We awoke to a stunning sunrise this morning after spending a beautiful relaxing night at anchor. We were the only boat in the cove and it was quiet, protected and lovely although there was no shoreline for the doggies to go ashore and do their business.

We pulled anchor at about 8:30 am ~ No need to rush today as it looks like about a four hour journey.  Easy-Peasy after yesterday!  The view for the first three hours or so was pretty much the same as yesterday except there were less tug boats, less birds, and no cows. It was pretty enough, but it just all looked the same. As we intersected the Calcasieu River we had to stop and wait for a ship to pass before we could fall in behind it. One of tug boat captains assisting a ship hailed us on channel 14 and advised us that we should monitor channel 13 if we are going travel the same lanes as the big boys! We had been listening for Calcasieu lock traffic on 14 and were quite embarrassed but noted it would be smart t to monitor two radios at the helm since this was not the only time we would be in this situation. Lesson learned…

Our destination was one of the casinos on the ship channel in Lake Charles to hang out for the night before going through the Calcasieu lock on Saturday. The lock is currently closed Mon-Fri from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm for repairs but is open 24/7 on the weekends. We were advised that one of the casinos would be a a nice place to tie up while we waited. Arriving about 1 pm, we found it way too noisy for our liking and it was $96 to tie up for the night. If we were gamblers it would probably be worth it, but we’re not so we consulted Skipper Bob’s Guide for an alternative and decided to go about a quarter mile further up the Contraband Bayou to Bow Tie Marina. The trip took us through a lovely housing community that looked like the homes and boats could be featured on “Lives of the Rich and Famous” . We arrived at Bow Tie around 2:15 pm. It’s a small family run marina – the people couldn’t have been nicer – and only $25 for the night’s stay. So we tied up, fueled up and took the dogs for a much needed walk. Lovely!