Update on our trip, yesterday we were just lucky, I guess, to suck up a couple more pieces of sticks. First one I barely got out while prying with the knife and the second one came right out. if you don’t have clean out ports i’d strongly recommend staying away from the Gravois arm. The Gravois arm has always had some floating hazards, and we are staying around the 6MM, so we have a bit to get to the main channel. Really got to test out the maneuverability swerving to miss things, my 3 year old daughter thought it was fun haha. We went all the way to Paradise (24-25MM) which took us around an hour. After lunch there the big boats started coming out but it really wasn’t too bad, smacked just a few times.
Made it to Backwater Jacks (18MM) and that place was packed, we met a family that lived 20 miles from us as we were leaving and warned us that they couldn’t go over 20mph on the main channel now. It was busy but I could maintain a speed of 26-27mph safely, only slowing down a few times to go over the very large wakes from the large boats.
Sadly, when we made it to Franky&Louies (10MM) the boat got its first 2in scar. It was busy and the entrance was partially blocked by a 40’ monster of a boat. I swung it just a little too wide and clipped a dock on the rear starboard side, the wife wasn’t too happy but after seeing I can repair it with just a little gel coat it was fine. I asked her if she would like to try to dock when it’s very busy and you have boats in front and behind you, but she said no thanks ??.
The rain was moving in quicker than expected and we had about 9 miles to get back. Ended up getting caught in a light shower just before the monsoon hit. High enough winds a large tree branch fell next door to us. We moved it out of the road to be nice. I was happy to not suck anything else up on our way back home though. The main channel was way better than the Gravois arm, when talking the floating hazards. Today we will be staying in the Gravois arm since, well you know, it’s big boat Saturday. Gonna make a trip to the Gas Hole, then to Jolly Rogers, and finishing our boating day at Coconuts. And probably Big Dicks for dinner (by car).
On a final note, I want to say we got around 2-2.5mpg. Filled up at Paradise at 17 gallons and we took a boat ride the prior day. Estimated miles to Paradise is around 33 from where we are, plus a few miles from the previous day. That’s going 26-28mph @ 7-8k RPMs, with 4 adults and one kid, two coolers, and some other gear.
