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Gulfport Mississippi 2024

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DavidCrosby
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229 Posts

Initially Posted - 04/03/2024 : 09:22:58

My wife had a week off for spring break. Unfortunately, I had a work conflict and had to work. However, I work remotely. As long as I have reliable internet, I can work from anywhere. I find marina WiFi to be very unreliable. Even cellular mobile hotspots leave me without internet from time to time. So, I bought StarLink and decided to venture out and give it a try.

Gulfport, Mississippi is straight south from where we are at and mostly interstate or four lane highway all the way.

Saturday, March 23, 2024 we headed off for a one week break to some place warmer, white sand beaches and hopefully a bit of sailing.

We drove nine hours the first day. Here we are stopped at a rest area in northern Mississippi.

We got up early Sunday morning and continued on to Gulfport Municipal Marina in Gulfport, Mississippi (another three hours of driving). I picked this marina, because the logistics would be quite low. The boat ramp and long term parking area is right at the marina. Marina price was very reasonable as well. Just $1.00/foot per day. I had tried to collect as much information about the launch ramp as possible. I had no definitive answers, but it seemed that if I caught high tide, I would have no issues. We did have a bit of a struggle getting the boat off the trailer and I had to put the truck rear wheels farther into the water than desired. That decision was a bit of a gamble, because it is alwways easier to get off the trailer in low water than it is to get back on. I figured we would be OK because we were over an hour past high tide when we launched.

Anyhow, we were successful. Here is a couple photos of "Small World" in her slip. If you look on the stern you will see a recent upgrade. I added a 100w solar panel and StarLink. Not seen is a fairly major electrical system upgrade within the boat as well. My goal is to spend more time away from the dock and be able to power StarLink, a portable refrigerator and my laptop, plus the typical lights, fans, etc.

We had a nice week and did get to go out sailing a few times. No real adventure, just some local area day sails.

As mentioned, I had to work. In the picture below, here is a view of my workstation. I was quite comfortable.

I have owned "Small World" for 14 years. This was her first time in salt water (at least during my ownership). "Small World" was located in Washington DC when I purchased her. So, she may have seen salt water (or at least brackish water) in a past life.

Saturday, March 30 was time to head for home. The tide charts indicated the high tide would be higher than when we launched. Good news. I did some investigating with a website that had a sliding time indicator on the tide. It seemed to me that 9:00 am may be a bit higher than the launch depth. So, we took the trailer to the ramp and put it in. No way were we getting on the trailer at that time. See photo. The full high tide was not expected until 1:42 pm. It was suppose to be quite a bit higher. I went to work taking the boat apart at the dock and prepared to travel while waiting for the tide. I tried again at 11:30am. Still no luck. So, we went out to get lunch and top off the truck's gas tank. When we got back to the ramp, we were told to try the western most of the four ramps. The guy said that the farther west, the deeper the ramp. We successfully got the boat on the trailer at about 1:00 pm.

We finished preparing the boat to travel and departed for home at about 2:30pm. I only drove three hours this day. I had to get up at 6:00am to take care of some Saturday work projects, and then worked most of the morning preparing the boat to travel. After three hours of driving, I was ready to quit for the day.

We pulled into a campground for the night. Arriving in a campground with a sailboat as your camper tends to always generate comments. Not sure why, it has all of the comforts of home. Here are a couple photos of us all setup for the night.

Sunday finished up with another nine hours of driving to get home. Right near the Arkansas / Missouri border, we had stopped for gas. As we were getting ready to get back on the highway, we encountered friends with their sailboat in tow. They had just finished up a week in Pensacola, FL. I heard multiple times on the trip in certain situations, it is a small world. Yep, that is the name of my boat - for many reasons - but this encounter being one of them.

Overall, great trip. We had a relaxing time even though I did have to work. My wife works in a school and has the entire summer off. Now that I have reliable internet, I hope to spend a lot more time away on our boat.

David Crosby "Small World"
'02 C250 WK #614

Stinkpotter
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
9013 Posts

Response Posted - 04/03/2024 : 13:28:47

Great travelog, and I envy your office space! (...at least compared to what I had back when I was a wage-slave.) I wouldn't worry too much about backing into some salt water--vehicle undercarriages take numerous serious salt baths every winter up here--a drive in a good rainstorm takes care of that. It's just one bright side of the "Don't make 'em like they used to" coin!

Dave Bristle
Association "Port Captain" for Mystic/Stonington CT
PO of 1985 C-25 SR/FK #5032 Passage, USCG "sixpack" (expired),
Now on Eastern 27 $+!nkp*+ Sarge

Edited by - Stinkpotter on 04/03/2024 13:29:58

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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.