Yesterday was pretty boring – still in New Oleans at Seabrook Marina.  Up at about 7:00 am to a small craft warning and cold day. I actually didn’t leave the boat the entire day. I hunkered down, nested and cooked. After breakfast I spent most of the day cooking a pot roast and a chicken dish, so we’re good to go for a few of days. Smelled good and kept the boat warm. The doggies were missing their “Blueberry facials” so I freshened them with a water-less shampoo – too cold for a regular wash. Michael did lots of boat projects and made a last minute grocery run. It was just too cold outside for me.

Wahooo! We are moving again. This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny, no wind, but cold morning, untied and headed to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a trip of about five and a half hours. Immediately we had to go back under the L & N Railroad Bridge. The same bridge that we came through on the way to New Orleans. The same bridge that we called on the VHF several times with no response from the bridge master. The same bridge that caused us to circle for over 30 minutes, in the dark, waiting for it to open so we could go under. The same bridge that finally opened but with no communication with us. So this morning we called on VHF 13 – no response from the bridge master. Hmmm, here we go again. But this time we were prepared. We had gotten the phone number from a local at the marina so I called them on the telephone. They answered right away and said sure I’ll draw it for you – come on. Hmmm. Interesting!

Most of this trip was pretty smooth and non-eventful. Today we were crossing the Mississippi Sound a big shallow body of water with no place to hide in crappy weather. Glad it was a calm day, which is why we waited to leave until today. There wasn’t much commercial traffic and not much to see. When we were about two hours out from Bay St. Louis we met another “pleasure craft”. That’s what they call us out here – “pleasure craft”. Anyway we met and passed Tyche – another boat that looked somewhat like us. Not the really big guys (tugs/barges) or the little pirout type fishing boats, but a boat like us! We haven’t actually seen any “pleasure craft” out here until now. Yeah!

As we were approaching Bay St. Louis the depth sounder showed depths as low 6.8 feet.  Yikes! Then, whoa – right in front of us was a partially sunken boat with only it’s outriggers sticking out of the water. Yikes again! We don’t know how long it had been there but it wasn’t on any charts. Then right past the sunken boat we saw two more obstructions right in our path. We gave them a wide berth, pinged them, took photos and will upload the information to Active Captain. Pretty darn scary!! Interestingly we just received an email saying NOAA charts weren’t being updated because of the government shut down. If Michael had left all of the driving duties to “auto” it could have been very serious but he didn’t and his eagle eyes saw everything before it caused us any problems.

So we arrived at Bay St. Louis Municipal Marina about 1:45 pm. The rate here is $1.25 per foot and offers 50 amp power. We hopped off the boat, took the doggies for a walk and stopped at Blind Tiger for shrimp queso and a beer. Blind Tiger is what they called the back room bars in the prohibition era. We scouted about the town a little and found it to be very cute!

 We will stay here tonight. Tomorrow we plan to go to Pascagoula, Mississippi and stay at the Singing River Yacht Club. They don’t have guest slips but we can tie up to the guest pier which has 50 amp electrical but no water. No charge for the guest pier. Then, the next day, a little side trip to Fairhope, Alabama where we will stay at Fairhope Yacht Club. We’ve been told this is a charming little artistic town. Then, I think, to Homeport Marina in Alabama, and Lulu’s which is the restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffet’s sister, Lucy Buffet. Then on to Florida. Hopefully the cold fan turns off and the warm weather turns on at the Florida border.