[Judy Patsch]

Greetings from NOLA, finally. It seems like more than 3 months since I've been here. I got in Monday in time to take 2 trips on the steamer NATCHEZ. The afternoon trip happened to have Bill Dow aboard. It was good to see him after several years. The dinner trip got 'interesting' around the sugar refinery as fog started rolling in. It was never shutout and you could see bank to bank, but the little harbor boats working around the anchorage were difficult to spot. It was great teamwork by Capt. Troy C. Delaney the pilot and Capt. Steven Nicoulin the master who watched the AIS. This Capt. Steven is the younger - he was a month old when I started working on the NATCHEZ... As river people are so good to help each other, Capt. Troy called the CREOLE QUEEN as she started her downbound cruise to alert them of the fog ahead, which allowed them to rearrange their route a bit. One of the changes I noticed from August is the removal of the old levee around Algiers Point. They had breeched it this spring to relieve some pressure from the high water, but now it is gradually being leveled. The newer levee which has been in place for about a decade, is about 100 feet inland from the original one. The river level is low, about 2.5, so the 'beach' isn't showing yet below the Toulouse St. Wharf, but you can see the wave action affected by it. It appears that ship traffic is up - there were more ships in the Anchorage than usual, quite a few at the docks, and quite a few passing us, including NOBRA 70 on an upbound yesterday afternoon. Over at the Beauregard-Keyes House (where my apartment is still vacant), they've had to do some emergency shoring up under the ballroom area as the foundation wall is bowing. There is a new director and the house is again open for tours and rentals. There is no 11:30 trip today, so it looks like a trip to a golf course while it is still hot and muggy - a cold front is due tomorrow.

1) The NATCHEZ at Toulouse St., river stage 2.5. You can see the nameboard beginning to be obscured by the wharf - and of course the new food and beverage shed obscures the view all the time.
2) Capt. Bill Dow watching Capt. Troy C. Delaney landing at 4:30.
3) The levee over on Algiers Point. Some of you might remember the old looking restaurant which was built right out on the point for the 1984 Worlds Fair business. It lasted a few years, was closed for several, and finally bulldozed, leaving the Point land empty.