Quote:
Originally Posted by FirstLook
Sail Redemption, can you possibly give me some coastal marinas in Louisiana. We’re hoping for something around the Grand Isle area that we can get our 6ft draft Catalina 310 to for water and fuel. Thank you for any help you can offer.
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Hey Firstlook, I took a look at the chart and Active
Captain, I think Port Fourchon Marina is your best bet. Grand Isle I don't think has enough water for most sailboats. Port Fourchon Marina is located just west of Grand Isle up Bayou LaFourche. They have fuel and water and seems to be transient slips. Also, I read there is a small shop for some things, doubt it's a
chandlery but it has things for weekenders i'm sure. Unless you are very confident in your
navigation skills, I would make my approach in daylight. It's not the actual approach and channel are hard, as jetties are well marked and there should be plenty of water for you all the way to the marina, it's that this is one of the world's busiest
ports. I
work out of Port Fourchon so I know the
depth and channels are good for you 6' draft because it's good for our 300' OSV's draft of 19'. When you get near and inside Belle Pass/Bayou Lafourche, turn on channel 13 for traffic comms, you can
monitor 16 if you want but no one will respond on that inside so have 13 on. You have plenty of room on the edges of the channels as the port is plenty deep to move to the side for larger traffic. If you are comfortable/confident to make a night or near night approach it's very doable, just be aware that Port Fourchon has a LOT of back light from the
commercial docks so channel markers may be harder to see from a
small boat height of eye(I'm 60-70' up in a bridge so looking down on them is a little easier). But like I said, the channels and markers are well charted even on NOAA
charts. If you don't need to be in the middle of the channel, don't as the deeper draft vessels will be needing that channel.
If you have
AIS that is a huge plus, if not, you will be well within cell range to use a
internet based
AIS app to see vessels in the port. This will help with passing arrangements. Also note, channel 13 can be VERY busy so don't hop on unless you need to(just for passing arrangements), and if you don't get a response from the person your calling try again as you might have gotten "stepped on" by another caller. You will know within a few minutes what vessels are doing what.
Other than that, if you want a
route to the marina, PM me your
email address and I can
email you a .gpx file with a route. If you have any more questions let me know.
Heres the marina info:
Port Fourchon Marina
282 Flotation
Canal Rd
Golden Meadow, LA 70357-5608
US
Home | Moran's Marina
985-396-2792