We made it to Gulfport, Mississippi today…in a dense fog. The radar, GPS, CAPN nav. software and autopilot made it possible, and almost easy. We wouldn’t have traveled in fog at all except that the forecast is for deteriorating weather and our anchorage wasn’t that good. We expected it to burn off by mid-morning (because that’s what NOAA said) but it didn’t and, in fact, it’s still here! Luckily, the tow boats don’t tend to travel in the fog so except for the many dolphins that helped lead the way (at one point we had 6 of them at our bow), we were mostly alone out there. It was really cool sitting at the nav station below and steering the boat with the autopilot by radar and computer. We plan to stay here thru Christmas and leave after that when the weather allows. More later.
David and Claudia
We made it through the Harvey lock, down the Mississippi River, through the Industrial lock and into a slip at South Shore Harbor Marina on Lake Pontchartrain on Thursday. The gift of perfect weather continued for us throughout our entire trip from Lake Charles. We’ve taken Friday and Saturday off, rented a car to get to WalMart, West Marine and the grocery store and will continue on to Gulfport on Sunday and should arrive at the municipal marina there Monday afternoon. Will update again when we get there.
David and Claudia
I’ve always maintained that we had no definite plans and would remain flexible. Well, to prove that point, we’re currently in Lafitte, La. and will cross the Mississippi River tomorrow on our way to Gulfport, Ms. and later Clearwater, Fl. We’ll probably jump across the Gulf from there to the Dry Tortugas and then Isla Mujeras, Mexico. Or, maybe we’ll go to the Bahamas. We’ll see.
David and Claudia
We’re on the move again and today was our first traveling day since leaving Offats Nov. 4 without any mechanical failures! We dropped the anchor in Bayou Lacessine at mile 205 off the ICW. We hope to make Gulfport, MS by next weekend. More later.
David and Claudia
We’re getting back to our boat routine after the events of the past two weeks. The 3 days in Cozumel were just what we needed, very relaxing. We did fly over Isla Mujeres while landing in Cozumel which proved to us that it really is there, if only we can get to it. We’ll attempt that later but for now we’ll continue our shakedown by continuing thru the ICW with Clearwater, FL as our next goal. Still working on a few minor boat projects, we plan to leave Lake Charles by this weekend. The cold front that came thru last night reminds us of what time of year it’s getting to be and we need to get moving south.
Keep in touch.
David and Claudia
We got back from our short trip to Cozumel late Fri. night. We didn’t spend Thanksgiving week in Arlington as planned. When we got to DFW we soon found out that Claudia’s father had passed away just the night before, succumbing to the chemo-therapy he’d been receiving to treat his cancer. We were quite shocked as he had been doing much better, but were also amazed and thankful for how things had worked out for us to be able to get down to San Antonio to be with her mother. If it weren’t for the problems we had with the boat, there is no telling how far away and out of touch we could have been. As it was, we were able to drive down in our car that our son still has in Arlington trying to sell for us. We plan to leave Lake Charles by the end of this week to continue our journey. Our new goal is Clearwater, Florida (to continue our shakedown). Laddie, has Vern got his email going yet? I thought he would have by now, but haven’t heard from him. We’re listening on 4054.0 MHz each night at 0645 and 0745 CST.
Keep in touch.
David and Claudia
a historical sailing adventure
Travels of Ma'alahi 