Biloxi, MS

We finally got underway yesterday morning, after 3 nights in Rabbit Island (without internet), and had a lovely sail across the Mississippi Sound. We made it all the way to Biloxi just before dark! We'd planned to anchor at either Ship Island or Hook Island, but both are bird sanctuaries, and it wouldn't have been nice to taunt the dogs by not letting them go to shore, so we headed for Point Cadet Marina in Biloxi. It turned out we were nearly out of fuel and had to sail most of the way to the marina. Daren kept the engine sputtering along by pumping it with the bulb pump we got in Galveston. It was a nail-biter, and we were REALLY happy to tie up to the fuel dock. We celebrated with a prime rib dinner at the Isle Casino next door. It looks like we'll be here a couple days, since the weather's supposed to turn nasty tomorrow and Sunday. The dock master told us that Hurricane Katrina brought 35' of water up to the third floor of their building! Seems everywhere we go there's a horror story of one hurricane or another, which should spur us on to Rio Dulce! We'll get there! We met a really nice dock neighbor, Ron, who has a gorgeous Hunter 44' sailboat. It's amazing how much roomier a boat looks without 2 bird dogs on it! Ron took us to West Marine, where we got the chart we need to get to Judy and Apar's house in Pensacola, and he showed us good anchorages along the way. We're only 2 days away, with a stop in Dauphin Island, just outside Mobile Bay. In the meantime, it's nice to get the laundry and re-provisioning done and catch up on e-mail.