Houma was a great stop, we like the Marina because it has power, water, a pump out and even a play ground right there at the city park downtown next to the Marina. This allowed the kids some time to play and have a blast.
We attempted to leave Houma early due to how long the run was going to be on this day. Sadly as I backed out of the Marina and into the narrow ICW under the bridges, I throttled up and heard the squeak of a belt. I idled down and attempted it again and sure enough that was what that sounded like. I turned around and we pulled back to the Marina to explore the issue a bit further. Sure enough the belt was loose to the alternator but when I attempted to tighten it, the bolt would get fairly tight and then the bolt would back out one thread and loosen up.
The bolt wasn’t stripped but rather the nut that is welded as part of the alternator had a stripped thread in it. This means that I needed to either jury rig the solution or replace the alternator (or have it welded). I opted to go for the quicker fix and then look at it closer when I get to our destination in a couple of days.
It was Sunday so the stores were going to open a bit later. The small convenience store by the marina didn’t have such a part and the Lowes was closest but still required a cab (or a really long walk that I didn’t want to do). I picked up a couple of bolts and nuts of varied length to be sure that I could just put a bolt on it and then a nut on the other side to hold it in place and sandwich the stripped permanent nut in place. This worked and we were on our way shortly but it did impact us with a much later start than we anticipated.
The kids got to play at the Playground while we waited for the store to open and the taxi to come and pick me up. They played on the seesaw and jungle gym for a while which they loved as well.
We already thought it would be dark when we arrived at the Harvey Lock and we hoped to get all the way through the Harvey Lock, Down the Mississippi River, through the Industrial lock and on to a Marina that is just before the InnerNavigational Canal goes into Lake Ponchatrain. This delayed start certainly meant it was going to be a late night and running in the dark.
Last time I came through this part of the ICW I was so worried about not getting to a place to anchor or berth up before dark due to not wanting to stop in the narrow ICW and risk getting hit by a barge or tug boat. Once I had reserved myself to the fact that we would be traveling in the dark, it wasn’t too bad. Mentally and Literally.
See this video for the run and the night video of going through the locks.
In the video below you can see Part 4 of our trip. Check out the others as well as this is a 5 or 6 part series (the number will be determined based on the footage
You can also check out the whole playlist here Sailing to New Orleans Playlist on SVDreamChaser’s YouTube channel
If you are receiving this blog via email or on a device that won’t play the embedded video, click this link for the video directly on Youtube. The link is https://youtu.be/r9BGHq1EHOE