Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers
by Bob Kranich
Robert’s Best, (Part 8, Excerpt 93) This is a new story. Robert’s Best is a sail boat. Grandfather Roberts is going to sail it on the Intercostal waterway from Texas to Key West, Florida. That will be an adventure. Then his grandchildren and their parents will come to Key West on a visit. There will be a lot of funny happenings until the criminals from a previous story get into action. A side note is that a 1935 antique Chris-Craft Model 557 Cabin Cruiser is going to play an important part in the rest of the story. Grandfather Roberts is on his trip to Key West, Florida in his sail boat via the Intercostal Waterway. He is getting ready to start his fourth day, and is going to come upon a young fella who will guide him up to New Orleans.
Roberts’ Best
We did use up some film on a pair of eagles that we scared up from a tall cypress tree close to the canal.
“This looks like we’ve come into a lake,” I noticed.
“It’s true, now we’re passing through a couple of lakes and soon the Waterway will also use a couple of Bayous,” Nicholas stated.
At mid-afternoon we entered a straight-cut canal. “Tom, this area before Houma is all an oil and gas producing area, nothing around except canals, and oil and gas producing equipment sticking out of the water. Keep a sharp lookout.”
“We’re coming into Houma, Tom. There’s a giant marina there with all the facilities. We can get water, fuel, our tanks pumped out, and ourselves filled up with good Cajun food. Then tomorrow if you want we should be able to make the forty-five miles to Lafitte.”
“Sounds good to me, Nicholas,” I agreed.
We eased into the Houma ‘Downtown Marina’. “Now there’s no fuel right here. But Tom, my uncle and I know the people running the oil and fuel depot just right over there. I’m going to call them and plan for an early refuel tomorrow morning.”
“You’ve did it again. Thanks Nicholas. You’ve been a Godsend, by making this part of my trip a breeze. Now let’s eat!”
True to his word and pre-planning, we fueled up early the next morning.
“Tom, this next ten miles is a ‘No Wake Zone’.* We’ll have to motor slow.”
“Nicholas, what is that up ahead? It looks like the bridge is lying on the water!”
“It really is! It’s the Bayou Blue Pontoon Bridge. Basically the road goes across on a barge. We need to signal him, one long and one short horn blast. Then we wait until he gives us a Clear-Go-Ahead. He pulls the barge with steel cables that are just under the water. We don’t want to get snagged by those cables!”
The pontoon barge moved out of the way, then...Beep!
“That’s the all clear. We can go now,” Nicholas said.
Fifteen miles further we entered the area of a small Acadian town called Larose. There were small shipyards at either end with fishing trawlers and all types of pleasure boats lining the banks between. Again it was slow going with the “No Wake Zones’.
“That bayou there going south, is the Bayou LaFurche. It will take you to the Gulf in thirty-five miles,” Nicholas informed me. “All along our port side is the big Lake Salador. After we pass the red-day beacons numbers four and two we’ve got to stay in the middle of the channel because that stretch is called ‘Stump Alley’. There’s all kinds of cypress knees along the sides of the banks and lots of hyacinths to foul our prop.”
“I’ll keep in the center, Nicholas. Thanks for the warning.”
“Tom, we’re approaching the town of Lafitte. Of course it’s named after one of the most infamous pirates of the Gulf Coast. As can be expected, people always keep a lookout for his buried treasures.”
“We could use some of that, Nicholas,” I exclaimed with a laugh in my voice.
“Tom, we’ll go a little bit out of our way to the right. It’s down the Barataria Waterway. There are two good marinas there. Might as well take the first one. There’s plenty of facilities there.”
“You’re the guide, Nicholas. Let’s do it!”
The next morning: “Tom, we’ve got about five miles of homes with docks and boats next. Then we’ll be in the Harvey Canal. It was dug by hand in the early 1720’s. However it didn’t go through the Mississippi levee. They had to unload their goods and carry them over the levee and reload on the other side. Thank goodness, today we’ll use the Harvey Lock. It is also used for flood control and to prevent saltwater from getting into the marsh lands.”
“Nicholas, it looks like we’re getting into lots of commercial traffic. Look at those tugs and trawlers coming our way.”
“Yep, Tom, keep a sharp lookout, and let’s monitor the VHF radio.”
“Hey Nicholas, I just heard a boat captain speaking French!”
That’s right Tom. They still speak French around here. This is where the French Arcadians from Nova Scotia came in seventeen fifty five. They can speak both French and English and mix both languages up at the same time. There’s the Harvey Lock up ahead. Let’s call the Lockmaster on the VHF Channel 13.”
“Lockmaster Harvey Lock.
This is Roberts’ Best, twenty eight foot sail’n sloop.
Request permission to traverse lock...over.”
“Roberts’ Best, Lockmaster Harvey Lock.
Proceed.
Stay in center, give way to any commercial traffic...over.”
“Oh my goodness, Nicholas, it’s the Mississippi!” I exclaimed as we left the lock and entered the huge expanse of the Mississippi River. The center of the city of New Orleans was on the opposite bank.
The Mississippi River is one of the largest and longest waterways in the world. It is over two thousand miles long, draining from Canada to the Gulf. New Orleans was founded in 1718 by a French trading company and named for a French duke. Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to Thomas Jefferson’s fledgling country in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. It is one of the world’s largest ports for both oil and tonnage and is renowned for its multicultural heritage, food, and music traditions.
“I guess I’ve gotten used to it, Tom. But you’re right, it is a sight! What we’re going to do is go right in about a mile, around the bend past the French Quarter and continue on the Waterway to the left. We’ll be going through a lock which is similar to the Harvey Lock.”
“Nicholas, do you have the time for a few additional hours of guiding? How about you and I do a brief tour of this here New Orleans?”
“Tell you what, Tom, since it’s early, I’m going to see if I can convince one of the riverboat captains to let us tie up for a few hours. Right over there. I know those guys.”
We cut across the wide Mississippi and up to a paddle-wheel boat that dwarfed the Roberts’ Best. Nicholas was conspicuously standing up on the front deck of the Roberts’ Best. He waved at the control house, and a guy stuck his head out.
“Hey, Nicholas, what-you-a do’n on that fancy sloop?”
“Hi François, can my friend and I tie up for a few hours?”
“We’re just now leaving, it will be few minutes. Go’n up river to Biloxi. You can have it till we get back tomorrow.”
“Stand clear and watch his wake, Tom,” Nicolas cautioned as he waved to his friend. The gigantic paddle wheels began to turn and churn, throwing a volume of water high up into the air. I backed up aways, keeping a watch out for river traffic. As the paddle wheeler headed out into the Mississippi and upstream, I brought the Roberts’ Best up to the paddle-wheel’s dock. Nicholas jumped out and tied us up fast.
“How did you do that, Nicholas?” I exclaimed.
“When I stayed here with Grandma for a couple of years I worked part-time with those guys on the Cajun Queen.”
“You sure have gotten around for a young guy!”
“Tom, let’s lock up, and catch a riverfront streetcar to the French Quarter\
From The Author:
My second full-length book , Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers is composed of 336 pages. There are 12 stories running from 6 pages to as many as 72 pages. It is fully illustrated with 88 watercolors and sketches. The watercolors I made roaming around Key West after I finished my 750 mile hike from Georgia to Key West. (See book or Don Browne’s SouthWest Florida Online News records, A Walk Across Florida.) As you read these stories you will experience Key West, the Keys, and the Caribbean. These stories span the time of the early 1800’s to 1969.
bkranich.wixsite.com/bobkranich
