Trailer Sailor Feature Articles
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"Island Fever" - Cruising Mississippi's Barrier Islands
Posted By: David Waller
Date: 5/27/00 1:12p.m.
“Island Fever”…Cruising Mississippi's Barrier Islandsby David Waller"Dad, are you going to leave me some money?" With that question I knew that our departure day had finally arrived. We had been prepping for this trip for two weeks and it was hard to believe it was here at last! The local weather, The Weather Channel website, and Sailcast all agreed, amazingly enough, on the forecast. Partly cloudy, winds from the North at 6 thanks to a weak cold front that had moved through two days before, becoming NE at 10-15 later in the day. A beautiful late spring day on the coast.
After dropping our daughter Carole off at school (with the required cash and instructions), we made a fast run to the supermarket for last minute supplies and ice. We took two 48-qt. ice chests for the cabin and a smaller 20-qt. for the lazzerette. Everything else was already aboard the "Shady Lady", our 1986 MacGregor 25. We keep "the Lady" docked at a pier on Mallini Bayou, about 5 minutes from our home. The bayou opens into the Bay of St. Louis, a rather large and fairly shallow bay that opens directly into the Mississippi Sound. For those not familiar with the area, the Mississippi Sound is the area of the northern Gulf of Mexico bordered on the West by the mouth of the Mississippi River and on the East by Mobile Bay. It reaches southward to the barrier islands, Cat, Ship, Horn and Petit Bois. Depth in the Sound varies from 8 to 15 feet with frequent shoals. By the time the running around was done, the Lady loaded, and the checklist gone over for the third time, it was 10:30 AM. We fired up the Mariner outboard and motored out of the bayou and into the Bay. The Bay of St. Louis is roughly mushroom shaped, about 6 miles wide at its widest point. From the North shore to the opening into the Sound it’s about 5-1/2 miles. The Jourdan River on the west, the Wolf River on the east and several smaller streams feed the Bay. Water depths in the Bay run 4 to 6 ft. at low tide. The opening of the Bay into the Sound is about 2 miles wide, crossed by the U.S. 90 Highway Bridge and the CSX Railroad Bridge. These two bridges are the source of more anxiety for Penny and I than just about anything else regarding boating. I won’t go into it here, but refer you to the articles and reviews section on the Trailer Sailor site. Check out the article titled, “The Train”. The trip out of Mallini Bayou, down the Bay, through the two bridges and into the sound took about an hour. We were “sails up” just before noon. The 6-knot breeze from the North lasted for about 15 minutes after we set sail then faded out to almost nothing. So much for the forecast! After drifting for about 10 minutes and contemplating a 20-mile trip under outboard power, suddenly we got a small puff of wind…from the SOUTH! I put the rudder over and held my breath and the breeze began to steady up from the Southwest around 5 knots. We trimmed up on a beam reach and were Island bound at last!
Cat Island is shaped, for lack of a better description, like a sideways T, with the top of the T lying north and south. The northernmost point is 7 miles due south of Gulfport and 14 miles from the Bay of St. Louis. The island is approximately 5 miles long; with the “top of the T” being about 3 miles long. Cat Island received its’ name from the early French explorers who, when landing on the island for the first time, mistook the islands large raccoon population for some type of wild cat. The island still has a large raccoon community as well as a fairly large herd of whitetail deer. The interior of Cat Island in covered in vegetation, from tall pine trees to palmetto thickets. Freshwater bayous and sloughs run all over the island providing plenty of water for the animals and, as you may imagine, for the mosquito population as well! We made the trip to North Point in decent time, considering the breeze was holding at only about 5-8 knots. I found myself wishing for a nice big 150% genoa more than once that day. Once rounding North Point, we picked up a visual on the Ship Island Lighthouse another 6 miles to the SE. Just under two hours later we were making our approach to Ship Island harbor.
I gave up on the outboard after about 5 minutes of pulling the crank rope and playing with the choke, it was getting entirely too much like work. So, like good sailors, we decided to anchor from under sail. We came about, angled closer to the beach and kept a weather eye on the depth finder. Penny went forward to clear the anchor from its’ mount and to watch for submerged objects. By the time she had cleared the anchor and rode we had made it back to the point where we had originally intended to anchor. We simply headed up into the wind, allowing the main to weathervane, and waited for the Shady Lady to come to a stop. Penny dropped the anchor over, paying out the rode as the boat drifted back. The Danforth bit in the sandy bottom and Penny made off the line with about 30 feet of rode out. The depth finder read 3.5 feet and we were secure about 50yards off the beach. Nothing to it! We dropped and furled the main and, after having a drink to celebrate, changed to swim clothes and waded ashore to find out what solid ground felt like. This had been by far the longest passage of our six-month sailing career. Ship Island at last! Ship Island lies 11 miles south of the central Mississippi coast. The island was once one long barrier island, but thanks to Hurricane Camille in 1969, it is now two separate islands. Camille cut a channel about 100 ft. wide just about in the middle of the island, forming West and East Ship Islands. That 100-ft. channel, called Camille Cut, is now, 30 years later, just under a mile wide. West Ship Island is about 3 miles long by 1/3 mile wide. East Ship is slightly wider, north to south, and about the same length. There are no trees on West Ship but East Ship has quite a bit of tree cover, very similar to Cat Island. Ship Island has a long and colorful history going back to the days of the early French and Spanish explorers. The major attraction for the early visitors (and the current ones) is its’ natural deep water harbor. The water depth on the north side of West Ship is, even at low tide, nowhere less that 23 ft. These depths hold up to within 200 to 300 feet of the beach, where the bottom then shoals up rapidly. In 1814, 61 British ships with more than 10,000 men aboard used Ship Island harbor as a staging point before sailing up the Mississippi River to meet Gen. Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans. After wading ashore and drying off somewhat, Penny and I hit the boardwalk maintained by the National Park Service and strolled over to the south side of the island. Once there we struck off down the beach with my bride doing what she loves, BEACHCOMBING! The lady can find more interesting seashells on a given stretch of beach than anyone I’ve ever known!
After an hour or so walk on the beach, we headed back to the Shady Lady for dry clothes, supper and a drink under the stars. The moon was very nearly full and the south wind was still holding at about 5-8 knots. We turned in to sleep very tired but feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. About 3:30 A.M., feeling a change in the normal rock and swing of the boat, I woke up and stuck my head out the companionway door. The wind had done a 180 degree swing and was “ blowin’ a gale” from the Northeast! Now instead of being on the protected side of the island, we were on a lee shore, rocking and rolling in an 18” chop. Needless to say there was not a lot of sleep the rest of the night aboard the Shady Lady! All credit to the Danforth, it never slipped an inch. The breeze finally lay down about 5:00 A.M. and we drifted back to sleep. Waking up near the water is something I have done hundreds of times over the last 40 odd years and I hope I never grow tired of it. I was up at 7:00, had the stove fired up in the cockpit and was having a cup of coffee by 7:15. It was a very special time, just watching the pelicans fishing off the beach and the sun beginning it’s slow climb aloft. After the coffee cleared the cobwebs, I roused Penny and fried up some sausage for breakfast. Once the stove and gear were stowed away it was time to tackle the outboard.
The National Park Service maintains a pier on Ship Island. It runs from the beach out about 500-ft. into the deeper water of the harbor. Private boats are allowed to tie up to the pier from sunrise to sunset, so we motored on over and tied off bow and stern lines to the concrete pilings on the downwind side. The Shady Lady was secure for the day and her owners were off to do the tourist thing! Construction on Fort Massachusetts was begun 1859,halted during the Civil War, and completed after the wars end. It changed hands twice during the war when the Union army abandoned it, the Confederates took over and then abandoned it also. It was a hardship duty in those days due to the large amount of mosquitoes from the freshwater marshes that run down the center of the island.
Campers accidentally burned down the original Ship Island lighthouse in 1974, just before the Park Service took over the island. It was completely rebuilt in 1999. It serves as a great landmark for boaters, as it is visible for miles in every direction. Camping is no longer allowed on the island.
We dropped the hook in about 8 feet of water just off the north beach of Cat. The tide was on the way out and we didn’t feel comfortable any closer in. This worked out nicely, as we were just on the drop-off point from the shoals around the island and the fishing was GREAT! We hung and lost a big bull redfish and caught 2 sharks.
We had a neighbor about 200 yards away at the anchorage; a 30+’ sloop named Triple C. I got a nice picture of her lying in the moonlight with a nearly full moon overhead. The wind had returned to the south during the night so making sail the next morning was simplicity itself. We hoisted the main, allowing it to weathervane, pulled up the anchor and fell off on a starboard tack. Triple C’s owner was on deck, so we sailed over, crossing behind him and turning up to windward alongside. We told him about last night’s “photo-op” and swapped e-mail addresses so we could send him the picture.
Overall, it was a great trip. We saw some sights we had seen before, but from a new perspective. Our boat handling skills are steadily improving, and the Shady Lady is proving out to be a very dependable craft. She goes where she’s asked with a minimum of fuss, only asking for diligence on our part. We are looking forward to a long and happy relationship with her.
David and Penny Waller |
