Tag: New Orleans

Float Into Mardi Gras

Float Into Mardi Gras

Plan a stopover along the Mississippi River to join the festivities at New Orleans’ biggest celebration of the year.

It’s a little after eight in the morning. There’s a slight chill in the air, but the sun is shining on the assembled throng milling around in front of the Lost Love Lounge. They’re an otherworldly group who seem to have been beamed down from Mars. Two bare-chested men at 12 o’clock appear to be channeling centaurs? unicorns? sporting gold and silver foil lamé chaps, horns, and metallic face paint. A cute little family sidle by, mom and dad dressed like Thing One and Thing Two and pulling junior as…the Grinch? in a sequined wagon that also holds a cooler of beer. Just then a brass band with a Klezmer accent marches by, trombones swinging side to side in the breeze.

Welcome to just one of the ways that the locals celebrate Fat Tuesday, the culmination of Carnival season that kicks off on twelfth night, ushering in weeks of King Cakes, parades, fancy balls, marching bands, and lots and lots of beads, 12-and-a-half tons at last weigh-in.

Forget the drunken revelry on Bourbon Street, that’s for tourists. The real Mardi Gras is a family affair, a massive street party that rejoices in traditions new and old. It’s also a citywide event that’s still gloriously free of charge and sponsors.

’Tis the Season
Organized by krewes, the social clubs that work all year on themes, floats, and costumes, most parades roll from uptown down St. Charles Avenue to Canal Street, all primo viewing areas, with high school marching bands, 50-foot-long floats tricked out with LED lights and gobs of glitter, and dancing krewes with names like the Cherry Bombs and the Disco Amigos.

A season of nonstop action, Mardi Gras includes an endless array of parades, masked and unmasked balls, pageants, and King Cake parties. King Cakes are a coveted, usually sweet, cake topped with purple, green, and sugar. Pastry chefs around town get creative and add savory flavors and unusual fillings into the mix. Don’t miss a stop at Bywater Bakery, where eight flavors of King Cake, including three savory options, deliver the best of the season. Each cake has a tiny plastic baby placed inside. Getting the slice with the baby is a good omen and, traditionally, means you have to throw the next King Cake party.

There are some 80 parades in and around New Orleans, and it’s impossible to catch them all. But for Carnival lovers, the three original super krewes, Orpheus, Endymion, and Bacchus, are at the top of the viewing list—spectacular parades known for intricate floats, high-tech wizardry, awesome throws, and grand costumes and themes. The all-female Muses, with their shoe theme, and Nyx, who claim purses as their krewe symbol, also claim super krewe status, rolling between 25 and 42 elaborate floats. The biggest parades feature celebrity kings and queens with the likes of Kid Rock and Britney Spears holding court for a day.

Leading up to Fat Tuesday, visitors and locals adore the smaller, quirky, neighborhood parades like Chewbacchus, powered by sci-fi enthusiasts and rolling UFOs of wacky design; ‘tit Rex, a lineup of darling shoebox-sized mini-floats, and Barkus, a four-legged parade of costumed canine stars. The sassiest parade is definitely the racy and irreverent Krewe du Vieux, known for wild satire and adult themes lampooning local government and politicians, but in reality, anything goes.

Mardi Gras Day is always the day before Lent begins, which is determined by the Advent calendar and when Easter falls, so it’s different every year. On Mardi Gras Day, there are tons of options, from roving dance parties in Jackson Square to catching Zulu coconuts on Claiborne or seeing Rex, the King of Carnival, uptown. Step along with the brilliantly costumed march of Societé de Saint Anne, an array of nutty creatives that collect costumed marchers from Bywater into the French Quarter and stop at bars to celebrate along the way.

If you stay away from Bourbon Street and catch parades uptown in Mid-City, Metairie, and the West Bank, these celebrations are a family affair with multiple generations following traditions that have ruled Carnival since the French brought the fête to the Mississippi shores in the late 1600s.

Where to Stay

Mardi Gras is the highest of seasons, so it’s best to plan ahead. Prices spike, minimum-stay requirements, and “no cancellation” policies apply. That said, there are more than 22,000 rooms in the downtown area and more than 38,000 in the greater metro area, so there are options. The Eliza Jane, Jung Hotel & Residences, NOPSI, Holiday Inn Express, and HI New Orleans are just a few newish-hotels close to parade routes. Visit NewOrleans.com to source hotels of all stripes.

Marinas
There are a handful of full-service marinas available, close to the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

Schubert’s Marine: (504) 282-8136; schubertsmarine.com
Seabrook Harbor and Marine: (504) 283-6001; seabrookharbormarine.com
South Shore Harbor Marina: (504) 245-3152; marinasinneworleans.com

Getting Around
Traffic and navigating during Mardi Gras is a challenge because so many streets are closed. Bike, walk, take a cab, or rideshare, but expect premium prices and delays. Don’t let it get to you; it’s as much about the journey and who you meet and greet as the location. There is public transit, but check Regional Transit Authority for schedules. norta.com

Restrooms
Finding a bathroom along parade routes is a thing. There are several bars along the way. Some charge for wristbands and access, but it’s worth it. Some homeowners rent theirs, and the city brings in the ever-popular porta-potties. Go when you have the chance.

Safety
There’s plenty of police presence to make the walk from uptown to downtown safer than at other times of year. Still, pay attention to your surroundings and keep your stuff close.

Beyond the Parades
Order a Sazerac at Sazerac Bar. Cocktail wags largely agree that the Sazerac is one of the oldest examples of the American cocktail. Worship at the altar of Sazerac at the impeccable Sazerac Bar in the gorgeous Roosevelt Hotel where the 19th century original recipe is favored. therooseveltneworleans.com

Stay up late with Rebirth at the Maple Leaf. Rebirth Brass was founded in 1983 upon the notion that New Orleans brass doesn’t come in just one flavor. The Grammy Award-winning band, known for its legendary Tuesday late night gig at the Maple Leaf, uptown on Oak Street, upholds the tradition of brass and plays it forward by bringing funk and hip-hop into the mix. mapleleafbar.com

Roll on down the river. A ride on the Steamboat Natchez isn’t just for tourists. A throwback to the days when steamboats cruised the mighty Mississippi for commerce and pleasure, the Natchez reveals just how busy this working river remains. It’s a real treat to travel the river the old school way, sipping a fine bloody Mary and dancing to the Dukes of Dixieland, a brass forward jazz band that never disappoints. steamboatnatchez.com

Visit a Mardi Gras Museum. While you’re at Arnaud’s drinking a French 75 at the bar, extend the festive mood with a visit to the Germaine Cazenave Wells Mardi Gras Museum upstairs, a lavish costume display that will have you longing for carnival season. arnaudsrestaurant.com

Eat This
Off the beaten tourist track, the family-run Katie’s in Mid-City is a friendly neighborhood restaurant that serves a winning “cochon de lait” sandwich, a two-hander stuffed with tender, slow-roasted pork and topped with horseradish Creole coleslaw. katiesinmidcity.com

Although Central Grocery is the original spot for the Italian muffuletta sandwich, head to Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski’s Cochon Butcher, a swine palace of piggy goodness that dishes a killer version stuffed with house cured meats. cochonbutcher.com

Save room for dessert at the handsomely redone Brennan’s on Royal Street. After a cocktail-fueled Breakfast at Brennan’s, a three-hour process powered by the likes of turtle soup and eggs Sardou, it’s time for the floor show and tableside bananas foster, a dramatically flambéed dessert that was invented right here. brennansneworleans.com

It’s quite a show, and the Mardi Gras Parade Tracker app (mardigrasparadetracker.com) can help you navigate your way. Another resource is Arthur Hardy’s Mardi Gras Guide (mardigrasguide.com), which is also sold at most French Quarter stores. Enjoy, and laissez les bons temps rouler!

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 

History of Patrol Torpedo Boats

My first exposure to the term PT Boats (Patrol Torpedo) was courtesy of Ernest Borgnine in the 1960s sitcom McHale’s Navy. Set in the Pacific theater of World War II, the fictional crew of PT-73 were wacky but dedicated sailors, always outsmarting the enemy and Navy brass and made us laugh about an otherwise serious side of war.

Patrol Torpedo boats were fast, highly maneuverable and saw battle not only in the Pacific but also along the southern French coastline, the Mediterranean and in the defense of Italy. One such vessel named PT-305 survived dozens of operations, a few near-misses and, until about 10 years ago, decades of neglect. Now, it’s about to see action again on Lake Pontchartrain as part of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.

PT-305 at its final resting place in the National WWII Museum.

Beginning March 25th, PT-305—the world’s only fully restored, combat veteran PT boat—will launch 45-minute deck tours for the cost of $12-$15 per person. For those of you who are history junkies with $350 to spare, a thrilling 90-minute ride with a five-member crew helps bring history to life. “For the last 10 years, 200 volunteers put in 105,000 hours of blood, sweat and tears into the restorations,” says Stephen Watson, museum executive vice president. In December, Watson spoke to a gathering of reporters as the PT boat was carefully trailered through the streets of New Orleans from the museum’s restoration pavilion to a new permanent home. This final stop is currently undergoing completion as part of a redevelopment of the lake’s shores following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Many maritime facets of New Orleans are slowly coming back to life since Hurricane Katrina, and grandiose plans are in the works for an amphitheater, music studio and arts center adjacent to the idle South Shore Harbor Marina.

This is a homecoming of sorts for PT-305. Built in New Orleans by Higgins Industries nearly 70 years ago, the vessel was found by the museum in Galveston, Texas, showing the ugly scars of war and many modifications. By the numbers, PT-305 went to sea on 77 offensive patrols and operations, and she saw action in 11 separate naval skirmishes. She also participated in the sinking of three German ships during her 14-month deployment. After the war, the battle-hardened boat turned civilian in New York as a tour boat. She would later become a fishing boat and finally, after years of neglect, she resurfaced as a relic just waiting for rescue.

Watson says, “The restoration of PT-305, like all museum restoration projects, is aimed at making history accessible to today’s audiences in as detailed and authentic a way as possible.” Tickets for the launch of PT-305 are available online at pt305.org.

By Alan Wendt, Southern Boating Magazine March 2017

Katrina 10 years later

“I’ve got ¾-inch nylon lines that I use for storms, and the boat gets so much pressure on it with the ropes getting so tight that they become like piano wires,” says Dennis Raziano. “The lines were actually sawing through the boat in places and they started moaning.” Raziano rode out Hurricane Katrina on board his 34-foot liveaboard oyster trawler in the Orleans Marina in West End New Orleans. “I was taught many years ago to never leave the boat. Even if it’s floating down the highway—you never leave the boat.”
The miserable and dangerous adventure Raziano and a few other brave souls went through in New Orleans in the summer of 2005 during and after the storm was ill-advised, but a decade after its landfall on the Mississippi Coast and the levee failures in New Orleans, their stories are now legend. After this terrible chapter, the recreational boating community on the Northern Gulf Coast has made great advances toward rebuilding and now holds thousands of state-of-the-art marinas and mended yacht clubs.

In Mississippi alone, nearly 1,000 slips have been rebuilt in marinas from Pass Christian to Pascagoula, and an entire new marina has been constructed adjacent to the historic and quaint downtown of Bay St. Louis. Out of the 33 Gulf Yachting Association’s yacht clubs from New Orleans to Pensacola—including 3 of the 5 oldest clubs in the Western Hemisphere—18 have been rebuilt or repaired. The 166-year-old Southern Yacht Club of New Orleans has a new 30,000-square-foot facility. Many of the more than 150 years of historic trophies and Olympic medals lost in the dual calamities of fire and water are slowly being replaced, including a Lipton sailing trophy, which was generously rebuilt by the Lipton Tea Company using the original London silversmith.
On the coast, junior sailing programs have been re-invigorated. Fishing tournaments and 150-year-old regattas have quickly returned with participation now getting back to “Pre-K” numbers as boats have been replaced and boat shows have boomed, including the Gulf Coast Yacht and Boat Show that relocated in 2010 to Gulfport, Mississippi.
The one outlier has been the Municipal Yacht Harbor in New Orleans and its 600+ slips. One of three public marinas in the city, the marina’s management board has been battling with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for rebuilding funds and now stands as a flashing beacon of bureaucracy, still without utilities and half empty.
The New Orleans’ boaters and the many businesses that serve them have struggled but learned to make do. New Orleans and this heavy boating community along the Gulf Coast will have endured everything from catastrophic hurricanes to oil spills, yet the strong boating culture and its infrastructure will continue their resurgence. The love of pulling in those red snappers or racing sailboats in century-old regattas will never be quashed on this coast—we are boat people.

By Troy Gildert, Southern Boating Magazine September 2015

Megayacht marina in New Orleans

As a growing home to a fleet of cruise ships exploring the Caribbean, a large stretch of New Orleans’ massive wharfs on the lower Mississippi River have been modified and beautified for passenger traffic, including megayachts. For Superbowl XLVII in 2013, the wharves adjacent to the convention center and just a few blocks from the French Quarter were treated to a rare spectacle of two large yachts—Kismet, the 308′ Lürssen yacht owned by Shahid Khan, who also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Paul Allen’s 414′ Octopus. Now the city of New Orleans is floating the idea of a large megayacht marina on the Mississippi River as part of what could be a massive $1 billion riverfront redevelopment and expansion of their hugely successful convention center.

Centrally located on the Northern Gulf Coast, New Orleans is already home to large recreational marinas, the second oldest yacht club in the western hemisphere, and the sprawling Trinity Yachts boatyards. The city’s historic marina district of West End on Lake Pontchartrain is the home port for Saints owner Tom Benson’s 122′ yacht Lady Gayle Marie and others that regularly transit the lake’s near uniform depth of 12′ and the Rigolets Pass into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean.

The proposed marina would seek to allow vessels walking distance access to the French Quarter and be located on a bend upriver from the central business district and away from the currents and shipping traffic on the nearly mile-wide river. According to officials from the Port of New Orleans, the Mississippi is a fully navigable river and therefore open to recreational vessels, however docking facilities are only currently recommended and available to boats over 100′.

A side benefit of the proposed marina could possibly come in the form of capturing cruisers transiting the Great Loop. With a dearth of facilities and fueling stations located on the long stretch of the river from Memphis to New Orleans, most Loopers opt for the traditional route down the Tombigbee waterway that exits into Mobile Bay in Alabama, but this marina could open up a new alternative route for the more adventurous.

With New Orleans experiencing an unprecedented modern period of growth, gentrification and as a host for major events such as the Superbowl and Mardi Gras, it seems natural for the city to attempt to capitalize more on its natural allure as a cruising destination. Construction of a marina capable of handling large yachts only a few blocks from the French Quarter would go a long way to achieving these goals and allow for yacht owners to realize their fantasy of playing Huck Finn on the mighty Mississippi.

By Troy Gilbert, Southern Boating April 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.

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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

Delightful Dockside Dining

One great aspect of cruising on the Gulf Coast is the history and culture associated with waterfront dining at restaurants and watering holes. Tying up to the piers puts you in touch with a culinary tradition that dates as far back as 1859 at Bruning’s in New Orleans’ West End. Others such as the Fly Creek Inn in Fairhope, Alabama, were known haunts of writers and poets who were drawn to the unmistakable ambiance and connection to the food and drink that comes from being on the water in the Deep South.

Today, there are hundreds of great local haunts for everything from fried grouper baskets to the freshest oysters, and while this space is too small to list them all, here are a few great seafood joints from west to east to keep in mind when cruising the Gulf.

LOUISIANA:

Brisbi’s—New Orleans: West End was the home to seafood waterfront dining for over 150 years until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Today, the restaurants are coming back and Brisbi’s is leading the charge. Tie up and enjoy the relaxed open-air oyster bar downstairs, or head upstairs to what many call the “Yat Club” for great New Orleans seafood.

Morton’s—Madisonville: On the deepwater Tchefuncte River on northern Lake Pontchartrain in quaint Madisonville, the staff is never in a rush at Morton’s—but neither are you while you’re there. With the best crawfish on the north shore, everything is always fresh, even down to the mirliton dressing.

MISSISSIPPI:

Trapani’s—Bay St. Louis: Located adjacent to the recently completed municipal marina, Trapani’s has been dishing out some of the best seafood and po-boys on the Mississippi Coast for 20 years. After lunch or dinner, stroll one of the cutest towns on all of the Gulf Coast.

ALABAMA:

JT’s Sunset Grill—Dauphin Island: Located on the western side of the island, JT’s is that sort of relaxed joint where you can get your fix of fried oysters and a side of fishermen’s tall tales. Slip space can get tight, so head over early for lunch or dinner.

LuLu’s—Gulf Shores: More like a destination, Jimmy Buffet’s sister owns LuLu’s, and it has the exact feel of the sort of place a sister of Jimmy’s would run. With a ton of adjacent slips on the ICW, eating at LuLu’s is more of an event with live music and volleyball, but always check out the daily specials.

FLORIDA:

Boathouse Oyster Bar—Destin: Sidle up to this waterfront joint and the staff will scurry out to help you dock. Inside this well-worn and casual joint are fantastic oysters prepared numerous ways. Call ahead and they’ll have fresh tuna steak sandwiches on French bread with chips in brown paper bags waiting for you on the pier.

Dockside Café—Port St. Joe: Fried grouper baskets, fresh oysters from next-door Apalachicola, and every type of rum drink imaginable await at the Port St. Joe Marina. It’s the ideal spot on St. Joseph’s Bay to watch the sunset and listen to lone wolf guitarists doing Jimmy Buffet cover bands.

By Troy Gilbert, Southern Boating January 2015

Southern Traditions

As the first cool fronts make their way down from the north and with the holidays right around the corner, the second major boating season gets underway on the Northern Gulf Coast. Flatboats and pirogues are readied and ponds in the marshes are scouted. Fishermen head out for those big reds and trout that got away over the summer, and the oystermen fan out from the coast to bring in those salty mollusks so necessary for this coast’s holiday celebrations.

Thanksgiving and Christmas on the Gulf Coast have always featured time-honored traditions incorporating boating with holiday meals that reach back to subsistence fishing and hunting. It’s hard not to notice the flatboats covered in fresh marsh grass on Thanksgiving morning in New Orleans’ Garden District with hunters rushing in their camouflage gear to start the smokers. On the coast of Mississippi, boats skippered by “paw paws” and grandfathers are eased back onto their trailers as the proud and sleepy grandkids are ready for a nap from their quick morning of trawling for the day’s shrimp. On the bayous of Alabama, crab traps are raised and early morning trout are cleaned while the luggers in Apalachicola bring in those all-important oysters.

As families descend on their gathering spots on the coast from Pass Christian to Bon Secour and from New Orleans to Clearwater, ladies in their kitchens and men at their culinary stations out back come alive. Recipes handed down from generations long past  are shared with the next in line. The number of oysters in this year’s dressing is marked on the handwritten recipe that now scrolls back fifty years. Empty shotgun shell casings and old tangled fishing line are placed with moss, green mirlitons and heirloom crystal candleholder centerpieces, while laughter and the smell of redfish court-bouillon permeate the house. Out back, brothers and uncles sip on cold beer while their sons and daughters watch as ducks wrapped in bacon are smoked to perfection—the black labs wait for that one dropped bird.

On piers and docks, oysters are charbroiled while a brisk cold wind whips down across the sounds and bays—boats pop in the water in a building chop while sailboat stanchions clink. Windows of the houses glow with the warm yellow light of families and friends gathered, their cars parked in the lawn underneath sprawling oaks next to a few boat trailers holding license plates from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

While the arriving winter means many cruisers across the country prepare to put their boats to bed under cover for the inevitable snow and ice, on the Gulf Coast and throughout the South, boating springs to life in a second season. Away from the summer waterskiing, regattas and the heat of waiting on that tuna to bite off shore, many might say that it’s the more important boating  season.

By Troy Gilbert, Southern Boating November 2014

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