In Louisiana

Where did I leave off. Leaving Shell Island last Tuesday AM. Spent Tuesday PM up the Mermentau River (try saying that one). We didn't try to get off the boat even though we were relatively close to what look like a mowed park area. We've been triying to get Hailey used to doing her business on the boat, something she is not fond of doing, and we needed to reinforce so success she had from earlier in the day, so we sat tight. It was kind of spooky late at night when it got so dark you couldn't even see the shoreline. The next day "started" out beautifully. The ICW was like glass and there was hardly no barge traffic. It was gorgeous. Of course the weather turned on us as we were approaching the Leland Bowman Lock. We had to hold out waiting on a westbound barge to come through. It started pouring and a front was going through, strong winds and little visibility. It was so violent the westbound barge just laid in the lock waiting for it to pass which it did rather quickly. After about 30 minutes we went through with some rainfall. We were planning to dock for the night just outside the lock in Intercoastal City at Shell Morgan Landing. Luckily we called just prior to our arrival and was informed the boat from last night had stayed over which now meant we would not have the 50Amp shore power we needed as there is only room for 2 boats there and only one 50amp spot. The rain kicked up again so we thought we'ld play it smart and hang out in the ICW until it passed-about 1 hour. We headed in with dark skies and some lightning in the distant but no rain; not of course until we were pulling into the dock, then holy hell broke loose again. We had a nightmare of a time trying to get Failte over to the dock with opposing wind and pouring down rain. An elderly gentlemen in the other boat came to help??? but sometimes you wonder how they are managing their own boat with their lack of line handling skills. I think I've just about decided never to give some willing helper the most important line to handle again. It's such a releif when someone does come to offer their assistance but sometimes you just don't know what type of help you getting (don't I sound ungrateful). Well the night went from bad to worse when we found out we were unable to unplug our shore cable from the boat. It apparently had overheated God only knows when, and had melted the plastic fitting enough so that it was stuck in the outlet. That only took about 3 hours to free and of course everyone is in a great mood!!!! We ended up having to run the generator for power and ordering some replacement parts to be picked up at Morgan City. The most exciting part of the evening was when a 3 boat took what little remaing dockage there was in front of us. I have never seen such excellent boat handling in all my life. This captain was a working man in about a 30' foot steel hulled work boat. It was an extremely tight fit between our boat and another work boat parked along a diagonal wall. It was so impressive that I could barely watch. He came in at a fast speed about 3-5 inches from our hull. And left at 6Am the next morning just as impressively-which I made sure I was up to watch.
So as I ramble on if your're still reading: We left the next morning for Avery Island which we heard was a treat not to be missed and that's the truth. You have to wind your way back in here to a bayou paradise you think you're never going to reaIch in sometimes skinny water. For those following in our wake, turn right at the red 16MM, turn left just before you enter the barge canal and just keep following the main channel until you reach the grass oasis. The boat launch dock was rejected as to shallow, which is exasperated with about a 12-16 inch tide swing. We anchored off the bank of what turned out to be the "Jungle Garden" area. We used our stern anchor for the first time quite sucessfully. You need to be pretty tight up against the side of the channedl as there is quite alot of very courteous fishing boats in the area. These guys are coming in with 62 catfish, limited out on red fish and 180 pounds of shrimp: of course I couldn't catch anything on my pole. Avery Island is famous as the home of the Tabasco Factory and the 5th largest salt dome in the world. We toured the factory on our bikes which we took in the dinghy to shore for the first time. Turns out the $1 ticket only gets you on the island, not onto the shore of the Jungle Garden which we found out after about the 3rd time we had dinghyed directly abeam our boat to shore. We were politely told we needed to have purchased the $6.25 ticket to enter the garden and would we please walk to the entrance to purchase the ticket or get the dinghy and leave. Well Sheck, of course, we left. We used the Avery Island dock from then on for Hailey. Avery Island was so nice we stayed both Thurs and Fri evening. We are now underway to Morgan City where we will dock and pick up our shore power parts. Keep you fingers crossed that we can fix the problem. Now we're having a battery charger issue............As the tour continues so do the boating issues. Danny keep wants to know when we're having fun. His fun meter runs different than mine-I'm loving life. I've got dirt under my fingernails that won't some out and I'm turning brown...