Cruising the ICW from Philadelphia to New Orleans

Day 17 – Captain John returns to the keyboard.

Hello ~~Houston~~ New Orleans, The Eagle has landed!

With such a beautiful day yesterday, what could possibly add to the adventure today? We got an early start from the Bear Point Marina at 6:15am before the sun rose. Waters were flat calm and the wind was nil. After negotiating our way out of the marina, we found the lighted red and green markers of the Gulf Intracoastal Water Way (GIWW) and brought the Eagle up to a slow cruise speed of 15 knots.

We had hardly gone 3 miles when we encountered a fog bank with visibility around 50 feet. Slowing to an idle, we followed the GPS and Radar to try and stay on course. But try as we did, it was too difficult to maneuver the boat slowly within the narrow waterway. After a few harrowing minutes of steering we found ourselves face-to-pole and on the wrong side of a red channel marker, and gradually came to a halt on a mud bar, stalling one engine. Easing the other engine into reverse we managed to nudge the boat off the mud and into deeper water with no damage to the underside of the boat.

Ahead of us was an extremely narrow dredged channel that Captain Will felt was unsafe to traverse under current conditions, so we eased the boat out of the main channel into a safe spot to wait for the fog to rise. Gradually, as the sun rose, the fog lifted and we were on our way.

A mile further down the narrow channel there was a tugboat and barge blocking most of the waterway – glad we decided to wait for the fog to lift!

We made a fuel stop at Fort Morgan and after talking to the local fishermen, continued on toward our final destination – New Orleans.

Along the way we saw numerous oil rigs, barges, trawlers, and other remarkable scenery.

The waters were extremely calm and most of the time the boat remained on course, seemingly steering itself, with minimum effort from the Captains. Upon entering Lake Pontchartrain, we could feel the relief and excitement of a safe journey and a job well done.

After crossing under the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge, we soon sighted the markers at the channel leading to the Tchefuncte (chuh-FUNK-tuh) River where the Marina Del Ray is located. Hailing the harbormaster, we were directed to the fuel dock where we took on 186 gallons of fuel, then gently glided the Eagle into her new berth.