A Three Island Tour...........

...........a three island tour...............West Ship, East Ship, and Cat. We took the waverunners to Ship Island again, but this time we took advantage of the glassy waters and headed over to East Ship Island for the first time ever.



The trees on East Ship give it more of a wilderness feel, like Cat Island.



Still showing signs of Katrina's wrath.



Lots of dead horseshoe crabs on the beach.



I thought this was odd. An old boat, wrecked right on the beach. I couldn't tell it was a boat until I got right up on it and noticed the outboard. Note the rusty flywheel.



On the way back to West Ship, we stopped to check out the shipwreck in Camille Cut. I've always noticed it in the distance but never got up close. The water here was a clear as i've ever seen it around these islands.We could clearly see several schools of spadefish all around the wreck, as well as some monstrous sting rays cruising along bottom. Oh, and plenty of dolphins too.












Then it was back to West Ship for lunch and some more swimming.



Cat was last on the list, but no pictures there. The wind picked up and we bounced our salty selves back to the launch.

Here is a Google Earth screen shot showing a path of the entire trip. About 45 miles total.








Jason
7/20/08

Fourth of July Waverunner Adventure

To Ship Island again. One of the calmest days i've ever experienced on the water. The crystal clear water at the east end of West Ship Island made it that much nicer.













Tidal pool.












And yet another short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ebDoHd2r18

Jason
7/4/08

A Trip Cut Short

Took the waverunners to Cat Island this morning, but the storms started building as soon as we got there, so we reluctantly headed back. Barely made it, too. It wasn't a total waste though, I managed to get a few nice snapshots of the storms and the harbor, as well as another short video.

Maybe we should've stayed home.












Jessica spotted this floating in open water. A dead Kemp's Ridley turtle. Maybe it got caught in one of the nets of the many, many shrimp boats that were shrimping around the Intracoastal Waterway. Poor fella.






Few nice boats at the harbor.






And another short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOOjPTT40mk


Jason
6/21/08

A Waverunner Adventure

Headed out of Long Beach Harbor this morning on the Waverunners in slick calm conditions all the way to Cat Island. It was so nice, we decided to make the deep water crossing over to Ship Island. The wind kicked up a bit and the ride home was rough, wet, and fun. Overall, a great day to be out exploring the barrier islands. Pictures are all snapshots from a point-and-shoot digital. I also made an attempt at a few short videos.

A short video I shot while making the crossing from Cat to Ship. Hard to shoot and drive at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XAmr9oseVg

Here are some birds on the north point of Cat Island.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Shyp9NdIpM

Jason

5/31/08

The New Bay Bridge

Took advantage of a fairly nice and calm (but hazy) late winter day and launched the waverunners on the Wolf River for a short ride. It was my first time to see the newly finished Bay St. Louis Bridge from below. Just this week, the company building it announced that the project was 100 percent complete. For comparison, at the end i've added an aerial shot of what the old bridge looked like a few days after Hurricane Katrina dismantled it over two and a half years ago.




Jessica heading downriver.



The view from my cockpit.



The bridge, looking south.



Above the channel, where the draw used to be.



Take another picture of me, pleaseeeeeee!!!!!!!















Idling back to the Delisle launch.....or as I like to call it, Gnat Hell.



And finally, the "before" shot (taken by NOAA).



Jason
2/24/08