Still at BowTie Marina in Lake Charles

Well, the elbow could not be fixed. As one of the guys said, it would make a great anchor for my duck decoys but ain't worth much more than that.

 Ordered from Houston and  they had one in stock, they sent it and gaskets etc for two as well as ordered us a spare they will drop ship to here.

We really like it here. Don't know how long we will be here but with our schedule we don't really care cause it is a nice place and nice people and we are relaxing. Got everything ready  to install the new part when it gets here and cleaned up the mess I made getting it out. This delay will allow us to fix a few more things that we would delay till later also so all is well and we will be tourists also. But it is great just to sit on the aft deck and watch the critters. And we have a critter that lives close to us (about 30 ft right of the end of the dock). Right now it is a keep the cat away from there chore and we stay away also. Look by the rock (concrete) for the gray rope, that is a water mockison about 4 ft long with a head that is about 4" wide - no i did not catch, measure, and release - this is as close as i got and will get.

 

Of course it was Mardi Gras, wow these people love this time of year. It is fun watching and talking to them about it. Here is one of the boats decorated for the parade (boat parade in lake).

O'yes got to tell on myself, the docks here are not floating so before we went to night-night and because there was a storm coming (it is here) I checked and tightened all the lines. Woke up this morning and the boat had about a third bubble tilt (it was level when we went to bed). Checked boat for leaks etc. etc. etc. all was well. Went on back deck with coffee cup to look around and lo-and-behold all the dock lines were bango string tight. DUH, tide came in. Loosened and all is well. Lesson learned and glad the tide here is not that great.

This marina also houses the local Coast Guard Station. They have 12 pumpkin boats (what the marina owner calls them) and  2 small fiberglass boats.  They regulary have 2 on patrol, 2 in the water and the rest on trailers "ready to go". 

The river at Morgan city is rising to flood +. Am not going to fight the current, debris and no dock space due to the flooding.  May stay here a bit longer  but had a great idea from Mark. Am going to check into going out into the Gulf and going around with help. Am looking into getting someone with local knowledge to go with us. Checked with the owner of the marina and he knows a few good captains that do that kind of thing so we are setting up a chat with a couple next week.

Other than that we are enjoying the hospitility of the natives, the GOOD food and relaxing a lot. Carol is even starting to read a book.