Mississippi Coast

Road trip to the Mississippi Coast: Scouting for nearby getaways

June 11-13, 2013


The drive from New Orleans was pleasant and quick.  We reached Waveland within 1 1/2 hrs, taking the I-10 from New Orleans to Bay St. Louis and then State Highway 607 past NASA’s Space Stennis Center and Buccaneer State Park.  Waveland is a backyard to Bay St. Louis.  All the Mississippi Coast area suffered dramatically from Hurricane Katrina in late August, 2005.  But much of the coastline from Waveland, Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian were the hardest hit.  Those areas are coming back but they're not yet there.  See post-Katrina, post-BP Oil Spill 


St. Louis Bay, where Bay St. Louis town is located, was new to us in terms of anchorage options.  The marked channel guides boats through the 13 ft. CSX Railroad (swing) Bridge and the Hwy. 90 fixed 85 ft. St Louis Bridge.  From there three possible anchorage areas depart from the channel:  Bayou Portage, Wolf River, and the Jourdan River.  We had followed the western shore of St. Louis Bay, through quaint downtown Bay St. Louis, crossed the intersection of Hwy 90 and continued along the shore to the Bay Waveland Yacht Club & Marina and onward to and along the Jourdan River.
The Yacht Club & Marina accepts transients and allows boats to anchor there.  It's just that the depths are constantly low, around 5 ft.  Continuing on, we came upon the newly renamed Hollywood Casino with a small marina, boasting depths of 10 ft. This might be a refuge from stormy weather, in addition to offering the casino/hotel services.  We would probably aim for anchoring on the Jourdan River as a first objective, however.  The Jourdan River presents sufficient depths, 6-6 ½ ft. depths within channel.  This is the west side of St. Louis Bay.

If one would rather enter immediately into a protected area from the Hwy. 90 Bridge, turn right into Bayou Portage.  Navigating Portage and the Wolf River might represent more of a challenge because there is little in the way of marked channels and depths are tricky at best.  Though, as one sailor reminded us, touching bottom means mud rather than rock.  In other words, not catastrophic.  But the scenery and ability to duck oncoming troublesome weather might be worth a try.  We will certainly give this area a try during these summer months and a prediction of active storms/hurricanes.  These opportunities are but a day's sail/motor from our New Orleans harbor.  Close enough  for a brief getaway and quick return if a major storm is brewing.


Just around the corner of the eastern bend of St. Louis Bay, on the Gulf of Mexico, is the town of Pass Christian and its marina.  There are a lot of pluses to making this a stopover.  Most of the little town is within walking distance from the marina, therefore shops and eateries, plus a great restaurant right on site   It’s an attractive town that was once the main vacation spot for New Orleanians back when.  The price at the marina is just right:  a flat fee of roughly $25/night including water and electricity (30 or 50 amp).  Transient slips are inside the wall and measure 36 ft. by 27 ft.  Depths are 8-9 ft. throughout.  Bathrooms, laundry, pump out, WiFi and other services will be coming online sometime soon, we're told. Long Beach is the next community when travelling west to east.  It’s easy to negotiate the entrance.  Depths are 9 ft.  Transients use a back wall and dock alongside.  At $1/ft. one gets good level services: water, power, bath/showers, access to laundry room.  The marina is working on fuel and pump out.  There are restaurants within walking distance but other shops and eateries are roughly a mile away.


We had stayed at the Gulfport Small Craft Marina, which is the best of the marinas mentioned here.  See last two postings regarding our truncated trip to Western Florida.  We stayed at this Marina for two nights while trying to retrieve our anchor and chain lost to the Gulf of Mexico during a storm.  The Marina couldn’t have been a better choice.  Management was attentive, the services – slip, electricity, water, bath/showers, laundry, ease of entry, one free pump out – are fantastic.  The Marina is working on WiFi.  This is a newly refurbished marina, part of the Gulfport Harbor Complex that includes daily departures for Ship Is. for the day and a Large Craft Harbor.  I walked to a coffee shop for Internet connection and saw that there are plenty of eateries within a mile.
Follow us on our upcoming first trip to St. Louis Bay and beyond.  We will embark on our trip to Western Florida in the Fall.  After the storm season and after the intense heat that envelops the Northern Gulf. 

  

New Orleans to W. FL II

New Orleans to W. FL II

Fri., June 7, 2013

Sorry, readers, but we have returned to Home Port, Louisiana. Just temporarily to regroup.  Absolutely we will travel again, and very soon, but first we have to solve the anchor problem and reconsider travel plans during this active storm season.  Follow me on the steps we’ve taken so far.

The anchor was not retrieved from the bottom of the Mississippi Sound off Ship Is.  We knew the probability was low because neither Capt. Mike nor Capt. George had the necessary equipment and because of wind, currents, low visibility underwater, etc.  It was worth a try, nevertheless.  The day after our “misadventure” George, Mike and Nick made the two-hour run from Gulfport Small Craft Harbor & Marina to Ship Is. on George’s cat, Añejo, to sweep the area surrounding our anchorage spot, roughly within a one-acre diameter.  They tried:  (1) using mask and snorkel but visibility was no more than 3 ft.; (2) they tried using the dinghy and dinghy anchor to snare the chain or rode to no avail; and (3) they tried using a heavy fishing pole with hooks and weights but only snagged weeds.  No luck!  One day somebody will stumble upon our 35 lb. Delta!

Should our cat, Aventura, proceed on its course to Western Florida with a secondary anchor, a 28 lb. Fortress with only 30 ft. of chain and 200 ft. of rode?  Even under good weather conditions, using a light anchor with a 14,000+ lb. fully loaded cat would represent an anchoring challenge.  Now, add in the probability of frequent thunderstorms and other low pressure phenomena, and that sounds like too high of a risk.  So, getting a new anchor became paramount.  In fact, getting a better anchor rose up on Capt. Mike’s priority list. 

Finally, given the prediction of a very active storm – read hurricane – season, we needed to rethink what trip(s) we could take nearby that would put us in close proximity to home port or other shelter. Yes, there are always the communities around Pontchartrain Lake, such as:  Madisonville/Tchefuncte River, Mandeville, Bayou Lacombe/town of Lacombe, and Oak Harbor/Slidell.  But in looking for places beyond the Lake, in the Gulf of Mexico, there are other interesting communities that pepper the Mississippi coastline, such as:  town of Bay St. Louis/St. Louis Bay, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi/back bay, and Ocean Springs.  Next week, we intend to take a car ride to these communities (while awaiting delivery of anchor and chain).  Of course, we know these communities.  Yet a lot has happened since Hurricane Katrina leveled many of them in 2005.  The information we will cull from Active Captain and our personal visits will show up in my next blog.

Stay tuned!  And, oh, I can truly say that the phrase “calm before the storm” has new, rich meaning for us! 

New Orleans to W. Florida I

New Orleans to W. FL I

Mon., June 3, 2013

Capt. Mike and I left New Orleans (finally) on Sat., June 1st.  Our marina neighbor and friend, George, and his apprentice, Nick, arranged to caravan with us part of the way on our trip to W. Florida.  So a Lagoon 37 and Privilege 39 set sail early with hopes to reach Ship Is., MS by evening.  That is with the cooperation of the winds and wind direction, mechanical health of the cats and its people, if, if, if.  That day would be memorable, as the next day would be too but in a very different way.  More like opposite way.

The first day held the thrill of starting out and hours of terrific sailing (not motoring) at a good clip.  The next day, however, surprised us with a sudden thunderstorm that initiated another kind of adrenaline rush accompanying the loss of our main anchor, running aground, and general misery.  We're all well and at the Gulfport Small Craft Marina.  I'm at a local coffee shop reporting on the experiences.  Meantime Capt. Mike is on Capt. George's boat gone to try to locate and retrieve our 35 lb. Delta anchor, possibly still attached to its 70 ft. of chain and some rode.

Day 1 was what most sailors look for:  favorable sailing conditions to speed along, in full harmony with Nature.  The winds were out of the southeast, maxing out at 18 kts.  Mike tuned the sails until we reached speeds of 7.9 kts without motoring.  Both cats reached the northern side of Ship Is. by 7:00 p.m. (Central).  We went to bed tired but content with expectations of exploring completely intact Fort Massachusetts and other points of interest  on Ship Is.  We had hoped to dinghy into shore, less than a quarter mile from our boat next morning before resuming our trip east.

Day 2 was what most sailors try to avoid:  a sudden and strong thunderstorm that catches you unaware and creates havoc.  May I also add havoc in an otherwise ideal environment?  We were up shortly after 6:00 a.m. and I commented how calm the waters were, almost flat with a beautiful shimmer.  A rainbow arched above George's boat.  The calm before the storm.  Then we noticed dark clouds building on the horizon but didn't react accordingly since the day before we had had a brief shower during our sail, and predictions were for several days of the same.  For the next hour or hour and a half we experienced up to 30 kt. winds and heavy chop.  We were not able to pull up anchor and push us away from shore in time.  It seems that the anchor rode got caught in one of the propellers while the waves were pushing us inevitably towards the shallows of the shore.  Though Mike wanted to cut the rode and attach a buoy to it for future retrieval, the propeller cut the rode first.  Before we could redirect the boat away from the shore, the waves had moved us onto the bottom.  We bumped several times on sandy bottom before finally being able to thrust the boat northward and point towards Gulfport, a couple of hours away.

Now Mike, George and Nick are trying to locate the anchor settled in up to 22 ft. of water in the approximate area around our anchorage, 30 deg. 13.061' N/ 88 deg. 58.208' W.   Stay tuned for Part II:  anchor retrieved or not.