Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Wed

Got up at 0600 and under way at by 0640. There was light wind from the East. Temp 72. Running 1250RPM making 5 mph. Nice day on the water. The wind picked up in the afternoon but not as bad as it has been. I made it to the entrance to the canal that goes to New Orleans at 1430. That was 104 miles from my launch point. I made it to the Industrial Lock (132 miles) at 1740. Had to wait about 45 min to lock through. It took forever for the commercial fishing boat that was going through with me to tied up. It was 1900 by the time I made it out of the lock. Too late to try and make it across the Mississippi before dark. The lock master told my that there was a floating dock on the river side of the lock and I could tie up their for the night. This is where I am now. It is a good and bad spot. Good place to tie up and there is even a power cord so I can plug into shore power. The bad is the noise. They blow a horn every time a boat locks through. I am running low on ice so I walked up to a store about 4 blocks and bought two bags. I was going to go get two more but think I just wait. I have used 24 gals of gas for the 132 miles. That works out to about 5.5 mpg. I'm starting to fade fast so will add more later.

Tue April 28

Got up at 7AM and was on the road by 8. Had to stop and get gas for the boat and a couple of food items that I had forgot. We got to the launch at 10:00 and I was under way by 10:15. The wind was blowing 15-18 from the SSE. It was pretty bumpy for the few hours but calmed down some in the afternoon. I was running 1600RPM and making about 5MPH. I had planned to stop at Horn Island but I got there sooner than I thought and too soon to stop. The next possible was Ship Island, about 20 more miles. That was too far to run slow so I kicked her up to 3800 RPM and 21mph. I made it to Ship Island at about 6PM. Ship is a good stop. There is a pier there and bathrooms and also showers. In the summer they run tour boats from Gulfport to the Island and drop people off for the day. They are still in the process of rebuilding after Katrina. I was too tired to do a lot of cooking so opened a can of beef stew and lights out at 9PM.

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Monday, April 27, 2009

SUPER LOOP 2009

Well the time has come to start the Super Loop. I was set to start this in May of 2007 but a twist of fate scrubbed that start. We will see how it goes this time. While I was at it I decided to add the leg from Brownsville, Tx to Pensacola. This adds about 1,000 miles to the trip The plan is to launch the boat tomorrow, Tuesday April 28,2009.