GOLDEN MEADOW, La. — A parade of decorated shrimp trawlers and other assorted boats amble down Bayou Lafourche on a sunny spring day. Flags and banners flap in the rigging, portable speakers blare country music, and back-deck partiers dig into plates of crawfish and sausage. At the head of the procession, on the bow of the lead boat, a smiling priest in full vestments casts blessings left and right.
Just about everybody in the parade slows when they pass John "Winnie" Wunstell and his 68-foot-long trawler, the biggest in town. They set down their drinks, step away from their grills and yell across the bayou, ribbing him, as they do every year, for skipping out on the Blessing of the Fleet.
The annual event – a blend of Catholic ritual and floating party – marks the start of shrimping season in several south Louisiana communities. But Wunstell and many other shrimpers don't mark it anymore. Most of the shrimp boats on this stretch of bayou between Galliano and Golden Meadow, nearly 80 miles south of New Orleans, remain tied up for Golden Meadow's 102nd fleet blessing. The same is true elsewhere along the coast. Some communities no longer hold the event.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Nola.com | The Times-Picayune
