Fall Cruising on the Tickfaw

With fall upon us and cooler temperatures, it seems like we hadn't had much opportunity to take Bavarian Cream out for a spin. Either the recent rainy weather was uncooperative or we were spending time in Florida. We finally got a chance to hit the water and enjoy a warm fall Sunday afternoon. It wasn't a long trip, lasting about an hour, but we were able to head down the river and see the swamp in its fall dress. We went pass Warsaw Landing to see the changes and new houses being built in that area, then went down past Tin Lizzy's and Kingspoint Marina. At Tin Lizzy's we saw our next door neighbor in their boat Last Call and were able to hail them on the VHF radio. Not many boats have or use a VHF on this part of the river, so it was good to verify that we were sending and receiving (we know this is simple stuff, but it's new to us!). We went down the river to Kingspoint then turned around and headed back towards home. We were hailed once again by our neighbor who were at their house and figured that we were about 3 miles apart. The radio on the flybridge works pretty well, but we are still going to replace it along with most of the other electronics with newer stuff. We finally made it home, put the boat in her slip, then sat in the cockpit and had a couple of drinks. It was a good day on the water!

Our First Big Boat Trip

We had not had Bavarian Cream out for a while and decided with the beautiful weather that we had been having recently, it would be a good time to take her for a spin. Originally we thought about heading out for two days, but decided instead to spend one night on the boat in the boat slip and head out the next day for an overnight on the Madisonville wall. The overnight in the slip was uneventful and we enjoyed dinner on the boat, watched some TV, then had a restful night's sleep with cool temperatures and low humidity.

The next morning we got the boat ready to head out and our things on board (everything except the camera which is why this segment doesn't have any pictures). We left right after lunch for a leisurely 3-3 1/2 hour cruise to Madisonville. Since Jane needed to sharpen her piloting skills, she skippered the boat. We worked on positioning the boat in relation to the respective navaids, setting a waypoint on the GPS, and following a bearing to a waypoint. We encountered our first RR bridge in Pass Manchac which delayed us for almost 25 minutes. All was going pretty well until we got through Pass Manchac and set a bearing for the beacon marking the channel to the Tchenfuncte River. We inherited the charplotter with the boat and several waypoints on Lake Ponchartrain were already entered. One of the waypoints listed was TCHEFUNT which Larry assumed led to the Tchenfuncte River. Jane punched the waypoint up and we started heading across the lake to our destination. After about 20 minutes (it's a 9 mile leg to the river), Larry started to feel that we weren't approaching land and were in fact running parallel to it. We stopped the boat to collect our thoughts. We were on an 81 degree course, almost due east, and the course to the river was pretty much NE (around 45 degrees). When we got out the binoculars and looked ahead, we saw the causeway. Looking to the north we spotted the Tchenfuncte lighthouse and then realized that the stored waypoint was for the causeway. We turned north and headed for the lighthouse and found our beacon after a 15 minute ride. We followed the channel and headed up the river arriving at the wall and tying up with about 20 minutes of daylight remaining.

After walking Tarzan in the park along the waterfront, we headed over to Morton's seafood restaurant and had a delicious meal of crabmeat and mozzarella topped broiled tomatoes, house salad, fried catfish with shrimp stuffed baked potatoes, and topped off with bread pudding with rum sauce. We walked Tarzan again, then headed across the bridge to a bar for a nightcap. Our company at the bar was the bartender's extremely large cat which didn't move even after our drinks were served causing us to drink around the animal. We headed back to the boat and had a great night's sleep even though the noise of the cars crossing the Madisonville bridge could be heard.

The next morning Larry took Tarzan out then got coffee at a nearby gas station. Around 0900 we prepared to head back to Killian. Lake Ponchartrain was a lot choppier heading back as the winds shifted from the north to the east. We engaged in a lively discussion of the points of the compass and related degrees of bearing which Jane had to steer from either the compass or the chartplotter. After two or three go arounds we let it rest with the understanding that the compass is "kinda like a clock." We encountered the RR bridge again at Pass Manchac and Jane finally got us home around noon with the realization that her piloting skills are still pretty "blunt."

Goin' to the Big Boat Show

Back in June we read about a rendezvous of the America's Great Loop Cruising Association (AGLCA) at Joe Wheeler State Park in northern Alabama at the end of October. We knew that this was the group that could help us with the many questions we had in planning our loop trip and really wanted to attend. Jane called the park and got us reservations. We weren't members of AGLCA, but decided that we would join when we attended the rendezvous. WRONG! At the beginning of October we were looking at the AGLCA's website and noticed that the rendezvous was closed. Not really sure what that meant, we called only to find out that there was a limit to the number of attendees and since we weren't members we essentially missed the chance to attend.

Well, we really needed a road trip and looked around and found the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show over the Halloween weekend and made plans to attend. We wanted to go to a show that hosted a lot of vendors so we could look at and compare some of the products that interested us. We are particularly interested in upgrading Bavarian Cream's electronics such as new chartplotters, VHF radios and an autopilot. So we jumped in the car and headed to Ft. Lauderdale. We left Louisiana and went to Ft. Walton Beach and spent a night at our place. The next day we drove to Ft. Pierce and stayed at the same motel we stayed at when we went to Miami for our honeymoon cruise two years ago. In fact, we stayed in the very same room that we had for our honeymoon journey even though we only requested something on the ground floor! Talk about coincidences. Anyway we had a couple of drinks by the pool then decided that we should head down to Ft. Pierce's waterfront to see the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) that we would be traversing in two more years. What a delight! Ft. Pierce has a magnificent waterfront. We walked through the waterfront park, listened to some musicians, then strolled to the Ft. Pierce Municipal Marina. What a fine facility. We listened to the harbormaster talk another boater into the channel leading to the marina, then decided to get something to eat at "The Original Tiki Bar."
It was an open air restaurant and tiki bar with a band, good food, and waitresses in scanty Halloween outfits! We will definitely put this on our list of places to stop and spend a couple of days when we're looping.

The next day we drove to Ft. Lauderdale and went to the boat show. This is a really big show with six venues spread over the waterfront area with shuttle buses taking the participants from one venue to another. We started out at the main convention center. This was where the small boats (up to 40 feet) were, but we were mostly interested in furnishings and gadgets for our boat. We looked at outboard motors for our dinghy, and bought an anchor retrieving system. Jane got some nautical clothing and jewelry cleaner (they have just about everything!). We collected lots of information on marinas we will encounter on our loop and the ubiquitous array of safety literature. We had trouble finding the "electronics tent," and wandered into the "manufacturer's tent" which housed mostly naval architects interested in designing a multimillion dollar boat (or is it ship?). With about an hour to go before the show closed, we finally found the electronics tent and Larry was able to talk to the Garmin and Standard Horizon vendors about their products that he is interested in. We have a neighbor on the Tickfaw that has an approximately 38 foot fishing boat with four (4) 250 hp outboard motors. We thought that this had to be the maximum fishing platform, but on our way back to the convention center, we saw what looked to be in the ball park of a 40 foot open counsel fishing boat with five (yes, 5) 350 hp Yamaha outboard motors. Everyone was taking pictures, but it just didn't occur to us to pull our camera out, but it was a beast. We'd hate to pay the fuel bill for that outfit! We shuttled back to the car and on our way to the motel we passed an auto dealership that specialized in European cars. They had no less than 7 Lambourghinis in various colors and a Mercedes Benz gull wing sports car that Larry saw on MSN Carpoint for $360,000. Jane saw a baby blue Bentley driving on the road that she really liked and we saw a big black Rolls Royce. It's just so different in south Florida compared to Killian, LA! On our way to the motel we stopped in West Palm Beach and had a great dinner at a place called Island Jack's (also with waitresses clad in scanty Halloween clothing!). The next day we drove back to Ft. Walton Beach to chill out out for a couple of days. The trip was a real hoot!