Down the Mighty Mississippi and through New Orleans

We woke up this morning anxious and nervous about getting through New Orleans,   We were away from the dock in Lafitte by 6:15. We turned off the GIWW and went up the Harvey Canal to the Harvey Lock. This was the first lock we've been through where there was a change in the water level. Up until now the locks have just been to keep saltwater incursion into the swamps at a minimum. There has evidently been a lot of rain upriver as the Mississippi is running very high. The lock master at this lock was a huge help. We told him this was our first significant lock so he came out and walked us through the process and chatted with us for the 15 or 20 minutes it took to rise 16 feet. He is a retired air traffic controller from SFO.

Out the other end and you're in the Mississippi River. The Harvey Lock is significant because all along the GIWW there are mile markers, statutory miles interestingly enough. All the mile markers were designated as WHL, as in West of Harvey Lock. From here on the mile markers go up and are EHL. So we entered the GIWW in Galveston Bay at WHL 350 and now were about EHL 6.

We ran down the Mississippi River barely using the motor and making over 9 knots. We were only on the river for 6 miles when we turned off the river into the Industrial Canal. This is where you go through the Industrial Lock. This experience was not as good as getting through Harvey Lock. In reality we got through fine but with quite a wait for a barge coming through the other direction. There is a combination bascule bridge and lock here and our communication was not crystal clear trying to get through. Somewhere along the line Susan came up with the term "mush mouth". If you know what someone is talking about they can have the strongest accent, mutter and talk in incomplete sentences and you get the gist. If you aren't sure what they are talking about it makes no sense. Before the episode was through the lock master was talking to us like we were three years old. We weren't trying to be imbeciles but that doesn't mean we weren't coming across that way.

We did eventually make it through there and as before were the only boat in the lock, Whew! At this point we decided a real marina was in our future so we found one where we could do laundry, take a real shower and have both electricity and water hookups. Coming this way meant not going on to the GIWW but heading up towards Lake Pontchartrain. There were two more bridges to get through to get here and neither of them were particularly easy.

Tonight we're tied up at the Seabrook Harbor and Marina, doing laundry and waiting for it to cool down so we can walk to the showers and back without working up a sweat. It is some kind of hot here. We're looking forward to some clear blue water where when it's hot, we can just jump in for a swim. It's not too far off!

I was able to get a screen shot from marinetraffic.com of most of our trip today so I've attached it here.

That's all for today. Take care.
Brian