M/V ILLUSIONS                             EARLIER CRUISES            

1992 CRUISE LOGS Houston, TX to New Orleans, LA and Return June 20 - 28, 1992      This cruise was our first long one, and the first real cruise for this boat, purchased in February, 1992.  Our friends, Bob and Peggy, were going with us to New Orleans and back.  Bob and Peggy were sailors, and none of us had gone over this route before.  We filled up with fuel and departed South Shore Harbour Marina on Saturday, June 20, 1992.  We went offshore from Galveston to the Sabine River channel.  The bridge at Mesquite Island was closed, so we couldn't buy fuel on Pleasure Island.  Instead we had to go up the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel through Port Arthur.        Plan B was to buy fuel at the marina on Adams Bayou, which is almost to the Louisiana state line; but when we got there they had no gasoline, or were not open yet, or something like that.  We had to go back towards Port Arthur and find the canal beside the Rainbow Bridge.  We bought fuel at the Rainbow Marina just off the Neches River south of Beaumont, TX.  We anchored for the night behind the island just east of Shell Island, near Mile 270 on the ICW.  We still talk about the lightning storm we saw that night.  It was an example of "God's fireworks".      On Sunday, June 21, 1992 we went back the way we had come to Adams Bayou, and then we missed the turn in the ICW.  That meant we were still in the Sabine River, and it took us a while to figure that out.  We should have been watching the charts more closely.  Once we turned around and went back down the Sabine River, we found the turn into the eastbound ICW.        We bought fuel at The Boat Store; they had to bring fuel to us in drums since we needed gasoline.  Since we couldn't get enough there, we also stopped in Intracoastal City and filled up.  Our fuel consumption then was about 2.0 gallons per mile, and we only carried 300 gallons of fuel.  After we left Intracoastal City, we turned to port into Bayou Petit Anse to try and see Avery Island.  It's a large salt dome where the Tabasco Sauce is made, and I had toured it by car on an earlier trip.  There were a lot of canals wandering around in there, and a lot of barges on them were used to haul the salt out of the mines in the dome.  We spent the night at an anchorage in Vermillion Bay, south of the ICW channel.  Our dinner was steak, grilled under the stars out in Vermillion Bay, and salad and probably desert.  Our depth was about seven feet.      Monday, June 22 we continued east and filled up with fuel at Rio Fuel in Morgan City, LA.  After we passed through the center of Houma, LA, we experienced white smoke coming from the engine room.  We concluded something had covered the fresh water intake for the generator, and it overheated.  We pulled into United Diesel, which had a shop and concrete dock.  Danny and those people at United were very nice to us.  They helped us get a mechanic from Gulf South Armature over to check out the generator, and those mechanics repaired it the next morning.  Danny let us spend the night at their dock, and they also participated in rebuilding the water pump the following day.  We called a friend we knew in the area who came and picked us up for dinner at Pizza Hut.  We slept without air conditioning or any other electricity, but we made it all right.      On Tuesday we continued east at 11:30am just after the repairs were completed.  The Community coffee was so good at United Diesel, we began buying it at home.  It was never as good at home though.  We stopped at Southport Petroleum in Larose, LA for fuel.        We came up on a paddlewheeler named COTTON BLOSSOM; it was out for a tour, we think.  We passed it right before we got to the Harvey lock, and then we waited while it went ahead of us into the lock.  (Commercial vessels take precedence over pleasure boats.  Most vessels take precedence over pleasure boats.)      We went through the Harvey lock into the Mississippi River about 3pm.  What a thrill, to be on the mighty Mississippi River!  Our depth indicator went to 200 feet deep in spots, and at home it usually only saw 4 - 10 feet or so, 12 - 16 in the ICW.  We could see the COTTON BLOSSOM ahead of us, but we were not in a hurry, and it ran off and left us.      When we arrived at the Industrial Canal on the other side of the Mississippi River, we found out about a curfew - the lock and the related bridges were not operated during rush hour for the benefit of the cars and trucks.  Maybe we should have been in a hurry after leaving Harvey Lock.  We waited 2.5 hours, from 4:30 until 7pm.  Then we proceeded north to Lake Ponchartrain and west to the marina.  It was our first time into the West End marina area, and there was no one on duty at that time of night.  There were several marinas in that area, and we didn't know which one was ours.  Eventually we found someone who could tell us, and we got into a slip.   We had dinner at Bart's, which was located within walking distance of our marina.             We played like tourists on Wednesday, June 24.  Peggy's daughter, Amy, took us downtown where we had lunch at The Gumbo Shop, still one of our favorite lunch places.  We walked around, and shopped, and took photographs of each other.  We ate dinner at the Riverside Cafe in the Riverwalk Mall, and it was dark when we left there.  I seem to remember taking a city bus from the foot of Canal Street downtown out to West End, where the marina was located; and it broke down along the way.  They had to send another bus to pick us up, and we were stranded out in the wilderness, it seemed, for a long time.              On Thursday, June 25 we filled up with fuel at about 1pm and headed for Texas.  Orleans Marina had charged us $17.10 per night for the slip with electricity and water.  We made it back to Houma at 7:30pm and met the same friends at the same Pizza Hut one more time.  We spent the night again in Houma, LA, a very friendly place.      Rio Fuel in Morgan City was our first fuel stop on Friday, June 26; and we also filled up in Intracoastal City, LA.  Then we went through the Leland Bowman Lock and turned into the old lock and anchored for the night.  The memory of seeing a snake swimming in the water is still fresh in my mind; I guess I had thought of a swim and gave up the idea.      On Saturday, June 27, we went to the Mermentau River and turned upstream, looking for fuel.  We pulled into Gary's Landing, Lake Arthur, LA; and I remember our boat towering over the little building where they sold fuel and bait.  We weren't sure there was enough water there at the fuel dock for us, but we nosed in and managed all right.  Then we went down the river and rejoined the ICW westward.      After a one-hour wait at the Calcasieu Lock near Lake Charles at 4:30pm, we ran through the rain to Sabine Lake.  Our destination was the Pleasure Island Marina in Port Arthur, TX.  We left the ICW at the so-called Thousand Foot Cut and went south into Sabine Lake, churning up mud and oyster shells for a long ways.  Eventually it got deep enough, and we found out later the red and green colors on the little sticks in the water were reversed.  We had been out of the channel, if there ever was one, all the time.  I believe that's what they mean by "local knowledge".  We fueled up when we arrived at 7:30; and we ate dinner at 9pm at The Lighthouse restaurant near the marina.      The last day of the cruise was Sunday, June 28.  At 10am we left the Sabine Lake area by going south, through the swing bridge at Mesquite Point.  We cruised offshore to Galveston, but that time it was rainy and rough.  We arrived at South Shore Harbour Marina in time to fill up with fuel so we could split the charges for gasoline for the trip.  We generally split the expenses, as I remember.  Bob and Peggy were good traveling companions; we enjoyed the cruise and their company.      The overall mileage for the trip was about 840 statute miles.  Mile Zero on the ICW is the Harvey Lock, and the ICW at Galveston and the Houston Ship Channel is Mile 350.  So there's 700 miles round trip.  We also had about 30 miles each way going from Clear Lake to Galveston, and we had about 20 miles each way beyond Harvey Lock in New Orleans.  That's another 100 miles.  And we went up and down the Mermentau River, into and out of Vermillion Bay, up and down Adams Bayou looking unsuccessfully for gasoline, etc. for another 40 miles or so, so that's how I estimated it to be 840.  We used 1,738 gallons of gasoline, for an average of 2.07 gallons per mile, including the generator and the engines.  Fuel cost was $2,345, for an average of $1.35 per gallon.  I believe we had no other charges for marinas; we anchored almost every night.  We spent about $250 for groceries, and we ate out to the tune of $350.  We had repairs of $165, and two nights at the marina in New Orleans for $34, for a total cost excluding fuel of about $800, or $200 apiece for 8 days.