Shakedown

Our little shakedown cruise down Bayou Bonfouca has been valuable in many ways.

For one thing, it has been a psychological relief to get away from the destruction in Slidell. Remember, there were sunken boats beside, behind, and in front of us, with unhappy owners arriving daily to survey the damage. And even when we managed to be philosophical about these sunken dreams, figuring the owners have other resources elsewhere, our daily trips into town made us pretty sad. Our little landmarks were hit hard: Captain Humble’s (the little po’ boy place I raved about); West Marine; the Winn Dixie where we bought our provisions; the ancient, creaky swing bridge at Bayou Liberty; and even the Shell station where we’d been buying our gas. I didn’t realize it was getting to me until we motored away.

Then there’s the engine trouble. As depressing as it’s been to have it happen at all – and ironic, since Frank has replacement parts for the *other* water pump but not for this one – it’s fabulous, amazing, really lucky that it happened here. The resources in Slidell are limited right now, but they’re still better and much cheaper than what we would/will have in the Turks.

We’re also discovering our boat’s little quirks and some tricks and schemes for living comfortably aboard her. The biggie is that it takes more than 4 hours per day of generator time to keep the batteries charged. (It seems like they may be a casualty of Katrina, killed off by going so very dead during the storm.) That being noisy and inconvenient and requiring comfort compromises we’re not willing to make long term, we’ll be investing in a couple of new ones once we reach Florida. Ouch.

But we’ve got our sun awning all rigged. The bimini is on the small side, so we’ve augmented it with a big tarp over the boom and a homemade side panel that I’m kind of proud of. We bought a length of vinyl tablecloth material at a fabric store in Houston, and I rigged the edges of both it and the sides of the bimini with self-adhesive Velcro strips. Now we’ve got a side panel that can be attached to either side of the bimini. And it’s has festive stripes to boot!

Unfortunately, no shade is enough shade on a boat in the tropics. I stayed under the awning for most of the day yesterday and still ended up a little bit pink. Of course, I was a lot less covered up than I usually am. My already nicely browned daughters, who don’t share their mother’s pathological avoidance of bikinis, didn’t burn at all.

I fired up the new barbecue last night. It cooks really nicely, and it was nice to sit down to some real food. As previously mentioned, Smiley-the-gator enjoyed our barbecued chicken, too.

The cockpit shower and cockpit table are two of our best loved additions to the boat.

We didn’t buy enough bungee cords. I thought the two dozen or so I did buy would be plenty, but they are useful for too many purposes. We’re using them on the awning; to hang the rat cage; to hang our headlamps and other daily use items from the cabin grab rails; to hang the trash sack; to hang mosquito netting over the cockpit at night; to secure SCUBA tanks, gas tanks, water containers, and laz lids; etc. We’re rotating cords right now, so these are at the top of my new Slidell shopping list.

Something else we didn’t buy enough of is bottled drinking water. Despite official assurances to the contrary, we’re a little hesitant to drink the water we took on in Slidell after Katrina. It’s fine for everything else, of course, and can be boiled for drinking if needs be, but I prefer the bottled stuff for now. That is disappearing quickly, raising the paradox that it’s really great that we’re drinking so much – no kidney stones are allowed on this boat – but it would be nice if the supplies could be stretched.

I brought too much bedding. I only brought light blankets, but – with air conditioning a thing of the past – I don’t think we’ll use them at all. Ever. So far, the only time we’ve been remotely cold is when we stood on deck in bathing suits during a rain squall.

Marjie and Chloe are going to be great cruisers. The book that Marjie is writing – the one she started on our roadtrip in Spring of 2004 – now fills 210 numbered notebook pages. I have still not been allowed to read this book, but Chloe loves, *loves*, LOVES it. They find a quiet corner away from curious adult ears, and Marjie reads her latest installment to Chloe. We don’t hear much of the story, but we hear Chloe’s peals of laughter and clamoring for more.

Marjie has also been working in some movie time. She loves it when the generator is running. :-) She got some movies for her birthday and, with some careful laptop-power management, was able to watch two of them yesterday: Pitch Black and The Fellowship of the Ring. Kind of fun to have Riddick and Frodo and Aragorn and Legolas along on our cruise.

Chloe has taken a real shine to fishing. So far, she hasn’t caught anything except bayou plants, but she enjoys it anyway – with classic Chloe running commentary – and has a fine hand for casting. She is still our nightowl. She was up late enough night before last to wake us up at dawn yesterday, clomping around on deck with her fishing pole. So she spent part of yesterday asleep in the cockpit.

She is also reading some of the Harry Potter books again. She asked for her own paperback copies of a couple of them, and she is reading through them, scribbling notes and sketching in the margins. Knowing Chloe, she’ll have all the mysteries solved before the last book comes out.

As for Frank and me, we spent yesterday calming down. We’ve been running at high rev for weeks. It was nice to read, doze, and putter our way through an entire day. Oh, yes, and to write blog entries for our faithful readers.

Speaking of which…

FAMILY UPDATES
Cellphone service continues to be very spotty in the greater New Orleans area. It was easier to get updates from everybody when we were in Houston! But here’s what I know:

Marty is fine in Houston. No word yet on when St. Francis will reopen.

Chrissy is working in Baton Rouge. I believe she has an electrician lined up, so she’ll have power at her house shortly.

Judy and Gary have power at their house, but the air conditioner was flooded, so they’re relying on ceiling fans (not a big help) while they do their cleanup. The task ahead of them is daunting, but they’ll tackle it in small doses.

Lori and Bobby are looking for a trailer or RV to live in, because there are no rentals available and the house they were renting is not livable. Lori is back at work, though, and they have shelter with Bobby’s mom for as long as they need it.

Brian is doing well in North Carolina. The school is bending over backwards to help this “poor homeless boy” settle in, Jerry’s CO had a spare twin mattress to loan them, and Ophelia – Brian’s second hurricane in less than a month!! – didn’t trouble them much. Lori thinks the hurricanes are following her son. I sure hope not!

I haven’t heard anything about Paul for a few days, so this may be out of date, but… He was planning to take advantage of the huge demand for strong backs and get some work shoveling debris or cutting up trees. I don’t think he’s living at Chris’ yet with no power there, so he may be staying with his paternal grandparents in Destrehan.

MONDAY UPDATES
We’re having trouble getting in touch with the parts people. (sigh) We’ll try again tomorrow.

Last night, we had a little snake come out and check out our waterline. Although Chloe and I were in the dinghy at the time, we didn’t attempt to get closer in order to identify him. Tonight, Smiley came back for seconds. A raccoon came to the water’s edge while he was here, but he scampered away before Smiley could finish stalking him. I was worried there for a minute that we were going to get a Wild Kingdom episode right before our eyes.

Chloe soloed in the dinghy today. She “parks” better than I do. Marjie’s turn tomorrow.

The wind died. Hot night, hotter day, and the lovebugs found us, in force. They don’t bite or anything, but they are really annoying anyway.

We’re watching Phillipe and Rita.

KQR