We got an early start this morning, but then had to wait for over an hour at the Leland-Bowman Locks, Mile 162 W.  The locks were open on both sides and the lockmaster was running traffic through when we arrived but there were three coming from the east and then six or more of us waiting to go west.  The barges going east went through first.  The lockmaster put us second in line with the westward bound traffic so we got through earlier than we hoped when we saw the long line of vessels.  The wind was gusting up to 24 at times, but we were only motorsailing at about 5 or 6 kts most of the time because the wind also went down to about 7 or 8 kts.  We had quite a few barges behind us just waiting to overtake us, but they slowed down for every bend so we kept ahead of them.  We plan on heading out to the Gulf tomorrow, as there is an entrance to it near our anchorage tonight.  The GIWW is an easy way to travel to Texas, but the barge traffic is just unreal.  Most of the time it is OK, but anytime we’re near an intersection or a lock or an industrial town, the barges tend to back up.  The Gulf weather looks good for the next four or five days, although the winds are going to be light.  Mark is doing a fantastic job of sailing.  I guess the good thing about this trip is we are learning a lot, however, we’re quite sure we won’t come back this way again. 

All day long, we stayed in between two barges, all of us going about the same speed.  The empty barges have problems with the wind, so they pulled over and buried themselves in the mud.  We have a feeling the commercial traffic would like us to stay off their waterway, just as some truck drivers probably prefer passenger cars stay away from them.  This morning, there were two other sailboats headed east from the marina we were at last night.  Other than those sailing vessels, and the two a few days ago, we haven’t seen any other “pleasure craft.”

The weather forecast for today was showers in the morning and thunderstorms in the afternoon.  We got neither. We are protected in the Intracoastal and the anchorage we chose for tonight is also protected, several miles off the GIWW.  One more day on this GIWW and then we’ll be on the Gulf for awhile.  It will be nice to see open water and not all these barges, although we’ve made good time on the Intracoastal.  Everything is well marked on the charts, but today we did come up on a cable over the water.  The height wasn’t marked anywhere, so we took it slow and it appeared to be just a foot or so above our mast. 

When we reached our anchorage, we discovered that the 12 feet listed in the cruising guides we have was actually below four feet, so we went on.  We finally found another one which worked well and was quite protected. That was lucky because during the night we had thunderstorms.

In the morning, Mark walked Daisy on a very narrow beach.  It was raining and miserable but Daisy was happy.