New Orleans Bound

I need a new song. Every time I head back to the boat, that old Peaches & Herb song starts playing in my mind, Reunited, and it feels so good (your welcome).  But surely, I can do better than that. I’ll be working on a new theme song (send me your suggestions).

In the meantime, Lesson Plan and I are heading to New Orleans with my nephew Zach.

Zach at the helm

Right after we got Lesson Plan, Zach mentioned that he would like to go on the boat sometime. So, I mentioned going to New Orleans back in March and he made arrangements to get off work for two weeks and come along.  So off we go.


Zach informs me on the trip from Bowling Green that he has no boating experience. Just the kind of trainee I like. I will have him trained and ready to be a merchant mariner by the time we get back.

We set an ambitious first day goal. Well, it wouldn’t have been to bad had fueling not taken 90 minutes.  There was another boat (a big trawler) taking on fuel, so he could head to Green Turtle Bay. He took on $1,491 worth of fuel. I have spent $1,250 on fuel for the 4,600 miles H have traveled so far.

We go buzzed by this USCG plane 4 times. 
I think it is was Zach's driving

I had Zach behind the helm pretty quick after we departed the fuel dock. He is got familiar with the boat systems and the navigation devices pretty quick. We only had one nervous situation. I looked up and saw a BIG tow boat pushing 4 large barges. It looked like we would be crossing it to close so we executed a turn to the starboard to get on our side of the channel. It seemed like the more we turned to get out of his way, the more he turned. I looked at the AIS and saw that the name of the tow was Big A, I guess we should have expected that.

We made it to the anchorage at sunset

It was a roller coaster day. We threw out the sails and at times we were making 8.2 MPH. We are going to make Cat Island with no problem (89 miles from Mobile to Cat Island). Then the double whammy, the wind died and the current changed direction.

By the time we passed the Gulfport ship channel we were down to 6.5 MPH. Thankfully we only had 6 miles to go, but sunset was in an hour.


Lesson Learned: My little engine may not get us there fast, but I am so thankful for my little 30 HP diesel when I pull up to the fuel pump.

Dauphin Island 

Fishing Boat heading out to the Gulf