Greetings from Lake Charles, La.

Not exactly what we were dreaming about, but it beats the fuel barges we were tied up to last night. We’ve had daily fuel line problems but hopefully the problem is now resolved. It’s too early to be sure because the engine has run over 6 hours before dying. Then we’ve bled the lines and we restarted. Except for yesterday while we were temporarily anchored just outside the ICW. The engine died and I went in to bleed the lines and the bleed screw head on the fuel filter holder broke off! Then the anchor dragged as the current began running hard into the Calcasieu River. After letting out more scope and dropping the other bow anchor (I had already carried a stern anchor to shore and buried it in the mud; it held) we held but with no way to run the engine we were not in a good situation. We called the Coast Guard to advise of our situation and request a tow. They dispatched the Calcasieu County Sheriff’s Dept who arrived in a boat and took me across the channel to Devall Towing who dispatched a mechanic out. In the meantime the deputy-sheriff took me up the river to Frederick Shipyard to see if they had a space we could tie up to for the night. They did so we came back to the boat to meet the mechanic. The Devall guys had a fuel barge they said we could tie up too for the night so the d-s towed us over to it and we tied up. The mechanic arrived, got the broken screw out, we put it a spare one that I had and we were running again, but being near dark we stayed for the night. Until 1 am when they came knocking on the boat, telling us we had to leave; there was a tow with two barges waiting in the river for our spot! We started the engine and with a lot of difficulty, due to a strong wind pinning us to the fuel barge, we finally got underway after crunching our boarding ladder. We found our way up river to the Frederick fuel barge that we already had permission to tie up to and managed to get along-side with no casualties. We decided to head up the river the next morning 10 miles to Lake Charles and spend a couple of nights at a marina to rest, clean up (lots of mud from my boots and stern anchor) and make sure the damn engine is really fixed. I’m really getting tired of the smell of diesel fuel. Anyway, we’ll be here a couple of days and then plan to take the Calcasieu Pass out to the Gulf. This ICW is a dangerous place!

Regards,
David and Claudia