Karen is approaching from the the Gulf of Mexico after brushing the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. The expected trajectory is 'hopefully' west of us here in Houma, and hopefully will not impact us at all, other than some rain.
We are prepared to hole up here or close by for a couple of days if necessary to avoid any adverse conditions that may prevail further west towards New Orleans.
We had planned to be there on Saturday, but there really is no rush, and we dont want to be in the position where we are making preparations to evacuate the boat, after tying her up. Just as well we did a Hurricane preparedness class!
Our conversation with Ray included what the storm surge might be, and we should have little to no possibility or anything more than 1-2 feet. We are VERY close to the Gulf, here, and anywhere in Louisiana, actually, but we can expect rain. Waz is telling me right now, at this stage we are on the far western fringe of the probability of any Hurricane activity. We will obviously have to wait and see.
Ray is coming by the boat again in the morning with any updated news he may have for us to make the decision to stay or go.
He did say there have been very few cruisers such as ourselves, this year, stopping here at the public dock.
The city has certainly made a huge effort to beautify it's downtown canal front (I think it is a Bayou, actually) for walkers, runners, dog walkers and cruisers. It is lovely, and we feel very safe here.
We are, however, VERy close to the ICW, as you can see through our front glas...this tow is actually on the ICW, about 70 feet. the bridges make it a rather skinny passage for some of the barges...and we noticed that one of the buffers on the side has had a collision with a tow.
We left Morgan City, as you can see on the Chart Plotter, around 9am this morning. There was a lot of moisture on the boat this morning and we did rather need to wait for the glas upstairs to lose the condensation. The seasons have turned and it is lovely and cool in the mornings now. We should have been like all the other walkers out at 7am, and done our exercise then, because by 9am, it was hot again.
This chart shows the confluence of the ICW with the Atchafalaya (At chaff al eye a , emphasis on the chaff). The ICW curves on the top of the screen with the river meeting it in the middle. Our boat is the green triangle right in the middle of the screen, about to turn left onto the ICW for the start of our journey to Houma, today.
The morning was gorgous, so I went out to take some photos before casting off.
We were parked at the town Dock, between the Rail bridge, and these two vehicular bridges
There were lots of trains going over the bridge last night and I figgered that this was because there is so much daytime water traffic, it is the only time the trains are really safe to go across. I have to say though, there was plenty of water traffic because we rocked and rolled most of the night. We were in the direct wake path.
In hindsight, we should have parked stern up river, instead of bow, because the duck board woofs when the waves hit it, and this actually stresses the boat, I am sure. It also sounds horrid.
So, we backed into our dock tonight, facing the ICW in the hope that we will avoid a recurrence. So far so good!
Soon after turning onto the ICW we were confronted with some of the most amazing industry we have seen yet. Along with this Coast Guard tug...eat your hearts out Hibiscus Coast Guard!!:)
Just around the corner was our first lock of the day..and last, I should say. We were asked to wait for two west bound tows...well, one Huge Tow which we think was having trouble seeing the length of his load...he has what is called a Six Pack...tandems x 3..two wide three long. They were covered barges, so we dont know what was inside.
We had two tugs behind us waiting for this barge to come through the locks, but one of them jumped the gun ahead of us, and we wish now we had raced ahead and done the lock first. With his wake ahead of us, in such a small confined space, it tended to push our boat around, even though we kept a reasonable distance. The lock masters dont like you to dally, so you have to go through quick smart. There was LOTS of traffic on the ICW this morning, so we had to watch everything very closely.
This one followed us all the way to Houma without a load. We suspect he will have gone on to New Orleans.
Just outside Morgan City is one of the largest deconstruction sites we have ever seen. It seemed to go on for miles. The work was primarily deconstructing oil platforms and associated equipment. Quite a few of the barges we passed today were transporting junk metal.
Some fantasea...this one was in the process of being torn apart.
Not sure if this barge was being shelved, but its huge wave -like bow was something new to us.
So was this accommodation block on a barge...
The equipment is humoungous! almost beggars belief. All for the Oil industry. These southern states are all about Oil..without it they would be VERY poor. Sugar, oil shrimp are the primarly industries here and are on the coat of arms of this Parish, here in Houma.
These vessels all service the Oil industry in some way, and are very specifically built. According to Ray, they get bigger and bigger as the rigs increase in size and the distance the are from land. The vessel on the left is a good example of how the support vessels have become ocean going ships.
the smell from this demolition site was dreadful, and we felt inclined to cover our noses...
Another demolition job.
And construction of new vessels. These truly are large vessels. You can see people in the bottom left corner of the dry dock, for some kind of scale.
This vessel is still being propped up even though it is now in the water. it is brand new!
Looking back towards all the ship building and destructing
It was with some relief that we left all that industry behind and the ICW got wider and prettier. This is TRUE Louisiana Swamp!
Along with the HUGE black flies...which came and went, but were a bit scary, all the same.
The boat was covered with interesting looking flying things this morning, many still alive.
Oh the sights we see....This is obviously a duck hunters cabin which is going to be rammed into a swamp somewhere for the shooting season. We have seen them all over. We thought this was a truly unique way of transporting it:) The house is on plastic pontoons, but the fishing boats are tied to it and their 'Gator Drives' engines look like something out of the movie 'Mad Max'. They sound like it too:)
I have complained in the last couple of days about the amount of Hyacinth in the water, but this is rather scary when it is right plum in the middle of the ICW, and you see tows avoiding it. 
At last...I finally caught a Raptor on the wing! These Osprey were much in evidence first thing this morning too.
And...we knew we were almost into Houma when we came around the bend and saw this....It looks like two houses, right??WRONG!
One house, one outdoor covered area with outdoor kitchen and fireplace, pool, and four car garage. This is a new subdivision on the ICW. I guess it is prestigious! I will attempt to find out how much these properties are, tomorrow if we stay here.
This looked more like our kind of thing:)
...and we hope we dont need legs for the boat in the next few days with this storm approaching.
This year has been quite unusualy because there has been no landfall of any hurricanes. Lets hope it stays that way, as November is the end of the season...we hope! Last year, of course the hurricane hit New Jersey in November!
Waz is already asleep at 9.30, and I wont be long after him.
Sweet dreams. Friday tomorrow! yaya!
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