In late June I moved to the north side of Lake Pontchartrain to Mandeville, LA. Mandeville is one of four towns that make up what is generally referred to around here as the Northshore. While it is a rapidly growing community, it retains a lot of the charm New Orleans is lacking.
Since June, while I've been enjoying the relaxed Northshore lifestyle, my boat has been languishing in the New Orleans Yacht Harbor. Yesterday, I fixed that problem by skipping work in favor of a (longer than anticipated) day sail. I found a slip along Bayou Castine this past weekend, which is a rare occurrence without a waiting list, and jumped on the opportunity. The marina is about three minutes from my house.
When I saw the forecast was calling for 10 - 15 knots and unseasonably cool temperatures, I decided to bring the boat across. We got up early on Wednesday for the sail (which is about 25 miles as the crow flies, but significantly longer when beating upwind). Somehow, it took us until 0900 to get on the water. When we left the marina, it was blowing a solid 15 and the boat pitched wildly in the very choppy water until we got the sails up. We had a great sail until noon, when the wind went to nothing. The photo below shows the flat calm, the waves are just the residual swells. It was like sailing into an oil slick.
After cooking in the sun for an hour making an average 0.6 knots VMG, we fired up the motor. That's drastic action on my boat as the engine is... tempermental. We motored for a couple of hours at only 3.5 kts. I hope the barnacle colony on my prop is still dizzy.
With 5 miles to go, the wind picked up to maybe 5 knots from the west so we sailed in slowly but comfortably on the flat water.
Bayou Castine, which has a number of small marinas along its bank, is absolutely gorgeous and quintessential Louisiana. The Bayou twists quite a bit as it winds its way inland and is lined with Cypress trees, ancient live oaks dangling moss, dense swamp, and an abundance of wildlife. As we entered the Bayou, we were greeted by a good size alligator and snapped the photo at the top of this post.
I am thrilled to have the boat here. It is only minutes from our new house and my slip sits right by land so I can pull the car literally right up to the boat. It also has power, something I've gone without since August of last year. This means that I will be able to get to many small projects, and some large ones, that are definitely overdue. It will also mean spending more time on my own boat, which has proved difficult after moving relatively far away from her.
Here are a few shots from the trip:
Adios to New Orleans' Harbor
Dead calm
Motoring into the Bayou entrance
Photos of the Bayou
