) marker X, this is the eastbound sailboat approaching marker Y”. There is a great deal of slop in that communication. Now, we call “Marie Bordelon, this is the eastbound sailboat one mile”. We get a great deal of courtesy doing that and the tows are very helpful when they know our intentions. We did hear one two asking another sailboat to slow down to avoid a tight situation with two passing tows, to which the sailboat captain offered some colorful negative comments. The tow captain said that he would return the favor some day. It seems the sailboater was about to give us all a bad name and may have the mistaken belief that sailboats have the right of way over tows. Two rules come into play here. First, there is the basic rule of tonnage. The tow is big with lots of horsepower. Secondly, there are the rules of navigation. The tow has the right of way.

Anyway, we sailed under the Pelican Island bridge into Galveston Harbor at around noon on Sunday. This is a busy harbor with cruise ships, and many petroleum related vessels. It was good to tie up and hit the showers on land. As always, the walk to the office was quite long but good exercise. Now in port, what does one do? The obvious is to clean the boat and talk to other boaters. This place had 49 or so sailboats tied up in the transient are during the hurricane. Only 6 survived and of them, most took serious damage. The water rose about 12 feet over the docks where they were tied. Nevertheless, with all the devastation, one can hardly tell it around the harbor. This city hit the ground running and fully functional in a very short time, as compared to New Orleans.

This is day 8 and we will rent a car today to get some things done such as laundry and some minor boat shopping. We really have not missed the car yet but as we were told, land transportation is hard to be without. We do have a pair of small folding bicycles and that will be our means, just as soon as Bear quits referring to me as a “circus bear” when I am on it.