Four Days to Houma...

On a scale of one to ten the last four days have been ---- well difficult. Hind site the better part of valor we should have waited for a longer weather window. We left 12/28 anchored in Galveston Bay and Sunday started our adventure east. Monday was a little warmer, and we enjoyed the weather but Tuesday turned cold and we stayed anchored out just east of the Calcasieu Ship Channel. We were not getting any encouragement from the  weather reports for the weekend. It was going to be cold with gale force winds.

Up anchor on Wednesday and we made 37. additional miles but still over 150 to goto get to our first choice of Pirates Cove in Grand Isle, La. Thursday the wind started to gust again and the waves started to cork screw us around. We hunkered down for another day and long cold night. Friday we kept going and had a wonderful run with dozens of Porpoises following us. We covered 66 miles and decided to make a run for the Houma channel and go into the ICW.

Right now we are relaxing in a Comfort Inn, Cool Hand is safely tied to the City of Houma Dock. Hot showers, ordered in Pizza and all is well again.

Lessons learned.... We will look for a longer window before we start out. We also will get long underwear, it is obvious even in the south the temperatures go wonky fast.

I am glad I brought the boxed milk... Hot chocolate and hot oatmeal in the morning helped get us going.

We do need to get some insulated boots, our feet were always cold.

Once you in the area of Atchafalaya Bay the only cell service is spotty and only with the oil rigs.. I got out a few e-mails but not much else. It was great having Sirius weather. 

Saturday was one of those good day/ bad day things we all have. The weather was ok, and we had over a dozen porpoise run with us including little ones. I am trying to load a video on one blog page but so far no luck. I will post on face book.  So good day.... BUT 

For dinner we were going to have rice and chicken. The Minute rice was still crunchy after 10 minutes... the chicken  oh well.

We run the generator so we can have a small heater running, at 2AM our carbon dioxide alarm went off scaring the bajeebbers out of us.  Good news we are fine but we had to open hatch and all our heat went outside. There was no wind, we believe that is why the gas seeped into the cabin.... Adding to this the  waves  .... Long slow 2' rolling waves that hit, rolled and peter out then came back from shore. We have found anything that would fall off a shelf, rattle clink, clunk, or make any other noise and we have tried to silence it. It was 6 hours of being rocked by some crazed giant. 

Sunday we took off determined to be in Houma LA. It is a small town the intersects with the ICW and the Houma Channel. Of course the bad weather held off until the last 1/2 hour of our trip then it started to rain. Ray the dock master was wonderful and arrived to catch lines. We sorted out, packed, made reservations and called a taxi.
It was an interesting run, I will admit that Tom spent most of the time in the cockpit, while I shivered below. Thanks to Brad in Waterford Marina for suggesting the Carbon Dioxide warning, It probably saved our lives.

Small warning.  we had red skies in the morning and at night

Tree dressed in Spanish moss

this was so cool a pontoon bridge.  It is one of the longest
on the GICW