S/V Pura Vida: The Home Stretch

Foggy Morning on the Atchafalaya

Saturday, April 18, 2020, started early. The alarm was set for 0530 and I was dancing, singing and laughing to the tunes of “shake your booty.” I figured that approach would bode better than banging pots and screaming “rise and shine,” a mistake I made recently. Well she was laughing but still not happy to rise or shine. I’ll think of another approach. When we could see, at 0605, we pulled up anchor and turned the bow toward the Atchafalaya River. Soon afterward we called Berwick river traffic on Channel 11, as required. They sounded surprised to hear from us and replied that no commercial traffic was moving due to the fog.

Shell Morgan dock at Intracoastal Citt

The light fog we started into seemed to get denser as we entered the “20 grand”, a location where Bayou Boeuf meets the Atchafalaya River, known locally and referred to by Berwick traffic and commercial traffic. We made our way doing about 2.5 knots at 1800 RPM’s. The advantage we had was that no commercial traffic moves when there is fog. As we reached the river the currents came to life and the boat started moving. The outflow of the Mississippi was having a strong affect on the Atchafalaya. We were anticipating this and also looking forward to it but we didn’t anticipate the fog. With radar and AIS deployed we turned south and continued to pick up speed eventually reaching 8.5 knots. The motor was still only turning 1800 RPM’s so the river was obviously flowing pretty fast. Before we reached our westward turn into Little Wax Bayou-a leg of the ICW- the fog had improved but the current made our right (west) turn a challenge. Favoring the west bank of the river and starting the turn early, all went well. The trip to Intracoastal City where we spent the night at Shell Morgan, a fueling station along the ICW, was pretty uneventful. I wondered if the current would stop once we turned off the Atchafalaya and to our surprise it did not. For the first 30 or 40 miles our lowest sustained speed was probably 7.5 knots. With the speed we were making we considered bypassing Intracoastal City and heading straight to the Mermentau River, forty miles further. However, by the time we reached West Cote Blanche Bay our favorable current had come to an end and we were traveling 6.5 knots, our cruising speed for 2800 RPM’s. We pulled into Shell Morgan and tied up at 1530, even though they were closed. I checked the fuel and figured we still had about 20 gallons in the tank plus 2 five gallon jerry cans. Thirty gallons was enough to get us home but I was hoping to pick up at least 10 gallons more. Though the facility closed at noon the owner happened by and agreed to turn the diesel pump on. I put the 10 gallons from the jerry cans into the tank and refilled the cans. For only the second time in 5 months, we pulled out the shore power cord and plugged in to 110 volt service. I have used the generator a time or two but only briefly, you know, for popcorn, and popcorn it was tonight after Ruth’s awesome meal. During the night we had hard rain, strong wind and some small hail. No damage occurred to PV.

Making Great Speed

We were up early on Sunday hoping we might find a way to travel all the way to the Calcasieu lock. After waking at 0600 we waited until 0730 to pull up anchor because of fog. We were concerned the Leland Bowman Lock, ICW mile 162, might slow us down or even ruin our day. However, one of the gates was broken so they were not locking boats in and we passed through it without stopping. Throughout our travels we looked ahead for other possible anchorages and even called the Calcasieu Lock hoping they’d let us tie up for the night. They said no and we found no anchorages we felt good about. So, once again we took the conservative route and stopped at the Mermentau River. Ruth has long wanted to anchor there so it all worked out. Along the journey, we saw the usual eagles and alligators. Louisiana is very beautiful throughout the entire ICW route. The only close call was when towboat Belle, pushing a few barges, decided he wanted our side of the channel causing us to spit up a little dirt. I believe he lost steerage in the wind and his barged slid our way some. He said nothing over the VHF and neither did I so as not to embarrass him amongst his buddies listening in. Or perhaps embarrass myself and Ruth. We dropped anchor about 2 miles north of the ICW in the river at 1420, in 14 feet of water. The chain rode transferred a ton of mud to our next anchorage, it made a mess. The VHF weather alert came on several times with tornado warnings in the area. We also received a text from our good friend, Steve Romeis, alerting us of the forecast of inclement weather. We planned to up anchor early on Monday, if fog was not an issue, hoping to get an early jump toward the Calcasieu lock. We heard tugs and tows discussing that the hold up at the lock was as long as two days. Often the lock allows pleasure craft to slide in with non-hazardous barges or light boats (tugs and tows without barges), so we were hoping our wait would not be too bad.

Sunrise over the Mermentau

On Monday, April 21, 2020, we were up at 0545. I went on deck expecting to be saturated by fog, as we had been the previous two days. It was still dark but I could see distant outlines of cypress trees with hanging moss, and no fog. So I woke Ruth and we went into fast action mode. Coffee in bed seemed to get her up faster than my previous lame stunts. Why didn't I think of that before? By 0605 the anchor was clanking through the windlass and soon we were off. It was still dark for the first 10 minutes but we were able to follow our track through the river back to the ICW where we entered at mile 200. We were determined to make it back home to Port Arthur. We had 85 miles to go but one giant barrier, the Calcasieu Lock. The day slipped by quickly. We felt cheered on by friends, calling, texting and John even wrote and posted a poem in Facebook about Ruth. As we traveled we heard towboat captains discussing the state of the Calcasieu Lock. It seems there truly was an extreme backlog for transiting through. The commercial vessels in tow are required to contact the lock and are given a number which they follow in order for transiting. They were backed up for as much as two days. This didn’t sound promising to us. When we were about 10 miles east of the lock we started seeing the barges waiting passage. Most were pushed up against the bank waiting to move forward. As we got closer many were just drifting toward the lock at less than one knot. They would bump their engines occasionally to keep it straight or keep it moving slowly. As we made our last turn toward the lock it was actually hard to get by as some had swung in a way in which they were almost across the canal. In one case we skirted by in 6 feet of water. We were not going to be denied. When we were about a mile away I contacted the lock on channel 14. They told me to move up and wait. That didn’t sound good. At noon we pulled up close to the Black Bayou Pontoon Bridge and dropped anchor. We listened as boats were called and given directions. To our surprise at 1245 the lock master called out Pura Vida. We answered and were told we could proceed directly through the open lock. We immediately pulled up the muddy anchor, not taking time to rinse it, and proceeded forward. By 1300 we were through the lock and on our way home. It was an extremely fast day and at the same time everything slowed down as we got closer to home. By 1730 we turned south into 1000 foot cut and the Sabine Lake. At 1900 I could see Art’s sailboat, with his colorful jib sail near the entrance to the PAYC channel. In ‘Art style’ he and Craig greeted us by “doing donuts,” circling under sail. We pulled into our slip at 1930 and were greeted by friends. We enjoyed distant socializing into the night.

AIS showing boats stacked east of the Calcacieu River

It has been a trip of a life time. I’m thankful to have been to beautiful places and to waters you can only see by boat, to have accomplished a goal that I studied about and planned for 12 years and experienced meeting wonderful people and a beautiful culture. I’m thankful that I got so spend time with my two sons, Bryce and Blake and best friend Chris, my sweet daughter-in-law Veronica, my brother Art and of course Baby Ruth. I appreciate the encouragement we were given along the way from old and new friends and family. It was not an easy journey but perhaps that made it more rewarding.

And if I might add: Get off the coach, get into your pucker zone a little and enjoy life. Don’t regret what you didn’t do. Regret that you lived maybe a little too hard.

Until next time…….

( I will write a follow-up sharing things I learned about cruising for anyone considering such a trip.)