Tonight we dined at Rita Mae's, highly recommended by the Waterways guide and the fella who greeted us at the dock as we came in this afternoon. Cant get much better than a Cajun recommending a Creole restaurant.
Rita Mae's is located on Federal Street, just three blocks from where we are 'parked' at the town dock. We turned up early, thinking we would get out of there before the sun went down, which we did, but not by much. The African American folks (dont know if they are family or not) who run the restaurant do real 'down home' creole cooking.
I was told to order (by said dock fella) the Crab Cake Burger! So I did...we were actually going to eat on the boat tonight, but when he said that the crab cakes are bigger than the bun, I was sold already.:)
I had crab cakes last night too, remember? at Shucks in Abbeville with Jim and Katherine. Those ones are chock full of crab...de-vine!!!!
This crab cake was creole style...deep fried!..and with an after-burner that meant that by the end of the meal I couldnt takes much:) was it good? hmmm....well, the jury is out on that one. I was expecting something different, put it that way!
Waz ordered the Fried chicken, as you do in a Creole restaurant, and declared that it wasnt the most tasty chix he had eaten, and I noticed he put an awful lot of salt on it. No salad, just fried chix and french fries.
We arrived at 5.30pm, and there was nobody in the restaurant. We were seated at a table for four, with two table mats on it and one of the staff drinks. They removed the latter, but the tablecloth underneath was in dire need of washing. That should have been the first clue:)
We ordered drinks...he went for a lemonade, and I for an unsweetened Iced Tea. Some 10 mins later they put two tall plastic glasses containing ice, on the table. no drinks!
A large church group entered (all white folks) and were seated in the other room. When they arrived, it was as if we ceased to exist.
We had ordered our food along with the drinks, but we were still sitting there at 6.15 without food in front of us.
They did remember to bring me the tea, and some time later a bottle of Minute Maid Lemonade for Waz.
They kept telling us they were waiting for Waz's chicken to cook...I think they might have gone out back to kill the chicken after chasing it around the yard for half an hour.
My crab burger arrived a good five mins before Waz's chicken. In the meantime, other patrons had arrived and ordered and were served their food and even finished and paid before we saw ours. Not sure what was happening there.
Anyway, we decided to take our dessert of Pecan pie back to the boat with us and enjoy it at our leisure on the flydeck with a strong cup of black coffee to cut the sweetness! I did whip up some leftover cream to accompany it, so we were rather indulgent. Long walk tomorrow morning!!!
Anyhoo....when we left the restaurant, we walked another block over to enable us to see some more of the 'hood'. Lots of Victorian era homes in various states of undress, and we decided that we will take a walk with our cameras first thing when the light is pretty, and take us some pics of these.
We left the dock with the help of Jim at around 8.45 this morning. It was great to have his help casting off, as the dock was a little challenging for me to climb back aboard once the ropes were off. He did it all very neatly at the captains intructions. We headed straight up the river to LeBlanc Oil where we had called ahead and had Mike LeBlanc and his crew out waiting for us to help tie up so we could refuel.
We put another 283 gallons on board, so we were full up to busting in all three tanks.
We also bought 5 gallons of oil.
They helped us cast off, there, and we turned and headed back the way we had come some 13 days earlier. Katherine and jim waved from their boat, while Jim took some photos as we cruised slowly by. They have been marvelous hosts and tour guides and we thank them for their attention to detail and for finding special things for us to do and look at. Much kudos to them both. They were excellent and intelligent company, and we didn enjoy our many exchanges.
The Delcambre channel is 8 miles down to the ICW, and it took us an hour. We had decided to cruise at a slower speed today, just under 9 knots. No real hardship, it just takes a little longer, is all.
On our way again, and looking back down the Delcambre Channel. 10am.
Lots of birds out this morning, and our most favorite subject, the Great Grey heron was much in evidence.
The great grey heron is sitting on one of so many disused, rusting and rotting barges of all shapes and sizes along the waterways. These birds are huge with a wingspan of at least 2 meters. Just glorious to watch coming in to land!
Apologies in advance for the poor photo quality. When I capture at 20x digital zoom, it comes out rather grainy, as you can see. I would rather take the photo than miss out entirely:) Im learning how to NOT be a perfectionist, through all this.
This is a Great White Egret...it is the largest of the three Egrets, but it pales in comparison of size with the Great Grey Heron.
At about the six mile marker on the way down the Delcambre Canal, we could get a good view of Avery Island, where we had visited the Tabasco Factory. We could see the Mansion on the hill from the canal, and to it's right, the salt mine, which is still in operation.
As we came towards the junction of Delcambre Canal and the ICW, there was a shrimp boat working in a small canal off the main one, and a tow coming on our right in the ICW, going west. We had the shrimp boat coming towards us and a tow parked across the entry to the canal. We werent sure where he was headed, as he looked like he was trying to turn the barge. It is definitely a bit disconcerting when you cannot see anything of the tugs other than their tops, across the top of the marshes. You can hear them, but not see them other than on our Chart plotter. Fortunately the CP tells us which way they are headed!
We entered the ICW and breathed a sigh of relief...another good entry, and on our way finally. How good did it feel to be on our way again? fantastic:)
Looking across the marshes towards the Avery Island Salt Mine.This was taken from the ICW, about 7 mins into our trip after turning from the Canal.
Further up ahead, on the right side (starb'd) we can see the third Salt Dome, Weeks Island. The Weeks family built the mansion 'Shadows on the Teche', if you remember? There are five Salt Domes in total, 4 have working salt mines....rock salt, that is.
At this stage we were cruising straight down the middle of the ICW at a depth of 15 feet. This is pretty much an average for most of the way. There was a raptor, an Osprey, we believe, riding a thermal over the marshes, which must be rich pickings for the birds. We saw quite a few of them today.
The temperature has taken a very welcome dive in the past week, and we are most grateful of that today. We both remarked that we think we will be breaking out the sweaters in the near future. the breeze in the early morning was not too warm, but we were glad of the cool later on.
Lovely not to have the intense heat, so that we just feel all we do is sweat.
Marshes all around us, some ranching.
(Glenys, this one is for you!(she breeds mini horses))
We passed our first tow of the day, coming towards us. Not much traffic first thing (although this is now 10.30am).
We were requested (via radio) to drop our speed as we came towards Weeks Island as the crane operator wanted no wake. 5 knots is about that speed for us, which is basically idling speed.
The crane at the back is humoungas, and it was lifting something VERY heavy. Lots of fellas standing around talking.
Not long after that we came upon Cote Blanche Island, yet another salt dome with a working salt mine.
Not long after passing Cote Blanche we were surprised by a very fast Crew Boat with two 300hp engines on the back, as he zoomed past us on the port side, waving as he went:)
Sometimes we forget to look behind us! we didnt for the rest of the day, be assured.
Our first bridge of the day was an opening one.
It doesnt look like it would need to, but after seeing the cranes, we decided that was definitely why! You can see the small gap in the middle where it parts, and the control tower on the left side. We had to pull over for this tow to pass us, as there just wasnt room for us both going through the bridge.
I think I mentioned the other day when we visited Morgan City with Jim and Katherine, that there were great islands of Water Hyacinths coming down the Atchafalaya River. Well, there was plenty of it on the ICW today, and we spent a long time doing a slalom course through the huge islands, and also watching very closely for logs and other submerged debris. It seems that with all the rain we had last week, there is more junk in the water.
They really are a huge nuisance, these hyacinths, as they just grow wherever they come to rest. Lots of them were flowering as they floated down the ICW.
We got a surprise to see all the banana palms on the waters edge, then figgered there had to be people nearby, and sure enough, around the corner we found...a house!
It looked a little too close to the water for our likeing, but lovely and secluded, nonetheless.
Looking back at three tows that just passed us going west. The middle one as you can see, has pulled out to overtake the first one. it can be a bit disconcerting to come around a corner to find ourselves confronted with one, two or three tows, all doing different speeds, and one of them trying to overtake the other slower one/s.
The closer we got to Morgan City, the more Louisiana Swamp we saw. The lovely swamp cyprus literally grow in the water. the water also changed color from tea brown, and tanniny to more green, as we got closer to the Atchafalaya River, which is a very wide body of water. the fresh water coming into the ICW was welcome, I have to say.
This handsome tug was pushing a refuelling barge. Most of the tugs are in excellent condition with crew constantly hosing, scrubbing and even sanding, as we saw today on an older vessel. Usually we see at least one captain and one crew member, but the larger tugs can have three or even four people on board.
This is a coal fired power station. It is fascinating to see the 'other side' of civilisation from the waterways. We rarely see these from the roads we travel in the car.Having said that, we are in Oil country, so the dominating 'things' everywhere are oil heads sticking out of the water.
This was most in evidence when we passed Vermillion Bay, which is very much like Galveston Bay, only smaller, by our estimations.
We also passed another first, on our journey. This is a Cable Ferry. It is pulled across the ICW by a cable from one side to the other. There were vehicles waiting on the other side, but no signs of life from this side.
Something else we pass fairly regularly is the pumping stations...
We are forced to remember that the ICW is often higher than the surrounding land. (the log in the water is typical of what we see in the ICW, and have to steer clear of).
This is most in evidence here where we are docked. There is a huge wall between us and the town, wiht huge gates that shut manually...dont think I would like to be pushing them closed. We were told they leak like crazy though:)
A 'proper' tug, for a change, lol. We are so used to seeing the 'tow' tugs, that this one was a bit of a surprise. I dont know if you can see all the gulls at water level, scattering as the tug ploughs through them. There were huge groups of them sitting on the water as we went up river. We were very aware that we were approaching a large center. We are now going up the Atchafalaya River into Morgan City.
We cracked up when we saw all the gulls on the roofs..jsut had to take a photo:)
Loved these tugs all in their beds for the night.
The rail bridge (Morgan City) which goes up and down...we have seen it go down for the trains this evening...they blow their horns for ages, so you cant miss the fact that they are approaching he bridge. The other two bridges are vehicular. We are parked just to the right on the other side of the rail bridge.
As I sit here writing, I am getting increasingly pissed off with the boats going up and down the river alongside us...waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too fast, because we are rocking and rolling like on a rollercoaster.
Ok...we have to get this straight....Waz went out to readjust the fenders against the dock wall and has said that there are no boats going up and down because the rail bridge is down, meaning there is no traffic on the river to do this. We are just off the ICW by about 400 meter, and we figger the wakes are from those boats on the ICW. Sheesh!
Lets hope this stops at some stage, or I will be seasick!:)
Waz is doing fuel consumption calculations...but these is based just on what we put in the tank this morning, and what we have consumed today alone. We averaged 8.4 knots with frequent no wake zones at 5 knots, and slowing down because we couldnt pass a tow or were waiting for a tow to come towards us so we could get around it. I dont know if the calcs. will be that accurate. He thinks the fuel we are using is about 1.0786 gallons per statute mile, in case some of you are interested!
I have to tell you about the Osprey I missed....well, we both missed, but I got the blame for it.
Here we were, sitting together at the helm on the fly deck..me at the wheel, and waz on the port side of me, next to the window opening. I pointed at a bird in flight coming towards the boat...Oh, he says, it's an Osprey...Quick, where is the camera??? The bird literally did a circle around the boat as if checking us out, and we didnt get a photo...I will never live that one down coz I sat there like a dummy enjoying the bird in flight, and it is the closest we have come to seeing this bird...and no photo! so there...I confess! :)
I did get a photo of an osprey with his camera, but I will have to download that one later and repost later too.
Time for a cuppa and a read, then figger out if we are going to brave a shower on the duck board for all the world to see.
Here comes another train...wow..that is soooo noisy going over the rusty old bridge!
night night..
P.S. three days later, the memory sometimes takes time to process:)
As we motored into Morgan City and our dock space for the night, a fellow on a bicycle was cycling along the dock with a drink in his hand (inside a sleeve). He stopped, put the drink down first, then the bike and came towards the boat as we approached the dock. We are always grateful for these helping hands, as Waz is at the helm and I am the one putting the ropes on. This is a bit challenging at times with my broken left (dont ask which one) rib.
He wasnt the most efficient person, and wasnt good at following instructions, but he was SOME help, nonetheless.
Waz came down to tie the back end off (we were coming in starb'd side) while I held onto the up river bow. The fellow held the middle while Waz positioned the fenders, which he had put down just prior to heading into the Atchafalaya River and under the railway bridge.
When the boat was tied to our satisfaction, he sat on the dock while we broke out a drink (it was probably 85% humidity at least) and offered him a beer. He was VERy quick to accept:) It was then I noticed that the drink he had been holding initially was a coors beer!
He was very chatty, though his conversation was a bit scattered, and at times hard to understand...the accent was pure Louisiana. He worked for his Uncle on one of the small shrimp boats parked up ahead of us on the dock.
He told us where to find drink and food in the locale, and asked us for another beer, which we didnt have, fortunately, or otherwise. He then told the reason he rides a bicycle...
He drinks too much and you cannot be charged with riding a bike under the influence! even if he falls off, which he said he does sometimes:)
He was a mine of information about the local area and we had a few giggles with him...at least he was self deprecating and could appreciate his situation.
We are finding some interesting characters, and this is just one example.
He rode off into the gathering dusk, a wee bit wobbly, but we guessed that would become more pronounced as the night wore on. We just wished him safe riding and return:)
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