Is Biloxi our new home?

It's been over a week since we set sail from New Orleans, and we've made it all the way to Biloxi MS.  In our car, we could drive this distance in less than 2 hours.  Ain't boating fun?!?

The first couple days here in Biloxi, the unrelenting strong east wind continued.  Even though we're tied next to a 75' sportfisherman yacht (yes, we're one of the smaller boats at this marina) which should break the east wind, our boat had a constant heel of about 15 degrees due to the wind.  Additionally, because of the strong east winds, the local tides have been higher than normal.  We're working with 3' tides at the dock, so we're constantly adjusting fenders & sometimes lines.  At least there's only one high & one low tide each day, rather than along the Atlantic coast, which has 2 cycles per day.  The weather front finally came through 2 nites ago, but yesterday the warm front backed up to the west.  So, we have 70 degree air on top of 55 degree water, and my advanced math class says that the result equals FOG.  The winds have died down enough to travel, but this morning we would have needed either a real big butter knife, or else Rudolph's red nose.

I continue to enjoy our association with the US Power Squadrons.  Sue & I took a Weather course several years ago in New Orleans.  It was taught by a retired professional meterologist, who we've maintained contact with.  He & his wife are now living aboard their boat in Daytona Beach, but I called him this past week to help me watch the local weather for potential travel days.  He's been wonderful with his advice.

Another sidebar.......this week, the national office of USPS put out their monthly email newsletter to the several thousand members, and their article about Vessel Safety Checks shows Sue's picture & write-up from the Chattanooga Squadron newsletter. Sue became a certified Safety Inspector while we lived in Chattanooga.  I'm living with a famous published writer!

While we've been here, we've had our electrical/electronics contractor aboard to do some work.  I've been using this guy for the past year to upgrade some systems on the boat.  He called early in the week to let us know he was heading to New Orleans & wanted to stop by.  Told him we were now in Biloxi, which was good for him since he lives along the MS coast.  He replaced the fluxgate compass for the autopilot system, so now we can use our course from the chartplotter to link to the autopilot system, and then relax while the boat drives itself to our destination (at least that's how it is supposed to work).  I'd post a picture of my new compass, but I think only one friend in New Orleans (who is an electrical geek) would be interested.