Louisiana Bound- Heading for Home

Out of the fog in the Ship Channel

Mobile Bay light

Fishing or feeding the birds?

Biloxi = Casino$

The weather improved significantly on the weekend and provided a chance to leave Dog River. Confetti decided that they would leave on Saturday and go to Dauphin Island and move on from there. We had to turn the rental car in and decided that a Sunday departure with a 70+ mile long run to Biloxi would work for us. We said goodbye to Dick and Lace and went to return the car. When we got back to the marina, we got the boat all ready to leave the next morning, then sat back and listened to some college football games. We turned in early so we could get an early start for the run to Biloxi. As luck would have it we awoke to some seriously dense fog Sunday morning- the kind that won’t burn off until mid-morning. We saw some clearing and watched two other boats leave only to have another blanket roll in right after their departure. The channel to Dog River is relatively shallow and the markers are widely spaced apart, so going outside the channel and running aground is a real possibility and not something to attempt when you can’t see. At 0930 we felt that the fog had lifted enough for us to take off. We were about a mile from the marina and it was obvious that we should have waited longer. We finally made it to the Mobile Ship Channel and conditions improved a little. We were tooling down the channel and kept hearing a fog horn, when suddenly an ocean-going freighter appeared to our port. We weren’t in any danger of a collision, but the ship was throwing a huge wake and we couldn’t react fast enough to minimize our interaction with it. We were rocked hard and things were moving down below. We took a shortcut to cut about 3 miles off the trip, so we didn’t pass our official loop starting point, but when we passed under the Dauphin Island Bridge we called the loop complete. We had traversed these waters from this point westward. The fog lifted around noon and we put the boat up on plane to make up some time. The rest of the trip was arduous, but uneventful, and we arrived at Biloxi’s Point Cadet Marina late in the afternoon. After cleaning up, we decided to enjoy the Isle of Capri Casino’s seafood buffet to celebrate our day.

Fog over Biloxi Bay

One Jane saw on radar

I-10 Twinspan

Relaxing in Slidell

We awoke the next morning to find us fogbound. Our initial plan was to get an early start and run almost 80 miles to Madisonville, LA (remember, we’re going home), but the fog and a later start dashed that hope. Instead, we would travel around 55 miles across the Mississippi Sound and spend the night in Slidell, LA. We were taking our time preparing to get underway when we were approached by the captain from the sailboat berthed across from us. Amazingly, it was John Thomas on the S/V Discovery who we spent time with in Tarpon Springs last March! He said he recognized the boat and wanted to know how the loop went. He was in the process of moving south again and we brought him up to date on our experiences. Talk about a small world! A short time after our reunion the fog in Biloxi broke and we had 3-4 mile visibility. We got underway and was about 5-6 miles from Biloxi when we encountered a fog bank so thick we weren’t sure whether or not to proceed. We turned on our running lights, signaled with the foghorn, and continued on our course. After traveling about another hour we were startled to suddenly see a large tow appear in the soup. It was underway, dead slow, producing no AIS signal that we detected, and directly in front of us about 60-70 yards out. We did a hard turn to starboard to avoid a collision and became really unnerved by the encounter. Guess it’s time to fire up the radar. We have played with the radar which is in the lower helm on and off during the trip, but really never had the opportunity to rely on it in navigating. Furthermore, we have always navigated from the flybridge which limits the ability to use the radar. Well, now the radar was on and Capt. Larry was going below every 5 minutes with Jane at the helm to check the radar. After an hour of this exercise, we decided it was time for Jane to get a crash course in reading the radar screen. We had a second chartplotter in the lower helm and after about one-half hour she was able to pick out the ATON radar reflectors and call out anything that she couldn’t match on the plotter. She correctly called out two other boats, one to port and one to starboard, that she saw on the radar well before Capt. Larry could see them. She did an amazing job with such short training. We continued on into the Rigolets and the soup got even thicker. We were sure that when we got close to a significant land mass the visibility would improve. And that is exactly what happened. As we approached Slidell the visibility improved so that we could make our way into the marina with little difficulty. We cleaned up, had some dinner onboard, and turned in for the night knowing that we were only about 7 hours from home.

Hwy 11 bridge opens just in time!

Navigating Lake Pontchartrain

The Causeway, almost home!

Our welcoming committee!

The Albrights and a soaked Paula

Our beautiful river

Bavarian Cream sees her slip

 Are our neighbors great or what?

We made it!

We awoke the next morning to a changing weather pattern, and as Capt. Larry had predicted, no fog. We shoved off early hoping to be home around noon. We proceeded to the U.S. Highway 11 bascule bridge and called for an opening. The bridge tender informed us that she was having a problem and was waiting for an electrician to arrive. We waited for over an hour when another boat called for an opening. The bridge tender asked how tall the boat was stating that she had 16’ at the center. Capt. Larry radioed and asked if that was a true 16’ which she affirmed. We decided to step our mast light and lower the antennas and scoot on through. Erie Canal déjà vu. When we had everything ready we started toward the bridge only to see it opening. We got through the bridge, thanked the bridge tender and wished her a Merry Christmas, and knew that it was smooth sailing all the way to Killian. We crossed Lake Pontchartrain, passed through Pass Manchac into Lake Maurepas then found our way to the mouth of the Tickfaw River. As we entered the river, we were met by another boat that Capt. Larry recognized to be our neighbors Frank and Paula Albright and their children. They were flashing their lights and waving. What a welcome home! The water at the mouth of the river was choppy and as Frank spun the boat around, Paula went overboard into the water! Jane came up to the flybridge and exclaimed that someone was pulling up a crab trap. Capt. Larry told her that was not a trap but Paula. It took a few seconds for all of this to sink in, but she finally realized that this was a welcoming party! Frank fished Paula out of the drink and moved ahead of us to take pictures as we proceeded up the river, then they took off to beat us home. We moved on up the river noting how beautiful our cypress swamp river is and marveling at how narrow it now seems. We turned around our bend and were greeted by both of our neighbors, the Albrights, and Jack and Ann Arnold on the other side of us. We were greeted with a “Welcome Home” sign over our deck and at the back of Bavarian Cream’s slip, and pansies planted that day in our flowerbed. What great people we live next to. We got the boat secured in her slip and started to get caught up. It was a great homecoming!