Places: Horn Island Cruise
Two sailors aboard modified plywood skiffs sail off the coast of Mississippi
Article and photos by Steve Owens
My Brother and I set out to sail and camp Horn Island the end of June and into July. Horn is a long slender barrier island off the coast of Mississippi. It’s part of the National Seashore and about 11-miles long, situated west to east basically parallel to the coast 8-10 miles offshore. It is anywhere from 100 yards wide at the ends, to 1/4 mile-wide, with dunes, marsh, pine and oak trees in the middle. There are two large tidal lagoons open most of the time, and many small inlets accessible during higher tides or storms. The island is mostly fine white sand, but with thick black mud in the interior marsh. Alligators and raccoons are common in the middle marsh and forested areas, along with ospreys. Pelicans, herons, gulls, skimmers are common everywhere.
The middle marsh or forest areas are thick with mosquitoes and nasty biting flies, making freezing cold weather the best time for camping there. Since it was summer, we intended to camp on the very tip of the island to avoid vegetation and bugs. Even out on the tips one must always be careful of raccoons and keep food and garbage out of their reach.
We sailed extremely two Michael Storer boats—the Oz Racer and Goat Island Skiff—but both plans were heavily modified without approval. The Oz I stretched about 20% to 12.5 feet and rounded the bow, the Goat I enlarged in all dimensions about 30% to a total length of 20 feet. On both boats I used the Really Simple sails, designed for the original boats, from Duckworks. So with heavier construction and size they’re not as “hot” as designed, and more suited to my sailing style and to carry more camping gear. I modified the Goat the most and installed two swing “centerboards”—one on each side of the cargo space to make my waterproof camping storage boxes fit. I was careful to keep the centre of effort and resistance balanced, but will likely blow that anyway as I experiment with different jib configurations on both boats. I compulsively can’t leave good designs alone and often make mistakes. Mr. Storer’s rudder system I thought I could improve, but after trial and errors found that his system with the sliding up and down rudder held in place with bungie cords is perfect!
I use the Husky professional-duty storage boxes in the 5, 12 and 20-gallon sizes to organize and containerize camping gear. These have good gasketed tops with six latching points and have not leaked. Part of my Goat modifications allowed two of the 12-gallon boxes to slide under the after deck, and six to fit amidships between the side boards.The smaller 5-gallon boxes fit into spaces under the seats.
Both boats are also equipped with the Epropulsion Sprit 1.0 plus electric motors for trolling, getting around in harbours and overcoming calm spells. While I don’t like the look of the motors hanging on the sterns, it’s the best storage location—handy and ready to go. I also added fishing pole holders to store the poles and also to troll along with while sailing for the occasional king fish.
We launched from Lake Mars Pier just South of Gulf Park Estates near Ocean Springs. The launch is excellent, with good parking and porta pottys and are real credit to the community. We were told the mouth of the launch and outward channel tended to silt in and needed yearly dredging, but we were not concerned with skinny water. The entrance is well marked with many pilings.
Normally I’d let the harbourmaster know what my plans were, or if not that, leave a note on dash of truck as to expected return. As there was no master at launch, and as police patrol happened by, I filed my float plan with them and let them know which truck was mine. It’s always a good idea to let more than just family know plans.
We each sailed (brother in the Oz, me in the Goat) with a small waterproof handheld VHF radio to keep in touch. I also carried a larger radio that had better range for emergencies. The areas we explored on Horn were within signal range of our cell phones, so that was another backup.
From the launch to the western tip where we planned on camping, was about a 7 NM sail at 195 degrees. With a 10-12 mph wind from southwest and 2-3 foot waves, more from the west as the wind had come from there the last 24 hours, we decided to head to about the middle of the island at about 180 degrees. There’s a large tidal lagoon in that area where we hoped to catch bait fish and explore locations for future cold weather camping. We knew that would leave an upwind sail for the 4 miles or so to camp, but felt that working up in the semi-lee of the island would make it easier. The sail out was good with an overcast sky and sailing more broadside to, instead of into, the waves made it pleasant. It was fun sailing both boats near each other. The little Oz popped up like a cork over the sometimes breaking whitecaps and I enjoyed watching my brother sail her.
We messed around the tidal lagoon gathering bait, fishing, exploring, eating lunch and napping. The shallow waters are usually full of bull minnows, small perch and crabs and we easily captured bait with the throw net. Some care must be taken to watch for stingrays as they enjoy these waters also.
While we played around the wind of course shifted to more westerly, and freshened to 15-18 mph. So the sail west to the island tip was harder. The north side or bay side of the island is shallower farther out—likely due to hurricane waters washing over from the south. There are large patches of eel grass mixed with sandy spots and it’s neat to sail the shallows and spook rays and redfish up. About halfway to the point a little storm popped up, so we ran into the beach, found a small point that gave us shelter from the westerly waves, dropped sails, and fished. With the wind shifting more to the west—directly from where we needed to go—we used the little electric motors some to make the trip easier and got to the west tip of Horn about two hours before sunset.
We situated the boats up above tide line on inflatable rollers, set up the tent and got poles out for fishing. Landing, setting up and exploring a new place is always most exciting. The elevation of the point is only 2-3 feet above high tide. It is easy to see signs of the entire tip being awash, so out of an abundance of caution we kept the boats anchored as well. A hazard buoy washed ashore and surprised us that night as it started flashing it’s strobe, still on the job! Clearly much attention should be given to weather and tide conditions.
In the summer months, especially with the thunderstorms popping up, the winds can be variable. We experienced winds from every quarter, but mostly Southwest to West.
Air temperatures were about 82-88 degrees, but with the wind it felt okay. A good shade canopy is a must, and we even used big golf umbrellas during the hot part of the day for walks away from camp, and we dipped into the water to stay cool. Bringing enough fresh water to rinse off before bed, and using the battery-powered fans to sleep were other luxuries.
The fishing was fun and in total we caught 16 species of fish with throw net, bait, casting lures, and on flies. This area is neat partially because from the beach, it’s just 100-foot cast into 30-foot water. Cobia, spinner sharks, sailfish and jacks have all been caught off the beach. At times it was a feeding frenzy with minnows, birds, ladyfish, bluefish and more, all thrashing around the point. There’s usually a strong current along the island and off the point that creates a nice rip that seems to concentrate the fish.
During the weekends, especially near the 4th, lots of motorboats make daytrips out to enjoy the beach. Saturday and Sunday we saw 70-80 boats along the beach for 2-3 miles, but mostly all were gone by evening. Rest of the days it was the occasional fishermen and sometimes a shrimp trawler passing by.
Some of the daytrippers appeared to have less knowledge of common courtesy or boat sense than others. For the most part folks were respectful of our camp, fishing lines and space, but a few were basically clueless. There were a few who tried to anchor close to the point, without enough scope to allow for the deep water, and in the north wind washed up onto the beach in breaking 3-foot waves. We and others helped push them off with no damage, but hopefully they gained some education. I’ve been surprised in the past, and learned how quickly a 30-minute north wind can build up dangerous breaking waves on the beach.
The abundance of life on the island is amazing and a joy to see: glowing jellyfish, lines of pelicans, porpoises, crabs and all. I almost always find something that I have never seen before.
We launched the smaller boat and sailed the south or Gulf side of the island when the wind was out of the north for a bit and enjoyed the large Gulf swells with little chop and broad reached along the surf line.
After only four nights we had to head back. With predicted southwest winds we were looking forward to a nice sail. Unfortunately a large thunderstorm developed southeast of us that sucked up the winds left us with 10-12 mph winds and 2-3 feet of chop coming directly from where we had to go. But we eventually made it back in and loaded the boats up. Back home and I remembered: ”A good trip is one you get home safely from.” •SCA•
Really nice piece. Perfect example of why we sail
Loved the write up! True adventure! A nice mix of sailing and fishing