Dedication:
This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my mother, Barbara Burgin Williams, who spent her
childhood in Biloxi and passed on her love of the coast to me. And also to my father, Frank Williams Jr.,
who taught me to appreciate nature and the outdoors from my earliest memory.
Acknowledgments:
I would especially like to thank Ernest Herndon, who after writing Canoeing Mississippi, convinced me
that there was a need for a boater’s guidebook to Mississippi’s marine waters, and urged me to send a
proposal to Craig Gill at the University Press of Mississippi. Ernest also accompanied me on research
trips to the Lower Pearl River, Horn Island, Back Bay and Bernard Bayou, and Round Island and the
West Pascagoula River. I am greatly indebted to Jeff Hudson for dropping everything and flying to
West Palm Beach to help me sail my boat back to home waters when I suddenly found myself without
crew. We bypassed every hamburger joint in Florida and sailed 800 miles in with only one shore visit.
Jeff also helped out on research trips to the Pascagoula River and Horn Island. I would also like to
thank my brother Jeff, of Gulfport, for providing a couch to crash on for countless nights and weekends
while I worked on my boat and did the research for this book. My sister Jenny, of Florence, also
frequently provided a place to stay while I was writing the book and working in Jackson. Thanks also
to my brother Frank and my sister-in-law Cathy, of Tampa, for their help when I was searching central
Florida for a suitable boat to buy and sail back to Mississippi for restoration and preparation for cruising.
This book would not have been completed without the love and encouragement of Michelle Calvert,
who was there for me like a promise of sunshine after the darkest storm, and always kept me motivated
to write when I thought I couldn’t go on. I would also like to thank her daughter, Jasmine, for sincerely
trying to hold down the noise level while I was writing!
I would like to thank Dr. F.W. Tripp, pastor of the Prentiss Presbyterian Church for the years of youth
group trips to Pensacola that introduced me to boating on the Gulf and cultivated my fascination with the
sea. I would like to thank Dek Terrell of Baton Rouge, for helping me out of a tight spot off of Cat
Island, otherwise I might not be here to write this today. Special thanks also to David Sanford, of
Sumrall for the opportunity to fly over Horn and Petit Bois Islands in his Cessena 152 for some aerial
photography and a chance to see the islands from a new perspective.
I would also like to thank Jack Waldrip and all the crew at Discovery Bay Marina, Dave and Marie
Parker, for advice on refitting Intensity, Kenny and Louis Skrmetta of Ship Island Excursions, T.J.
Covacevitch, and JoLyn Covacevitch, of Covacevitch Yacht and Sail, Todd Read, of Da Beach House,
Nina Kelson, of Gulf Islands National Seashore, David Halladay, of Boatsmith, Mike Neckar, of Necky
Kayaks, Christopher Cunningham, editor of Sea Kayaker magazine, Mike Jones, of the Mississippi
Department of Wildlife Fisheries, and Parks, Robert Stallworth Jr., for information on the Scranton
Muesum, David Watts, editor of Mississippi Outdoors, and Brian Nobles, Steve and Robbie Cox, Phil
Hudson, Ernest Herndon, and other customers who have bought my hand-built wooden boats, John
Whitfield, of Sundancer, for navigation into Old Fort Bayou, Danny Prine, of the motor-vessel
Audacity, and Laurie Bryd, for information on the catamaran Yellowbird, and Deer Island.