Tag: great loop

Boating in New Orleans, Louisiana

Fill all your senses while boating in New Orleans.

“Off the beaten path” means different things to different people. For the cruiser tooling down the ICW or in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans, Louisiana, easily lives up to its reputation as the “northernmost Caribbean town.” It’s also surprisingly accessible to go boating in New Orleans.

The city offers respite, adventure, and full-service marinas, and bangs out a welcome to boaters like a long traveling note from a trumpet reverberating off the pressed tin ceilings in some dark, candlelit jazz club. Here, boaters are welcome.

City of Tastes and Sounds

At first glance, New Orleans is an inland city surrounded by towns of fishermen and charter captains plying the most productive estuaries and marshes in North America. The reality is quite different. The large 633-square-mile Lake Pontchartrain that forms the city’s northern border isn’t really a lake at all but more of a brackish tidal basin fully accessible from the ICW and directly from the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi Sound. New Orleans is a natural harbor and destination for cruisers boating in New Orleans.

There’s a running joke by locals and natives of how every visitor’s story of traveling to New Orleans can be concisely summed up with some version of these words in no particular order, “Gumbo. Gumbo. Mardi Gras. Gumbo. Étouffée. Bourbon Street. Gumbo.” Perhaps that’s why most travelogues recommend making friends with a local over a beer and po’boy, which is solid advice, but cruisers and salty wanderers to New Orleans never have this problem, for the city’s marina district of West End is awash in the real deal.

A city of neighborhoods that hold their own distinct accents, one of the oldest is the West End. Built on reclaimed land from the lake in the 1830s, New Orleans’ West End is one of the most historical recreational and commercial boating districts in North America. The area comprises two public marinas, expansive parks, boathouses, and yacht clubs hosting nearly 1,000 slips for vessels capable of handling a nearly uniform depth of 12 feet in the lake. West End is an easy shot from the deepwater Rigolets Pass for transient cruisers.

Home to Southern Yacht Club—the second oldest yacht club in the western hemisphere—as well as the legacies of Jimmy Buffet hanging at pier parties in the 1970s and mercenary plots to conquer Caribbean island nations in the 1980s, New Orleans’ West End still holds its romanticism and connection to the past. The city’s largest marina, Municipal Harbor, is currently undergoing a massive $22 million reconstruction.

Along her quay, the city’s first-ever community sailing center is rising and will be home to Tulane, Loyola, and the University of New Orleans sailing teams as well as a bustling headquarters for multiple high school sailing teams all ready to add their sails to this legacy. On any given day, the National World War II Museum’s fully restored PT-305 can be seen slicing just off and along the seawalls and giving museum-goers a much more tactile experience and connection to that period of history.

Historic Haunts

The neighboring marina in Bucktown is home port for a fleet of shrimpers and crabbers. The proximity allows West End to host a legendary array of seafood restaurants, including the 140-year-old Bruning’s that was among those lost to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Today, the seafood restaurants have returned to the marinas, and the raft-ups at their docks have again become a standard scene filled with the city’s characters and liveaboards holding court at the bars.

The French Quarter’s legendary Felix’s Oyster Bar recently expanded to the lakefront and offers unparalleled views with your cold adult beverage and a salty dozen right off the boat. Sala serves a cool wine bar and small plate vibe mere steps from Orleans Marina. For the consummate New Orleans experience, simply grab a snowball. That’s a cup full of finely shaved ice laced with sweet syrup offered in a variety of flavors. Add a few pounds of boiled crawfish, and take in the views from the miles of seawall lining the lake filled with picnickers, rollerbladers, and joggers.

Surrounded by million-dollar condominiums and a resurgent middle-class neighborhood, West End is infinitely walkable. Get to groceries, coffee shops, sail lofts, haul-outs, and ship’s chandleries, all of which call the lakeshore home. Further east on the Industrial Canal are more full-service boatyards and the Pontchartrain Landing. That’s a unique marina, villa and RV park that’s evolved into a gated resort.

However, New Orleans is primarily known for the French Quarter with its seemingly unending array of bars and fine dining. The West End is a quick $15 Uber away or even cheaper bus fare. However, New Orleans is so much more than the French Quarter. Tourists rarely visit some of the best areas and neighborhoods. Ride the streetcars down St. Charles Avenue and marvel at the miles of mansions built when the city was the wealthiest in the nation. Stroll Magazine Street for its endless boutique shopping and quaint eateries housed in 19th-century shotguns and sidehall cottages.

Additionally, the city is gentrifying rapidly. There are too many restored historic neighborhoods to stroll or bike during a long weekend. Not long ago Marigny, Bywater, and Mid-City were dilapidated neighborhoods. Now, they’re teeming with young transplants renovating homes built more than a century and a half ago. New Orleans has been quietly booming and the national media is finally catching on.

Boating in New Orleans

At its heart, though, New Orleans is a maritime city. Home to one of the busiest ports in the nation, massive cranes serving freighters and container ships seem to hover above these historic neighborhoods along the Mississippi River. Innumerable charter captains also call this area home in between their commutes down to Venice and Hopedale where they make a living running sportsmen out by the offshore oil rigs.

For recreational boaters, West End is the epicenter and cruisers will feel right at home. On any given day, Olympic sailors can be found hobnobbing with sailmakers over local rums at the yacht clubs. Or over coffee, one can eavesdrop on an America’s Cup sailor’s tale to local U.S. Coast Guard men and women. New Orleans is defined and shaped by water, as have the generations who have called her home. Cruisers in search of their next off-the-beaten port should pull out their charts and pencil future NOLA memories into their logbooks.

Dockage

Southern Yacht Club
105 N Roadway Street
(504) 288-4200
southernyachtclub.org

New Orleans Yacht Club
403 N Roadway Street
(504) 283-2581
noyc.org

Orleans Marina
221 Lake Marina Avenue
(504) 288-2351
marinasinneworleans.com/OM.htm

Pontchartrain Landing
6001 France Road
(504) 286-8157
pontchartrainlanding.com

By Troy Gilbert, Southern Boating August 2018
Photos Courtesy of The National WWII Museum and Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar 

Ranger Tugs and a Snowboaters Paradise

Follow Jim and Lisa Favors as they cruise in their Ranger Tugs and live in a snowboaters paradise.

It’s no secret that as soon as it gets cold up north, Florida gets busy. Excluding tourists on vacation, nearly one million temporary residents flock to Florida in winter and then leave in the spring. These winter residents are commonly referred to as “snowbirds.”And because there’s no better way to enjoy Florida than by boat, many of them are snowboaters too.

Michigan-based Jim and Lisa Favors discovered a unique way to enjoy their retirement, including winter snowboaters adventures in Florida. They got a taste of southern waters when they completed the Great Loop on a 42-foot powerboat. They’ve found their way back year after year.

They traded in their 42 for a trailerable trawler built by Ranger Tugs that completely changed the way they boat. With the versatility of being able to trailer the boat on the highway, they could explore new and different boating areas. When they took delivery of their first Ranger Tugs, an R27 named Kismet, at the factory in Washington State so they took the first cruise around Puget Sound.

On their way south that winter, they got to explore interesting inland boating areas that many cruisers never see, including Flaming Gorge on the Green River, Lake Powell, and the Tennessee River. Along the Arizona/Utah border, Lake Powell was formed when the Glen Canyon Dam was built in 1963 on the Colorado River. This immense inland lake at an elevation of 3,700 feet is over 150 miles long and has more than 1,500 miles of shoreline that includes many picturesque coves and anchorages. When they couldn’t find appropriate lakes or rivers along the way, the Favors used their boat in campgrounds, or “boaterhoming.”

Snowboaters Paradise

With the boat back in saltwater on the Alabama/Florida border, they cruised their R27 along the panhandle, around both coasts of Florida and across Lake Okeechobee. After spending the winter in Florida, they packed their boat onto the trailer and headed to Michigan. Summer cruising in the Great Lakes can be spectacular with destinations such as Door County, Wisconsin and the Thousand Islands of Canada. Being able to transport the boat on the trailer allowed them to cruise vastly different areas depending on the season and where they wanted to go next.

After the Favors cruised areas that take many a lifetime to accomplish—the Great Loop, Canada, Key West, the Pacific, Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico—“two-foot-itis” set in and a bigger boat beckoned. Jim and Lisa commissioned a new Ranger Tugs R29S in 2017 and like the original Kismet, the R29 is trailerable and provides the flexibility they relish, but delivers more power, better accommodations and fresh modern styling. “The Volvo Penta D4 300 engine works with authority,” says Favor.

“When we move the boat during docking, cruising, or close-quarters maneuvering, there is no hesitation. While cruising, on the hook or at the dock, we have an unobstructed panoramic view of our surroundings. The seamless integration between the salon and cockpit provides better continuity for us and our guests.”

They took delivery of their new boat at the factory outside of Seattle and, once again, cruised the Puget Sound, The San Juan Islands, and into Canada. A stop in September at the Ranger Tugs and Cutwater Boats rendezvous in Roche Harbor, Washington, brought them together with 400 fellow boaters, and their new boat shined among the 150- plus Ranger Tugs.

This past winter, the Favors dropped their boat in the water at Legacy Harbor in Ft. Myers, Florida, and stored their truck and trailer. The snowboaters like this marina because it’s an easy walk into town and there are lots of activities. They’ve made friends from all over the country, and in Florida, they often cross paths with fellow boaters.

All About Balance

Additionally, the Favors balance time between marinas with friends and enjoy shoreside amenities as well as quieter, remote anchorages and parks. That’s where they can be alone on their boat to appreciate nature’s beauty. Their first Florida excursion on the new boat was to Punta Gorda for a Ranger/Cutwater rendezvous. Thirty other boats like theirs joined the festivites. At the rendezvous, fellow snowboaters gathered with native Floridians to enjoy the sunshine and boating. Some live on their boats and others have condos or houses and use their boats for excursions.

After showing off their new boat at the rendezvous, the Favors headed for more peaceful surroundings. Cayo Costa State Park, a barrier island near Sanibel, is a great place to explore, hike and enjoy windswept beaches. Another spot the Favors enjoy is Lover’s Key, where there is a long sandy beach to play on. The anchorage provides views of spectacular sunsets over the gulf.

“Fold-up bench seats and the flip-fold transom seating provide comfortable seating for eight,” says Favor. “With a removable cockpit table or with the table stowed, there is room for four to dance!” But come evening, everyone clears out and tranquil nights are spent alone.

Cruising south past Naples and Marco Island, they worked their way along the edge of Everglades National Park. Sometimes they would venture in the park, and other times staying outside the boundary, dodging crab pots. Anchored in the solitude of the Everglades, they shared a night in the mangroves with resident alligators and mosquitos under the magnificent starlight before continuing to Marathon.

The Florida Keys provide boaters a variety of cruising options ranging from pristine parks and secluded islands to raucous parties on the streets of Key West. The Favors like Blackfin Marina in Marathon as it is centrally located, well protected and affordable. There, they met up with various friends and cruised up and down the Keys. From Florida Bay, they went to Key West with stops in Pine Key, Jewfish Basin, and Key West Bite.

Ease of Use

The shallow draft of the R29S, its keel with grounding shoe and protected prop aperture all translate to a boat that can enter waters that other boats can’t safely navigate. When Jim wanted to do some waterline cleaning, he simply found a calm sandy beach on a key and nearly beached the boat, then stepped into the water to tidy up the hull sides.

North of Marathon, the Favors found other great spots, such as Elliot Key and Boca Chita. These islands are part of Biscayne Bay National Park, so their proximity to Miami via fast boat means during the day, there can be a lot of picnicking and partying. In the evening, it calms down when only the cruisers are left. The decorative 65-foot lighthouse at the entrance to Boca Chita harbor was built in the 1930s by the Honeywell family who owned the island and used it for entertaining friends. There’s also a cannon and other artifacts along with a picnic shelter and trails.

There are so many places to explore in Florida that the Favors and many others keep returning to enjoy the warm sunshine, reconnect with friends and have new adventures. Now that it’s spring and the rest of the country is warming up, the snowboaters put their boats back on the trailer and head north to summer cruising grounds. The Favors are planning a rendezvous this summer in the Trent-Severn waterway on Lake Ontario.

If the heat in Florida is too much, a trailerable cruiser is a way to escape to Canada, Maine or wherever a highway leads. Follow the Favors and their snowboaters adventures at trailertrawlerlife.com.

Cost cutting considerations:

  • Where you stay and how often you stay in marinas
  • Anchoring or mooring is more affordable. Staying in smaller, family-owned marinas as opposed to fancier marinas with a lot of amenities saves money.
  • Going out to eat
  • If you plan meals and make them yourself on board, your cruising dollars go further. How often you eat ashore and the types of restaurants you choose determines how much you spend.
  • Speed and fuel burn
  • Performance will vary depending on the size and type of vessel you cruise, but slowing down saves fuel. The Ranger Tugs R29S has a top speed around 20 mph. But, the Favors typically cruise around 9 mph and get a little over 2 mpg. They also don’t run the generator overnight which saves fuel.

Specifications

LOA: 28’10”
Beam: 10′
Draft: 2’4″
Bridge Clearance (mast up/down): 13′ 11″/9′ 11″
Weight (Dry): 10,500 lbs.
Fuel/Water: 145/60 U.S. gals.
Power: Volvo D4 300 HP diesel common rail electronic engine
Price: $274, 937 (Luxury Edition, includes A/C and genset)

Contact

Ranger Tugs
(253) 839-5213
rangertugs.com

By Ron Parker, Southern Boating June 2018

Birdsong Marina, Camden Kentucky Lake, Tennessee

If cruising America’s Great Loop is on your bucket list, look for Birdsong Creek’s flashing light and the sign at MM103.7 marking the Birdsong Resort, Marina and Lakeside RV Campground. Located on the south side of Birdsong Creek, 1.5 miles in the deep buoyed channel from the scenic Tennessee River—halfway between the dams on Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley and Pickwick—seats the 58-acre recreational complex, family-owned and operated since 1961. Revel in true southern hospitality away from the daily grind while enjoying the greatest of the outdoors in western Tennessee’s Birdsong Marina.

Onsite boat sales, engine repairs, prop sales, 140 covered slips—daily, weekly, monthly, and annual rates are available—ship’s store, and boat rentals are among the marina’s offerings. The resort also includes 26 cottages and lodges furnished with all the amenities of home. Transient cruisers may use the resort’s “courtesy car” for a trip into town for groceries or dinner with a vast choice of restaurants. Catering services (southern style barbecue, country breakfast and more) can be accommodated and served on site under the open-air pavilion—or delivered to your rental units.

Revel in activities including fishing on the Tennessee River, home to more than 100 species of fish and famous for its crappie, bluegill, catfish, stripers, sauger, largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass. Artificial fish attractors marked by buoys have been built near all major creeks holding at least 10 feet of water. On land, stop by The Tennessee River Freshwater Pearl Museum, Farm and Tour to learn about North America’s only freshwater pearl-culturing operation and shop for some unique jewelry.

Amenities
• 140 slips
• Overnight docking for five boats up to 80′
• 65′ x 65′ lighted, concrete launching ramp
• Citgo gas and diesel
• 30-50 amp electrical service
• OMC, MerCruiser, Volvo Onan engine repairs
• Prop sales and prop repair service
• Emergency towing and underwater divers on call
• Ice, cold beer
• Hot showers
• Laundry room
• Bait, tackle and nautical supplies

Contact:
Birdsong Marina
255 Marina Road
Camden Kentucky Lake, Tennessee 38320
(731) 584-7880
birdsong.com/marina/index_marina.php

By Nathalie Gouillou, Southern Exposure, September 2015

Fairhope, Alabama

A Welcome Respite

Beneath sprawling moss-draped oaks with their seconds standing by as witness, two sailors from New Orleans marched off fifteen paces between each other and fired. The men were settling an “Affaire d’Honneur” from a perceived slight towards a young lady the previous evening at a post regatta ball on the grounds of the Grand Hotel at Point Clear. The year was 1852, and as the smoke from their black-powder pistols joined the early morning mist, both sailors were left standing and they agreed the affair was settled. The men then returned to their schooners anchored on the eastern shores of Mobile Bay long a destination for cruisers and racers, and today the arts colony of Fairhope is a jewel on those bluffs rising on the Alabama coast.

A welcome respite or starting point for cruisers traversing the Tombigbee River and the Great Loop, Fairhope is well known to “Loopers,” and the town is well appointed to serve transients. Easily located from the water by the historic Ecor Rouge or “Red Bluff” outcropping on the bay, this red clay cliff is the highest coastal point between Maine and Mexico and has been used by mariners as a navigational point since the first Spanish explorers plied these waters in the 1500s. Due south of Ecor Rouge is the channel to the entrance of the full-service Eastern Shore and Fly Creek marinas, as well as the Fairhope Yacht Club.

[photomosaic ids=”5988,5987,5986,5985,5984,5983,5982,5981,5980,5979,5978,5977,5976,5975,5974″ orderby=”rand”]

Mobile Bay itself is quite shallow with an average depth of around 10 feet, yet sandy and shifting shoals abound, and it’s best to stick to the maintained channels. Fairhope Yacht Club is full of Southern charm and with proper advance notice, quite welcoming and accustomed to transients. Located about a mile from Fairhope’s bustling town center, scooters and bicycles are recommended, however, the adjacent Eastern Shore Marina offers a courtesy car to transients. Otherwise, a short dinghy ride to the municipal pier will leave you only a few blocks’ walk into town.

Fairhope was founded in 1894 and has a unique history as a “Single Tax Colony,” where a large portion of the land is owned by a managing authority that leases out the individual parcels—although the majority of the town has grown outside of those initial boundaries. Downtown Fairhope—a walking town—and her surrounding old Southern neighborhoods are stunning in their quiet allure, with beautifully landscaped streets and quaint antique shops, art galleries and boutique clothing stores.

Fairhope is, perhaps, best known for the legendary Page & Palette bookstore that draws in any writer worth their salt for book signings—large crowds have become old hat to the locals. The old Fly Creek bar on the marina was notorious as a Gulf Coast literary watering hole with writers such as John Grisham, Rick Bragg and Winston Groom frequenting to drink, smoke cigars and enjoy the sunset over the bay with the local shrimpers and oystermen. Fairhope today has that same feel, something akin to New Orleans, Ocean Springs and Apalachicola—that strange mix of coastal waters and the Deep South that feeds pages of novels.

Downtown Fairhope is growing as a culinary destination with the fertile estuaries of Bon Secour and Bayou La Batre located only an hour’s sail away along with their incredibly fresh catches. Gentrified buildings converted to host white tablecloth dining are popping up at places like Camellia Cafe where the Executive Chef is re-introducing Black Drum to the locals. Thyme, located on the bluff overlooking the bay, has become a destination for the “ladies-who-lunch” crowd in a quaint Gulf Coast house surrounded by towering oaks. Old school restaurants such as the Dragonfly and the Washhouse are legendary on the Alabama Coast. Right in the heart of downtown is Panini Pete’s, Pete Blohme’s flagship restaurant for his budding food empire. Regularly spotlighted and featured on the Food Network (and a Culinary Institute of America graduate), Pete is also branching out to reopen the aforementioned Fly Creek restaurant at the marina whose closing is long lamented by the old-school locals.

Only a few miles down the coast is Point Clear and the Grand Hotel, constructed in 1847. Part of a trend of waterfront destinations throughout the northern Gulf Coast in the 1800s, these resorts served the wealthy plantation owners, bankers and cotton brokers from New Orleans and Mobile. The Grand Hotel is one of the few that has survived nearly 200 years. Today, the resort is full of modern amenities and a world-class golf course. The Grand Hotel at Point Clear also holds great docking and slip facilities for transient cruisers.

Timing your visit with the migration of the Loopers will add to the camaraderie on the piers, but Fairhope in the spring is unmatched. With the azaleas and dogwood in bloom, the town comes alive. The 63rd Annual Arts & Crafts Festival will run in March of 2015. Like many towns on the northern Gulf Coast, Fairhope has an amazing legacy of coastal artists and the festival attracts over 250,000 visitors—pay special attention to the “found metal” sculptors and the potters who utilize the unique clay of southern Alabama.

The Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay also has a direct tie to the three-centuries-old Mardi Gras celebrations that reach back to the first French explorers bouncing along the northern Gulf Coast in 1699. Across the bay, Mobile hosts a celebration that is only surpassed by New Orleans, and Fairhope puts on her own show with three parades running through her downtown in February of 2015.

A bit further to the east along the coast lie perfect Gulf Coast beaches starting in Fort Morgan, with Orange Beach and Gulf Shores stealing the show. The Alabama coast also has great destination marinas such as Jimmy Buffett’s sister’s place, Lulu’s on the ICW, as well as The Wharf in Orange Beach. Nearby, Saunder’s Yachtworks is a world-class boatyard with state-of-the-art facilities.

The eastern shores of Mobile Bay have long been a cruising destination since schooners plied these waters two centuries ago. The bluffs shrouded in pines, oaks and azaleas hide quiet cruising destinations just miles away from the sugar sand beaches and emerald waters of Alabama’s barrier islands. Local artists, chefs and residents are waiting for you and will define what southern hospitality truly means as you drop those lines and tie up in Mobile Bay.

By Troy Gilbert, Southern Boating August 2014

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