Topic starter
09/02/2010 5:40 pm
Its a cold blustery day here, but I guess we're getting about 8 inches of snow back home, so relatively speaking it isn't bad. The city is still basking in the warm glow of the World Champion Saints' Super Bowl victory - the parade is tonight and while it is tempting to stay hunkered down in this warm apartment and watch it on local TV, I'll venture the 11 blocks over to Canal St. to be there in person. I doubt if the cold will keep many away. They are using 12 floats from Mardi Gras krewes which the krewes have kindly loaned for this effort, since there was no time to build special ones. It is hard to believe that Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday is just one week from today, as the purple/green/gold decorations are outnumbered by the black and gold here in the FQ at least. I imagine that after tonight's parade, the switch will be flipped to Carnival again. Thursday night begins the daily procession of parades. I've been in town for 48 hours already and have only taken one trip on the NATCHEZ. The 2:30 on Sunday was cancelled so crew could get home for the game, and we just ran the 2:30 yesterday. That is the only trip scheduled for today also. I spent most of the trip in the dining room visiting with one of the NATCHEZ' legends, Edna James. If you've ever ridden the N., you've probably met Edna in the dining room. She has been with the boat from the beginning, and along with the late Geneva Robinson has been an unofficial member of the Dow family. I'm posting her picture here to jog your memory - you may not remember the name, but you'll remember the person. She, Iola Booker and I were the M&F caterers - a name we gave ourselves years ago when we would be making 3000 finger sandwiches and other finger foods for charters. The letters were related to what a long ago departed F&B manager referred to the 'grunts' in the dining room(in contrast to the sweet young things)... over the January layup a lot of painting was done, the decks are sparkling. New carpet was put in the dining room, but the colors are so similar to the old that it probably is going unnoticed. The chairs were also redone to match the carpeting. But there were no major alterations made, apparently. I haven't traversed the whole boat yet, but here are a few pictures from yesterday. By the way, we have high water, very high for this early in the season, around 14 feet. The boils in the bend are swirling away, as is the eddy along the east bank by Toulouse St.
1) Edna James
2) new carpet and upholstered chairs in dining room
3) at Toulouse St. at 14 ft. river stage, Saints flags flapping briskly
more pix later, this is a very slow connection
09/02/2010 7:44 pm
Judy,
Since you are down there...what is up with the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN? She still over there? More stuff gone? How are things with the CREOLE QUEEN? They still running? Heard any scuttlebutt about the AQ and RiverBarge coming in to Robin Street?
And most of all...pass my greetings on to the crew of the NATCHEZ....I haven't seen many of them since 05 up here...so if they don't remember me, its cool!
Travis
09/02/2010 9:25 pm
Hey Judy is that the same Geneva that worked on the DQ and maybe the MQ at one time? i remember Geneva but not sure if it was Robinson and it seems like I remember her working on both boats.
Topic starter
09/02/2010 11:22 pm
not many answers either
No, Mel, that is a different Geneva. I remember the DQ/MQ Geneva too, but totally different.
Travis, the MQ is still there looking the same, although we turned well short of Perry St. The river is high and we were going against 30 mph winds today, so I didn't see much. No scuttlebutt either, although not much time to talk today with the conditions as they were...more concern about where each of us was going to try to view the Saints parade, which has just started as I type this. Slim crowd on the boat today, but everyone has taken their spot on the parade route or is stuck in traffic trying to get there, so there isn't much going on in the FQ right now. They've got a 2 evening charters plus a Bacchus Mag Suite coming up, so the MG phase of business should be starting up tomorrow. You just can't imagine how the Saints have taken over this town - and for any non-sports fans, its more than that, believe me. Today, one week from Fat Tuesday, is Dat Tuesday!
1) What Dat? full item picture posted later...
2), 3) bow lines, overnight setup
Topic starter
09/02/2010 11:37 pm
more NATCHEZ pictures
1) Looking aft in the dining room
2) chandeliers in their current state, which has different globes than the originals
3) the port crosshead
Topic starter
09/02/2010 11:58 pm
still more NATCHEZ IX
1) a new section of the high tech guard bumper
2) on the port side of the pilothouse, the pipe to the whistle and out to the calliope. What is the reason for the loops in both, something about expansion?
3) the flag room under the pilothouse. It is so named because the roof flags, among other things, are stored in here. This room was placed to elevate the pilothouse and allow the big pilotwheel's bottom half to turn through here. Of course, the CG squashed that idea, because the pilotwheel was wooden and a fire hazard. Of course, it is on the boat anyway, displayed in the dining room. Guess its not a fire hazard there???
Topic starter
10/02/2010 12:11 am
a couple of river scenes
1) one of the coldest jobs in town - a welder working on the bow of an ocean-going barge at Todd/Avondale/NorthrupGrumman shipyard on the West Bank
2) some of the high water turbulence below Algiers Bend
3) the Canal St. ferry absolutely packed with fans coming over for the Saints parade. The capacity is 800, but they cut it off at 500 due to a full load of vehicles too. We could see a throng still waiting for the next trip.... too bad we couldn't have made a little side trip and gotten that $1 per that the Bridge Commission charges.... note the shadow of the NATCHEZ' stacks and pilothouse.
10/02/2010 3:09 am
Yes, the honcho of the Merchant Marine Technical Branch at New Orleans was an asylum-case to begin with and the Natchez was designed soon after the Yarmouth Castle disaster. Wood muntins in the pilothouse sash were forbidden because they might somehow cause a fire. The dance floor had to be a postage stamp-sized thin wooden mat. Light fixtures in the cabin had to be watertight, even though by the time they were submerged in a sinking the generator would already be thirty feet under water. I was obliged to calculate all wood aboard because the thickness could not exceed two 28ths of an inch for each square foot of bulkhead surface. Wood handrails were ruled out. Even the paddlewheel was considered to be a fire hazard by that fool.
Imagine my shock when I saw the General Jackson, which was designed a few months later under the supervision of a different MM Technical man in Seattle. She had wood everywhere - railings, drapery, etc., abounded.
This is a big problem in dealing with the Coast Guard because an officious nut can hold an owner's feet to the fire for trivial reasons.
10/02/2010 7:00 am
Thanks Judy I always loved Geneva. U sure make me miss my days growing up in the Quarter when the Parades still went down Royal and Up Bourbon. Those were the days. Coming home with gorcery bags full of throws and going to at least 2 parades a nite.
10/02/2010 2:12 pm
Judy: Yes, those are expansion loops in the steam lines. While 56 millionths of and inch per inch per degree F might not seem like much, there are a LOT of inches and a LOT of degrees and those loops absorb the dimension change without stressing the line. Interesting pix...cold and snowy up here. Cap'n Walnut
Topic starter
10/02/2010 3:05 pm
The whole thing
Here is the complete object I posted earlier: it is the pilotwheel which was too much wood for the pilothouse, but obviously not a fire hazard at the stern of the dining room.
It is cold here, only 36 but sunny. But when I called home to check whether the earthquake was felt there, it wasn't. But we got 8 inches of snow yesterday and it is to go to -19 tonight. I return home tomorrow. Brrr.
It is rather brisk riding a bike down here though.
Topic starter
10/02/2010 6:28 pm
Unusual angles
Thanks, Tom, I like to take pictures of things one might not normally consider photoworthy, but which do show the intracacies of the boat. I tried to post a pix of the NATCHEZ' camber, in response to our newcomer's comments about straight lines on boats, but I couldn't post it as it was in another thread - don't understand why we can't repost. I'll try to take a couple of pix today to illustrate the graceful curved lines of the N.
1) at the Saints parade last night - note how times have changed - hands in the air are holding cellphones taking pictures of the festivities. This was on Canal St. in front of the former Holmes Dept. Store, now the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. It was toasty while in the crowd, but the bike ride back to the apartment was 'brisk'.
2) the port side of the main deck of the NATCHEZ, looking aft. The river stage is high, almost 14 ft, so the wharf decking is almost even with the deck. Normal river stages have very few passengers going to the Main Deck at first, because it isn't visible from the shore.
10/02/2010 8:50 pm
In picture #1, is that blue thing some sort of protection from the wind. Nay, that is not one of the coldest jobs in town, it is one of the coldest jobs in the world. At least the poor guy has some sort of protection.
10/02/2010 9:50 pm
Hey Judy, just out of curiosity is Maison Blanche still there. when I was growing up Maison Blanche and DH Holmes right across the street were big competitors.
Topic starter
10/02/2010 11:19 pm
Blue tarp
Lexie Palmore;20373 wrote: In picture #1, is that blue thing some sort of protection from the wind. Nay, that is not one of the coldest jobs in town, it is one of the coldest jobs in the world. At least the poor guy has some sort of protection.
Well, it was the idea, but the wind was coming onshore, so it just ended up like a sail... that barge was gone today, so he must have gotten the job done.
Topic starter
10/02/2010 11:23 pm
Maison Blanche
Nope, MB is also a hotel now... and the whereabouts of Mr. Bingle are unknown.