Horn Island sunrise
Clear water on the Gulf side of Horn Island
So it was past 10:00 when I finally shoved off in the kayak. The wind was blowing pretty good out of the east-northeast and it looked like there would be plenty of whitecaps over the Sound. I had hoped to paddle west a ways along the north shore of Horn Island to look around before heading for the mainland. But I decided that wouldn't be the most prudent approach since it looked like I was gonna have a tougher workout on my return. Not to mention the fact that I would still have the 3 1/2 hour drive back to Jackson after getting back to the boat ramp.
The paddle back did turn out to be somewhat brutal. To start with, I discovered that I had absolutely no sunscreen left, so I just had to accept that I was gonna get burned (on my hands at least). Since it's normally safer and easier to be oriented nearly perpendicular to the waves and I wanted to avoid being blown very much to the west, I tried to head more northeasterly instead of north on my way up to Round Island. As the wind intensified over the open waters though, whitecaps were sometimes breaking off the tops of three foot waves out of the east. None of the waves were scary enough to give me any real concerns, but it was plenty annoying to spend so much time paddling eastward when I wanted to go north! Between gusts I could angle more to the north while keeping a careful eye for changes in the waves. I discovered that there were two types of waves that I didn't get along so good with. I called them "sneakers" and "smackers". The sneakers were ones that would surprise me by coming out of a different direction or breaking with little warning. The smackers came from abeam to smack against the side of the kayak and splash over the cockpit. I was really wishing for a more waterproof neoprene sprayskirt, although very thankful for the comfortable water temperature. Unfortunately I didn't think I should take a chance to try to photograph the conditions. A later check of wind observations from Petit Bois Island indicated that the winds were gusting at over 20 kt. A comparison with a couple versions of the Beaufort wind scale in some kayaking books implied that the winds may have approached 30 kt at times, since there were very definite streaks of spray-foam on the sea.
It was a nice relief when I finally set foot on Round Island. The wind was still blowing like crazy, but I was good and ready to eat some lunch. I knew I still had some pretty tough paddling ahead, although I'd decided to scoot around the west side of the island to have a nice break from the rough conditions. Even walking around, I felt about like I would blow away. I discovered though that I could talk decently on the cell phone by facing away from the wind with the phone inside the hood of my jacket. The paddle along the west side of the island was amazingly tranquil, with the wind almost seeming calm at one point. Once I got into the unsheltered waters between Round Island and Singing River Island though, it was as rough as ever. The waves may not have been quite as high, but were steeper thanks to the shallow waters. And now my target was northeast instead of just north. After what seemed like too long of a paddle (and with the wind shifting slightly south of east), I decided that I was basically upwind of Singing River Island and made a turn to surf my way in towards its shore. After landing, I unfortunately confirmed my suspicion that I ended up on the southwest tip of the island instead of the southeast. I also discovered that the kayak seemed excessively heavy in spite of pumping water out of the cockpit. Either I'd acquired some unwanted water in the stern compartment, or I was just too worn out. In any case, I couldn't bring myself to consider pumping out the tightly packed compartment.
View from Round Island toward Bayou Casotte industrial area
Calm waters on the west side of Round Island
About the only "nice" thing about my remaining battle with the wind was that at least I was close enough to land so that I could see that I was (gradually) making progress. After crossing the Pascagoula ship channel, I had my one case where I was significantly concerned about losing control. I had just watched a tugboat go past and figured I was pretty much home free, with the wind at my back. And then I noticed the wake from the tugboat bearing down on me. It looked like it would build into about a five foot breaking wave, and there was no way for me to get turned the right way in time. And yet somehow it just passed right underneath me without any trouble. Thank you, Lord! Besides the wind and waves, the other big difference on today's paddle was the boat traffic that I saw. Crossing between Horn and Round Islands, I'd seen a big barge heading east on the Intracoastal Waterway. And there was an odd sort of construction barge that I watched come from near Gautier, pass to the north of Round Island, and then turn up toward Pascagoula.
When I hauled myself out at Lake Yazoo around four o'clock, I found that I did have a lot of water in the stern of the kayak and a very soaked sleeping bag. Good thing I wouldn't be needing it! Driving back to Jackson, my muscles were in total rebellion. With a few stops along the way, it was past 10:00 when I finally got home. I was amazed the next morning to find that I did not have any muscle pain at all. That definitely had to be a God thing! However I did have an incredible sun and wind burn on my hands. My hands were so swollen that Nancy claimed they were double their normal size. Frequent slatherings of aloe vera though throughout the week resulted in a surprising recovery, considering how bad it initially looked.
Pascagoula shipyards, from entrance to Lake Yazoo
