Grandview Anchorage MM150 to New Orleans MM92

What a wonderful yet sad day. We are now in New Orleans. That means we are off the Lower Mississippi. Tentatively our thoughts are to run down the ICW but who knows what we will do. It’s time to re-provision and do some maintenance on the boat. I must also do a bit of exploring while we are here. With that said I am thinking a one week stopover. It has been nearly a month on the river without a marina. I am going to get Laundry done while the guys re-step the mast.

This photo was sent to us from Billy Crews the jet-skier we met on the river. Thank you Billy

The Lower Mississippi was awesome. I am glad we did it. I do feel like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn out exploring. LOL Would we do it again? Without doubt. I know a few of you are planning on making the trip down in the future. Remember a foldable wagon, cans for fuel & water will be your friend to walk into towns and get what you need. Google maps is a good device to use to see where fuel stations and grocery stores are. I would call ahead to make sure they have diesel before you take a walk. We took on enough fuel that our tanks never dropped below 3/4 full. We pulled into Seabrook Marine with more than 3/4 tank of fuel.

See how much happier you’ll be with a wagon.

This was our last anchorage on the Lower Mississippi. Grand View Anchorage mile marker 150. It is a designated anchorage. It actually is a quite nice anchorage. A few waves will rock you however. We anchored quite close to shore in 20 feet of water with very little current. This anchorage is between Plaquemine Bend at mile marker 210 and New Orleans at Mile 92. It is almost in the middle between the two. It’s a 60 mile run from spot to spot. A 60 mile run can be done in one day. The other designated anchorages are not typically suitable for a small boat. We often saw tows running though these other anchorages. And most of the other anchorages were filled with barges.

One critical point we noticed is the tow operators become more nervous in the river between Grandview and New Orleans. We think perhaps its due to the increased freighter traffic. We found one tow operator got snippy with us. We simply thanked him and went on. We feel comfortable in this high traffic area, but perhaps others may find it a bit stressful. Fortunately, this area is only 60 miles of the river. Between Baton Rouge and Grandview, it is more relaxed. Above Baton Rouge, its no issue.

You must monitor channel 67 below Baton Rouge to communicate with tows and Freighters. Prior to Baton Rouge use Channel 13. We contact every freighter or tow that we do not understand his intentions. AIS is very important on all rivers, but becomes more important in the lower Mississippi below Grandview Anchorage. Our chart plotter shows every tow, its name and speed. It is critical to know the tows name so you can contact him.

Three tug boats on each side of the freighter to move it into the work area.

George is using his towel for shade. Laughing out loud

Look at these huge arms… Apparently, they use these to remove those big containers off the barges and freighters. Yes.. we actually saw some barges with containers on them.

Have you ever wonder how products get shipped between countries? That is what these containers are for. We saw large stacks of these on freighters crossing the Atlantic Ocean during our trip back in 2016.

Two “Cape Kennedy” Ships. My father was in the Navy. When we lived in Florida, we would go to Cape Canaveral and see the ships come in. I just loved it!

A view of New Orleans from the water.

All bridges on the lower Mississippi are well over a 100 feet some are 160 feet.

This is a picture of the entrance to the Industrial lock. There is a bridge shown here opening just at the lock entrance.

We waited for this tow/barge to come out, then we entered. The bridge operator needs to know you are entering the lock so they can hold the bridge open. The bridge operator and lock operator are separate people.

There is a second bridge on the other side of the lock. This one would we were able to fit under or we would have had to wait till 7 p.m. There is a small area here to wait if need be.

The lock chamber is 600 feet, so quite large. They provide a line for holding the boat. Locking height is dependent on river level. For us, it was only 2 feet.

This a mooring that you tie up to waiting for the Florida Bridge. It looks like a cell which are huge and concrete. This is a smaller one and when Bryce stepped on it it was soft like a marshmallow. With all the bird poop it looked like concrete!!

This is called the Florida Bridge. We had to wait on the mooring from 3 to 5:45 when the bridge was scheduled to open. It really wasn’t a big deal. I made dinner and did up a few dishes. We pulled into Seabrook Marine at about 6:30.