Thursday, June 20, 2013

from Mississippi to Louisiana

We did it, we are staying tonight at Pirates Cove Marina on Grand Isle in Louisiana. We left Gulfshores Mississippi on Tuesday morning and went out into the Gulf of Mexico for 152 nautical miles, around the Mississippi delta and TA DA we made it.
  Tuesday was a little iffy. with some ups and downs. We did get to sail for almost 4 hours before the waves picked up and the wind switched direction.  I had propped open our forward hatch and forgot to check on it when the seas picked up. Several ( about 10+) gallons of water, sandy, salty sticky water, poured through soaking the berth and filling our bilge. With some scrambling we cleaned up, but it still fells a little gritty.  We finally called it a day and motored as close as we dared, dropping anchor in 19' of unprotected water off Chandeleur Islands. It was a rough night with lightening illuminating the sky all around us. 
Waking early to calmer seas, and very little wind, we plotted course for our next stop over. With all the Oil rigs out in the Gulf, many abandoned, we were strongly advised not to travel at night. There is a Safety fairway where there are no rigs, but all commercial traffic use the same area. Also fishing boats weave in and out and around the area, stopping at night even in an less than ideal spot, was the safer thing to do  We spent Wednesday night east of the South Pass into the Mississippi river, off Burrwood Bayou surrounded by large ships and oil platforms. 
Finally Thursday we entered Barataria Pass, and found a slip. We were greeted by Andy who helped us get situated and later he and his wife Sue took us for a tour of Grand Isle and we enjoyed dinner and excellent company.


Along Beach Highway several of the trees that were
destroyed during Katrina have been sculpted . They are scattered
from Gulfshores to well past Long Beach
These are just a few




Sun rise leaving Gulf shores, Mississippi
Look at all the birds lined up for dinner
sunset our first night



Ship emptying its ballast

Dragonflies came and visited us, This one stopped and looked
like he was doing a yoga pose
The closer we got to the Delta the browner, turned up  the water  looked
At one point I thought there was a beach, it was just the slit in the water

South Pass, Mississippi River
sunset on Wednesday night 
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