T&T: Gustav report

[Larry N. Brown]

Well, here we are. Planned to be up the Tenn-Tom about now but things just 
sort of interfered and here we are in S. Louisiana, three years after 
Katrina, looking at Gustav. We're in a hurricane hole off the Tchefuncte 
river, tied up to a friend's barge. We share the small cove with two other 
boats but we tied them off very well ourselves so we are sure they're 
secure. Went down to take on fuel yesterday and they were out so we have 
half tanks, around 400 gallons.

We're in a fish hook bayou shown on Google here: 
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=30.434161,-90.116183&spn=0.006466,0.009613&z=17 
If you look to the northern edge, you can make out my friend's barge.

At present, we're making water, filling the tanks. And clearing the decks of 
potentially flying debris.

The winds, if the storm follows its present track will blow in initially 
from the NE, intensifying as they clock to the SE and then drop as they 
clock to the S. This presents our stern-- smallest windows-- to the brunt of 
the wind. As I look at the track maps, Gustav should pass no closer than 50 
miles as the storm passes us. Maybe a bit more.

We're already getting NE-erly breezes but expect it to pipe up tonight. The 
excitement will pick up around dawn and we'll have a full day of it. I'll 
try to update as long as we're above the water and the cell phone towers 
work.

Regards,

Larry and Teri
M/V Cigano, 47' Prairie Sundeck Cruiser
Lying: 64 Cypress Road
          Covington, LA