Cat Island, Mississippi

We made it! An actual cruising destination, sort of! Cat Island, Mississippi. (For Jerry and other GPS fans: N 30 degrees 14.680' by W 89 degrees 04.704'.)

But first, some details about our trip here. Bayou Bonfouca was... UNEVENTFUL!!! Crossing Lake Pontchartrain was fun, breezy, and easy. The only real excitement came in anchoring after dark. New Orleans is pretty devoid of lights right now, with the exception of some big generator-powered halogens they're using while they do repair work at the Lakefront airport. With those hummers as beacons, we zeroed right in on our destination... and almost hit some big pilings that extend out into the lake past the end of the runway. Fortunately, a big tug was there, too, feeling his way with a big spotlight. We tucked in behind him and he led us right to the entrance to the Industrial Canal. We dropped anchor just off the airport, in dead calm conditions, with dolphins as escorts. It was really nice.

Up early the next morning, we scooted in to the Seabrook Bridge, right there at the mouth of the canal. Informed by the railroad bridge operator that we would have to make arrangements to get the roadway bridge opened, we started our round of radio and phone tag. Coast Guard to DOT to a different DOT number to "hang on, I'll call you back." Fortunately, all that tagging led to not only the Seabrook being opened for us, but also the Danziger farther down. The Danziger operator drove out just for little ol' us. Once clear of the Danziger, you can imagine our jubilation with no further obstacles between us and the Gulf.

The Industrial Canal shows heavy hurricane damage. The warehouses there look blasted, with shattered windows, crumpled walls, and twisted frames. And the smell is AWFUL, except for one short stretch that smelled strangely of coffee. We didn't have far to go before making the turn into the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (or Mister GO, as it's known here), which is also the Intracoastal Waterway. We branched off to the Rigolets cut of the ICW, a peaceful motor up what is essentially a bayou. Before we knew it (about six hours later), we reached Lake Borgne, aka the Gulf. WHAM! Big waves, big winds, but still a narrow channel to stay in, keeping company with big barges making their way to and from New Orleans. With the wind coming right over our nose, we had little choice but to keep motoring, so we've made a bigger dent in our diesel supply than we had anticipated. By early evening, we had entered Mississippi Sound (aka the Gulf). The channel markers were a little messed up, thanks to Katrina, but we found our way to Heron Bay where we could anchor with a (very) little shelter from the wind. Fine all day, even out in the big waves, the girls and I got a bit queasy at anchor, rolling around in the bay. Chloe soon adjusted. Marjie and I each took a Dramamine and went to sleep.

This morning, we got up and rejoined the ICW traffic. All the barges were headed to New Orleans today. We saw some more dolphins. The rats coped better with the big waves. And it was a long, slow trip east. About 5, we pulled up to Cat Island. Cat is about 4 miles long, with a 2-mile foot that stretches north to south and provides some protection from the wind and waves. It would be better if we could get closer to the island, but we ran out of depth about 1/4 mile from the beach. Eager to run around a bit, we took the dinghy ashore. There are a couple of wrecked power boats and miles of Katrina debris there, which made for an interesting hour of beach combing. We're going back tomorrow with a knife so we can salvage some rope off a big reel. Other than than, it's a mixed collection of trash, furniture (including several chairs, a TV, a couch, and a computer monitor), and dock and pier pieces (including a door that says "Test Operations"). One of the boats is perhaps salvageable; the interior is fairly intact and there are no holes in the hull. She's out of Mandeville, LA, not far west of Slidell. Hard to imagine her getting carried all this way.

Tentative plan is to stay here all day tomorrow, then start our passage on Tuesday. So if you don't hear from us for a few days, that's why!