This picture of the nautical charts for the Mississippi Sound shows Mobile bay and the path to New Orleans. If you enlarge the picture the route that we took is a black line (actually the black line was the planned route and a thin red line was the actual route.) A boat coming south out of Mobile Bay can go east to Florida or west to Mississippi. We turned right and went towards Mississippi.
We left the Grand Mariner Marina early in the morning just after this beautiful sunrise.
The fishing trawlers were working Mobile Bay as we headed south from Mobile.
We turned west along the intercoastal waterway channel. Kaye decided to feed the birds so the seagulls and pelicans came storming up behind us to catch a piece of bread.
The first night we anchored just north of Horn Island. The next day we pulled into the Ocean Springs (MS) Municipal Harbor. The town of Ocean Springs has an interesting downtown with a visitors center in this converted railroad station and many good restaurants and shops downtown.
One highlight was the Walter Anderson Museum. Anderson, a native son, became a famous artist in paint and ceramics. This museum is next to the Community Center and displays some of his art.
The interior of the community center was painted by Walter Anderson in his unusual style.
Numerous live oaks lined the streets.
Biloxi is just on the other side of this bay from Ocean Springs.
From Ocean Springs we continued west along the intercoastal waterway. There was no pleasure craft out and suddenly I got a call on the VHF radio from Homeland Security. They were in a boat behind us and wanted to board. So we slowed to idle speed and while still heading west three armed Homeland Security Officers boarded at our stern. The visit was friendly except that when the officer in charge called in to alert their superiors who was on board he called us "an elderly couple." This may have been the first time I have ever been called elderly but I wasn't going to argue with men with guns.
The weather was turning bad on Christmas Eve, so we ran a little faster than normal to try to reach a marina in New Orleans on the 23rd. There are two ways to go into New Orleans, either on the intercoastal directly into the Industrial Canal or slightly north and turn into Lake Pontchartrain. We picked a marina on Lake Pontchartrain. The entry gateway to the main portion of Lake Ponchetrain is these bridges. They are a combination of a highway bridge and a railroad bascule bridge positioned right together. (Bascule means a counterbalance at one end balances the other.) Each had to be contacted on the radio to request an opening.
We celebrated our Lord's birthday on our boat. Kaye had brought some decorations from Tarboro in October so we had a Christmas tree and some other decorations.
Katrina destroyed the marinas on Lake Ponchetrain and nearly all the boats in this marina the (South Shore Marina) were lost. All the docks and power pedestals at South Shore have been replaced and updated. There was still some evidence of the damage around the marina. This picture shows damage on a building that was the entry to a floating gambling casino anchored on the east end of the marina. The floating casino is gone and the land based casino closed up.
No comments:
Post a Comment