Houma and Morgan City, LA Dec 28 - 30

We traveled 57 miles west of the Harvey Lock in New Orleans to the town of Houma, LA. Houma has a municipal dock downtown and we tied up in front of this beautifully restored 58' 1971 Trumpy yacht which was made in Annapolis and was once owned by the State of Maryland for the use of the Governor. It is now owned by a man from Houston, Jacob Deegan, that we got to know while we were there. Jacob gave us a tour of his boat and we invited him to dinner. By the way Trumpy built hundreds of PT boats during WWII.

The intercoastal waterway runs right next to the Houma Downtown Marina. While we were there numerous large tows passed by. In the picture just beyond the Trumpy boat, is a tow that is actually towing a barge via a long line.

This picture shows the load on the barge and it is some sort of a chemical plant - possibly for petroleum processing. It was a huge structure. Pushing the barge from the rear (the normal "towing" position) was another tow shown in the third picture.

We stayed two nights in Houma and met another Power Squadron member Steve Willett who keeps a 36' Monk in Houma. We were surprised by their gift of a bag of oranges and lemons from trees in their yards. The fruit was delicious.

In the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway we saw many vessels like the one pictured on the right. They don't need to worry about anchoring, they just lower the pipe supports and they are secure. I am not sure about the purpose of these vessels but I think they are for servicing the off shore well heads and processing plants. Off shore in this case is less than 20-30 feet of water which is the common depth in the near gulf shore areas.

Now we know we are in a swamp. This is the Atchafalaya Swamp. This is the typical shoreline after we left Houma. Most of the streams in this area are named Bayou something. We are in the heart of Cajun/Creole country and the accents on the radio prove it.

As we motored along we were passed by three tow boats that had come out of an interesting river after probably dropping off a load of barges. These tow without a barge load are called "light boats". When I first heard this term used on the VHF radio back in New Orleans I thought they were talking about a Coast Guard navigational light tender. It took a couple days before I figured out what they were saying.

This area is the approach to Morgan City, where off shore oil rig related business are prominent.

The Gulf coast has a large population of pelicans. They fly gracefully past our boat and seem much less disturbed by the passage of our boat than Herons or Sea Gulls.

We passed through Bayou Boeuf Locks which have a purpose of blocking saltwater from the Gulf to keep it from going up stream into fresh water Bayous or rivers. When fresh water flow is high the lock doors are open.

As we exited these locks we were in the Berwick Traffic Control area. We had to call in to let them know where we were going. They then told me where to call back in. Unfortunately, the locations they referred to are only known to locals and professional captains because they are not on the nautical charts. One reference was a spot that was a waterway business that had not been there for 10 years.

Bewick Traffic watched our route up to the Atchafalaya River. This is one of the busiest ports on the whole Gulf coasts with tows going east and west on the intercoastal and tows and crew boats going up the river and out to the gulf.

We stayed two nights in Morgan City in a river front bulkhead that is managed by the city of Morgan City. Although you can't see it our boat was tied up just on the other side of the blue fishing trawler in the left center of the picture. A sea wall protects downtown from flood waters.

Morgan City is home to the annual Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, which pretty much tells you what is important in Morgan City. Right now petroleum is predominate. The picture shows the very first off shore rig. It was called "Mr. Charlie" for the man that invented and designed this rig that could be floated to a drilling site and sunk to the bottom to become a stable drilling platform. This one was first used by Shell Oil Company in 1954 and started the whole deep water drilling industry.

A few days a week there is a tour of the rig which is still used for training new rig crews to be everything from drillers and roustabouts, to cooks and laundry crews. This picture is the drilling floor. The rotary floor is what drives the pipe that is in the ground which has a drill bit on the end.

Inside the crew quarters is a display of newer rigs for deeper water. The left model uses longer legs to support the platform and can drill multiple wells. The rig on the right is for floating in deep water to the sight. Then the bottom tank structure is filled with water to lower it. Eight anchors secure the rig in place. Our tour guide related that safety from all types of accidents is paramount in the oil business now. During Katrina there were no oil spills in spite of rigs being pushed off their site.

Morgan City has an interesting array of older homes displayed on a walking tour. This is a restored hotel now used as a office.

This house was not on the walking tour but I thought it was interesting nevertheless.

We had rain most of the time we were there but Morgan City was an interesting town and we enjoyed the Gumbo and seafood at downtown restaurants. We also enjoyed a visit with Charles Culotta of nearby Patterson, LA. Charles is a Power Squadron member out of Lafayette and had been my contact for information about transiting the Gulf Coast. His web site with cruising information has been invaluable.

I was interested in what Charles told me about hunting in the area. Apparently, the locals have to take a boat to go deer hunting. The deer (and ducks) are thick out in the bayou areas around here but you have to cross water to get to them. Also alligator harvesting is a nice sideline for some people including Charles' son. A license and quota are required and then you trap them using meat hung on a hook above water. Once they are captured a rifle shot between their eyes saves the hide for sale. The largest his son ever brought in was 12 feet long.