We left CCTX on 26 Nov and headed straight out to sea and took the farthest
Safety Fairway towards the MS
Delta.
Immediatly upon exiting the bay the seas were heavier than predicted and continued to build eventually reaching 8-12’ for the next 4 days. We sailed,
motor sailed and motored as conditions dictated.
We submarined the bow of the boat, had breaking waves wash through the
cockpit and generally spent 4 days cold, wet and scared.
We made land fall in Grand Isle, LA, stayed for a week making repairs, recovering, waiting for better weather and enjoying the hell out of ourselves at the Sand Dollar Marina with Jimmy the dockmaster who brought us local cajun
food and made sure we had whatever we needed.
Our two adult kids had enough of rough sailing and left us, we didn’t blame them.
After our repairs were done and we had a couple of days of good weather we headed up the Southwest Pass and along the way called
Cyprus Cove Marina looking for a place to pull in and tie up for the night. We were told quickly “not for free”. We explained we just needed to get off the river so we didn’t get run over by all the large ships. She told us again not for free and it would be over $100 even for a few hours. This was outrageous so we asked if there were any other places that could accomodate us. We were told there were no other
marinas or places where we could get off the river.
We decided to
anchor out instead just above the
Head of Passes on the west bank in approx 15’ of water. We made sure the area around us was clear and deep enough, set the
anchor and with a 2kt
current, really had a comfortable but cold night. We catnapped in the
cockpit, scared of being run over but otherwise it was a great anchorage.
The next morning we pulled anchor and headed up river using
current charts showing 25’ depths. Approx 10 mins later we ran aground, then again and again and again. We must have been in a horseshoe of shoaling. A shrimp boat passing by slowed and watched our circus performance....knowing what was going to happen. During all this I broke a very large part and could only turn to port. The shrimp boat “Storm Surge” Captained by Bruce threw us a line and towed us upriver for 4 hours to Venice Marina. We spent the next 10 days there making repairs, meeting some really great people and enjoying the kindness of total strangers. We learned that Venice Marina is an outstanding, low key, safe, inexpensive and very accomodating place to stay for a few days and the marina restaurant has better sea
food than any place I’ve ever eaten.
Cyprus Cove on the other hand lied to us which put us out in an unsafe condition which eventually led to repairs and ancillary costs of over $1500. If you’re up this way, pull into Venice Marina. They don’t get many sailboats and if you stay long enough, fresh tuna can be had for a
beer and a good story.
We finally made it to
Pensacola yesterday morning. It took exactly 24 hrs, which was 6 hrs less than predicted. Seas were 2-4’ mostly which was WAY better than 8-12’. It was still cold and there are a ton of things to run into when making a Gulf crossing; pilot boats, crewboats, shrimp boats, other big scary boats,
oil rigs, platforms, small
oil related things that are not marked or lit at night which you can run into.
We’ll stay in Pensacola till after
Christmas and then continue on.
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