Bayou La Batre - Blessing of the Fleet

Sunday, May 1, 2005 brint.adams@us.army.mil

Sunday's weather turned out to be gorgeous, as Linda and I met Rob and Roland for today's paddle. We drove west on I-10 from Mobile to exit 15 and turned south on Hwy 90, passing through Theodore. We turned left on CR 23 and right on Padgett to take us into Bayou La Batre. After driving over the draw bridge into the small downtown, we turned right at the light and followed the street along the bayou on out to the mouth where it empties into the gulf.

We put in at the public boat ramp, right next to a blood-red decent-sized diesel fuel slick. The wind was blowing pretty hard downstream as we tried to make headway upstream against the outgoing tide. So, we had a double-whammy to contend with on the early part of the paddle. We tried to stay out of the wind and falling tide by staying close to the shrimp boats lined up all along the docks.

We waved to a few workmen cleaning and painting, while others were preparing nets on the 100-200 colorful boats we passed along the way. There were also many rusting away with foreclosure stickers warning to stay off. The closer we got to the downtown area, the more boats we passed which were decorated with flags, religious signs and banners. These were the boats to take part in the parade later in the afternoon. In addition to all of the boats along the docks, we passed many repair yards and seafood company docks.

We finally made it up to the downtown area, where many more decorated boats were docked along the grounds of the Catholic Church and School, where the festivities were taking place. We decided to continue upriver, past more shrimp boats and yachts. Eventually, we got out of the business district and into a beautiful wooded, residential area, where the bayou narrowed considerably. After 1.75 hours of hard paddling upriver, we decided to make the easy return trip back down. We found some of the locals decorating their pleasure boats for entry into the parade as well.

Although we paddled much more leisurely, we made it all of the way back in one hour, due to both the following current and wind. We stopped along the way to take some pictures of the decorated boats of all sizes, which were beginning to congregate in anticipation of the parade. With more powerboat traffic starting to kick up some more chop in the narrow channel, we decided to keep moving and get off the water as soon as we could.

After we arived at the boat launch, we spoke with some USCG people, who were cleaning up the diesel spill and starting to investigate where it was coming from.

Our next goal accomplished was to partake of the festivities, especially the seafood dinner spread of boiled shrimp, fried oysters and fish, gumbo and all of the fixin's. After a little browsing around the grounds, craft booths and boat dock area, Linda and I decided to forgo the parade and head on back.

Bayou La Batre is an interesting and beautiful place, well worth paddling to see both the hustle of the shrimp docks and the serenity of the upper bayou.