New Orleans with Robin and Dugan

This was fun- it was Robin's first visit, so we had an excuse to do all the most touristy things. We watched the blessing of the block-long po-boy, and then ate it.  We sat by the Mississippi with Rose, and watched the other tourists.

Of course there was a parade, and lots of eating (mostly undocumented). Dugan discovered pralines. We stayed in a lovely B&B off Canal St. in midcity- a couple of blocks from Mandina's- we didn't have time to eat there, though. It would have taken another week to carry out all our dining plans.

My Dreamboat

A real passage making trawler

A 1953 North Sea sailing trawler with a 120 Ford diesel pulled in for some repairs. Sailed by an Aussie?, his Inuit wife, and two teenage sons from Greenland, just coming in from Havana and Venezuela. And one large happy German shepherd. Headed straight for the supermarket.  The wife , Dottie, explaining her two sons eat like horses.

Neighborhood improves

Tied up to our old barge is this be-au-ti-ful boat called Intuition II.  They tell us that dock space in town is a bit scarce for 194' megayachts. She is a 70's Dutch pilot boat with great lines and rebuilt.
Joyce heads out to New Orleans tomorrow to hook up with Dugan and Robin and I stay here to make repairs on the dents I've made banging into things. This boat is so heavy that all you have to do is brush up against something, like a barge, and bad things happen. Now I get to practice welding and iron work.
We were thinking about going to the Dry Tortugas next but have been reading the park regulations and it's obvious that we don't want to be there. The reefs have suffered so much damage from anchors and propellors and discharge that they severely restrict where you can anchor and what you can do. The winds and seas get real heavy out there and you can only anchor in one tight little area surrounded by lots of other smaller boats, not where I want to be.
We may just have to slink off to the Bahamas.

The Marquesas

We were in the Marquesas Keys for a few days- and took such overexposed pictures we have to post a satellite image instead.  These are circular keys are the only atoll in North America, and were formed by a meteor (most are formed by volcanic eruptions).  The water inside is very shallow.  Even in the dinghy, we kept hitting the grassy bottom.  Some fast fishing boats come out from Key West for the day, and there are the usual fishermen with their insidious crabpots (we managed to pick one up on the way there).  But mostly it's very quiet and peaceful.  Nice stars, too.

Inside of boat

for Alice, who asked to see inside the boat.  Others may be frightened- proceed with caution!

Lunch at the Shrimp Shack with Steve and Marsha, friends from Louisiana.  It's finally nice enough to have lunch outside (dinner, some days).  In the 80's today- went swimming, yay!  No se puede mejor.

concrete, as in gravitas, dude

We poured the concrete yesterday and all went well, the forms held which is always good. Life turns to shit real quick when forms let go and wet concrete slops all over the place. When I was just a young hippie pup I got one of my first jobs when some old geezer about my age now poured a grease pit at a garage and the forms cut loose. He just walked off into the sunset and never came back. Left his tools right where they lay.

The boat sets lower in the water now and off we go cleaning up and painting the mess we made.

Seeking gravitas in Key West

So we're waiting to put 4 cu yds of concrete into our bow and stern to get the boat sitting a little lower in the water. If we have our fuel and water tanks full we sit just fine, but as we use up the fuel we start to sit too high. I've got every thing formed up and the steel coated.  Wednesday the truck and pumper show up.

The weather has been cold for the last month or so and very windy which is getting tedious, not what we came to Key West for. Bitch and moan, bitch and moan.

Joyce goes to New Orleans in a few weeks to hook up with Dugan and Robin, I stay and feed the cats.