A Few More Months in Gulfport, MS

I'M BACK!!!!!!!

I guess I do not need to express just how much we enjoyed Gulfport Small Craft Harbor http://www.gulfport-ms.gov/harbor/ and the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast!  Not only did we stay for Mardi Gras but for Easter and part of the Boat Show as well.  So what exactly did we do for three more months?  We spent pretty much everyday at the beach.

We enjoyed a few more concerts at the Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi.  We saw the following bands there:  Avatar, Lacuna Coil, Sevendust, The Zombies, and YES.  We enjoyed the Mardi Gras parades in downtown Gulfport.  My Brother Alan and his beautiful wife Sharon from Houston, TX visited my Dad and Stepmother Linda in Quitman, MS and we were able to drive up and eat at Long’s Fish Camp with them.  YUM!

James Gang

My little Brother Blake joined the Air National Guard and I was able to go to the base and see him being sworn in and signing his enlistment papers.

Another highlight was disposing of the “Creature” we had picked up along the bayou after leaving Houma.  I wanted to have a big ceremony on the beach and burn “Creature” but I had to have a permit to make a fire on the beach.  My next choice was to burn him in a trash barrel but Rob wouldn’t let me do that either so we opted for quadruple bagging him and putting him in the trash dumpster.  I really hope we do not meet him EVER again!

Smells GOOD!

Tastes GREAT!

It is pretty HEAVY!

I can get this knot out!

I could be on Survivor!

Tail up?  What for?

We met some wonderful friends while on the Mississippi Coast… some from MS, others from LA and AL.  We were fortunate to meet the photographer Brian Wright who featured La Strada in several of his photographs. 

We had to move to the end of the dock to just inside the T-head to make room for the boat show in the marina.  The boat show was to take place on April 4-7, 2013.  We moved the boat on March 28th.  On April 3rd, we had a horrible storm blow in and we clocked over 60-knot wind gusts and 45 knot sustained winds for over 2 hours.  We would have been fine in our old slip because we were riding on a piling with a fender board.  Our new dock did not have any pilings to ride on so we had to hand fend off the boat and move fenders as quickly as we could.  We tried to pull ourselves off of the dock but with the strong winds and rising tide we couldn’t budge it.  The water came in SO FAST we were afraid we would end up on TOP of the pier.  Another 6 inches and we would have been in big trouble but luckily the winds subsided.  The boat show had to cancel the opening for April 4th because all of their tents collapsed and many of the boats to be shown did not get there in the storm.  Others could not be launched with the water so high and the boat ramp docks underwater.

Collapsed tents

Little trees blown over

Tail wind

Breakers entering the marina

Lots of water

T-head boat being blown off of the dock

Boat ramp docks underwater

Big waves

We were able to enjoy the boat show on Friday and relax since there was NOT ENOUGH WATER to leave (only 5.5 feet at the dock) but we decided if there was enough water the following morning that it was time to FINALLY get out of Gulfport!

THE END.... for now.......