Saturday
morning, Nov. 16th, was a bright and sunny day to begin our long
journey to Florida. Steve had been in
Grand Isle, LA for over a week and was ready to “start our engines”. We would be traveling North to New Orleans in
the Barataria channel, so the sails would not be necessary. As we left Pirate’s
Cove and headed for the channel, we were surrounded by dolphins. I believe they were having a party off of
Grand Isle, because I have NEVER seen so many of these lovely creatures all
together in any of our travels.
Traveling up a channel isn’t really too exciting….lots of water birds,
shrimp boats, fishing boats (and these people LOVE to fish) and lots of bayou
country! Our destination the first night
was Joe’s Landing in LaFitte, LA. The
pictures will tell you this was a fisherman’s marina…not too fancy, just a
place to land your boat for the night.
As usual, the people who run these establishments are the friendliest
kind of people. In fact, Joe, the owner
was sitting inside just greeting guests as we came inside to “settle up”.
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| Joe's Landing |
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| Cleaning Fish |
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| Lots of Boats... This one is for you Melissa |
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| Cemetery Along the Intracoastal Waterway |
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| One of many Shrimp Boats on the Barataria Channel |
Sunday was
the day we needed to get through the city of New Orleans via the waterways. For a sailboat, this includes having a series
of bridges “ lifted” for our mast to fit, as well as to go through two locks.
We may think we are “special” but the barges get “more special”
treatment. SO, you WAIT and WAIT and
WAIT. One lock took us an hour and a
half. At another, we were locked in with
a large barge and had to tie up to it so we didn’t get bounced around….yikers,
this is not what I signed up for! As you
can tell, we made it through all of these adventures and got to Pontchartrain
Landing Marina/RV Park by late afternoon.
This is a beautiful facility that was built since Katrina.
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| Cruise Ships in Downtown New Orleans |
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| St. Louis Cathedral from the Mississippi |
The park has
a shuttle that takes you downtown to the French Quarters, so that is where we
spent yesterday afternoon and evening.
Also, the people we met in Grand Isle, Sue and Andy, were in the city
for business and were able to join us.
It really helps to have people who know the area to show you around. We
walked, shopped, ate, listened to music and had a driving tour of the
city. I fell in love with the homes in
the Garden District….so beautiful and massive.
It’s hard to believe what this city went through eight years ago with
Katrina. In fact, the demolished 9th
ward, that was televised so much on the news, is quite close to us in the
marina and Lake Pontchartrain.
Unbelievable!
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| Andrew Jackson in Jackson Square |
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| Café Du Monde |
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| Christmas in the French Quarters |
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| Nancy, Steve, Sue, and Andy |
We are
getting ready to set sail tomorrow for Biloxi, Mississippi. The cold fronts
that have brought storms and winds to the Midwest are playing a bit of havoc
with the temperatures and winds in this part of the country, too. We’ll stay in touch once we are back in a
comfy marina all tied up at the docks.
Good-bye from Nola J
