Starting to plan an adventure, Arkansas to New Orleans by river

[2011GT]

Any low water bridges? That might upset the trip a bit...

[zachary]

Everything folds down pretty quick, and have a gas motor on boat also. actually at 220 there are parts that top 80' pretty incredible really! The river is deeper than people think.

[YALE]

The red river in Louisiana is full of sand bars. Fuck trying to get down it in a sailboat. Y'all are going to get stuck a lot. You need a pontoon houseboat, or a flat bottomed boat.

[A+]

me and my pal Huck were thinking about tying up a few logs for a makeshift raft and doing the same thing. See you at the finish line!

[talisman]

You should put a Ferrari engine in it and enter the Nantucket Regatta instead.

[SS Junk]

Be prepared to be complemented on having a purty mouth. When said individuals tell you to get on your knees and pray, it may not mean what you think...

[YALE]

Also, there are dams on that river. What's the plan for getting past them?

[Bringit]

I made pretty much the same trip in 2002 or 2003. Put the boat in the water at Sallisaw, OK, and went through the series of locks at the damns. All in all, it took us 4 days, with overnight stays at riverfront hotels. It was alot more fun than you would think. (Although, ours was a 26' Cobalt, and not a "sailboat.")

[zachary]

Also, there are dams on that river. What's the plan for getting past them?

There are locks you can go through. You pull in, get blocked in they drain water off and you are at the new level and keep on going.

Well we say sailboat, if something else rears its head we may end up switching boating choices. He said there are some awesome plantations facing the river once you get mid way through LA.


A cobalt, did you guys just drink and fish all day then sleep on the deck?

[turboford]

He said there are some awesome plantations facing the river once you get mid way through.

You can't see them for the Levee system. But there are some beautiful old plantation homes.

[stevo]

I have done this before, be sure to bring some type of back-up food, lol.

Also, as mentioned, there are many hidden sandbars in the Red, and where they are located change location after each period of flooding. Which brings up the last part, be sure you take into account any periods or rain, since run-off will change the conditions greatly. I'm sure you guys have thought about all that though.

The keel on a 26" sailboat will put the draft somewhere around 5-6 feet , I wouldn't want to do it even if I knew the river very well.

Stevo