Made it through New Orleans

We are anchored near mile 15 by Lake Salvador. Yesterday was a bit of a stressful day. Five years ago when we came down the Mississippi River to New Orleans we dreaded it the whole trip because of all the stories we had read and people telling us we were crazy. It turned out to be very anticlimactic. We were hoping that this trip through would be just as anticlimactic. Although we did not have any real problems it was still a stressful day. We had to wait at the industrial lock about an hour and a half to get locked into the Mississippi. Once four miles down river we had to wait another hour and a half at the Algiers lock to get out of the Mississippi. At least at the industrial lock there were pylons to tie off to. The Algiers lock had nothing to tie off to and signs on the bank saying “Cable Area No Anchoring”. After about 20 minutes of just trying to stay in one place I decided to just barely nose Walkabout into the mud bank. I did and we just sat there still. We could feel the boat rock a little from the river wakes so I knew we were not so stuck that I could not back off of it. We sat there for another hour before being told that it was our turn. Actually they were putting us through ahead of the 15 barges that were waiting to lock through. I put Walkabout into reverse and gave her some throttle thinking she would just slide right off. She did not. I gave her some more throttle, still no movement. We began walking back and forth on deck to try and rock the boat. That is when we noticed she would no longer rock. The wakes had settled us into the mud. Well now I am worried, they are calling us into the lock ahead of 15 barges and we are stuck. I kept increasing throttle until we were at full throttle. After what seemed like an eternity she finally slipped off the bank. I will have to rethink that strategy next time.

We traveled 15 miles west and anchored about 4 pm. It started raining steady about the last 20 minutes of the run. We pulled into the mouth of Lake Salvador and dropped the hook. Glad to be stopped, we started to relax. Just before dark a small east bound sailboat came in and anchored next to us. Not a problem until an hour later when the wind direction changed and then they were almost directly behind us. Noah was predicting 15 to 25 knot winds for the night. We got every bit of that. It howled all night. I could hear the halyard slapping on the sailboat. Although the anchor did not move at all we still did not get much sleep for worrying about how close the sailboat was.

Considering today’s forecast and the fact that good anchorages are not a dime a dozen here we decide to just stay anchored today and have a rest. Tomorrow looks like a better traveling day. Today I will just sit here looking out at the dark clouds listening to the wind generator and drinking coffee.

Leaving the industrial lock entering the Mississippi River.

In the Mississippi.

Algiers lock.