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.