HARVEY LOCKS IN NEW ORLEANS - IN & OUT

MAY 4, 2012

Well today is the day.  We move from the Old Fleming Store anchorage at mile marker 15 into the famous city of New Orleans.  We pulled anchor at 7:30 & headed out, back on the ICW.  The weather is great & we reach our first bridge just after 9AM.  Next up the Lapalco Blvd Bascule Bridge at mile marker at mile marker 2.8 ,the wait was about 30 min.  The Harvey Canal Twin bridges have 95ft of clearance that was easy, on we went to the Harvey Locks.  This is our first encounter with locks, we only had to wait ½ an hour waiting on barges coming the other way.  The Harvey Locks are at mile marker 0 in the ICW.  We have traveled 354 miles since leaving Kemah. 

 

The lock keepers put us through alone & had us tie up to mooring points.  We waited for the water to come up & then the lock master let us out the other side.  Piece of cake.  Now the mile markers start going up.

SASSY CAT WAITING ON BRIDGE



The Industrial Locks are five miles north of the Harvey Canal Locks.  The traffic was heavy & we found Sassy Cat waiting patiently to be put through.  We got in line.  This time we went through with 2 other vessels.  The lock master had us raft up next to Sassy Cat that was tied to the wall of the lock.  The water went down instead of up & the lock master opened the other end.  After waiting for lift bridges or just passing under at least 4 more bridges we were FREE!

Coming out on the other side of New Orleans was great.  We passed mile marker 0.  The water got deeper, cleaner & wider.  What’s not to like.  We were headed for mile marker EHL (east of the Harvey Locks) 34.  Rabbit Island.  We dropped anchor at 4:30 PM after a stressful day dealing with things we were not familiar with. 

RABBIT ISLAND



When evening settled in there were 3 other boats sharing our anchorage, the breeze was cool & the sunset was beautiful.  And we have learned new things once again.