I picked her up in Pass Christian, Miss., famous for being leveled by hurricane Camille in the 60's. The Hunter dealer, a real gentleman from Holland who also happens to be a pilot, and I motored her west to Louisiana via the Intracoastal Waterway (at this point actually in the Gulf of Mexico), through a strange area called the Rigolets, into Lake Pontchartrain. Now I bring this up because this was a (very cold) ten hour trip, during which we gave all systems a thorough going over-I mean everything; engine operation and maintainence, safety, navigation, knots,VHS operation etc. Now I am mentioning all of this in the dealer's defense, because the story I am about to tell may give the reader the impression that I was never instructed on much of anything! Please don't judge too harshly, we all have to start somewhere. In fact, the dealer was to set to give me even more instruction later and is in no way to blame for my bumbling around in his absence. We moored her in a transient slip in Slidell, LA, which was soon to host the annual Krewe of Bilge boat parade, a small part of our Mardi Gras festivities here in south LA. What this consists of is a large procession of decorated vessels of every type-skiffs, motor yachts, tugs, shrimp trawlers...they all throw beads to the throngs lined up on the canal banks. Well, that's how you'd describe it on this computer screen. It really has to be experienced personally; suffice it to say it's rather unique... (continued)