We took it a little easy Thursday morning. I drank my coffee out in the cockpit as the sun came up. It is so beautiful to sit in a calm, quiet anchorage with only the sky, the water, and the tree-lined shore line around you 360 degrees. The sound of the water lapping against the boat and birdsong in the distance. And mostly quiet. I really tried to soak it in this morning, knowing that our journey and moments like this would soon be over.
We pulled the anchor up around 7:30 and had a nice morning sail. Winds were South or South East and on the North side of the island we did not experience much fetch. The wind speed had us moving at a nice pace. And so we sailed along towards Ship Island--about three hours.
At Marguerite's suggestion we put out the trolling line. At one point it started bouncing a long behind us. The girls said we might've caught a fish! No, no, we said. We've just hit the right speed and that's the lure jumping (it's supposed to look like a distressed fish). A little later when we picked up speed again we had the same conversation. But wait! Joelle said she could actually see a fish back there on the line. And she was right. So exciting!!! We pulled in the line and found a narrow, silvery fish of about 14 inches on the end of it. Jason tried to coach me through removing the hook, but ultimately I needed his help. 
We figured it was probably too small to keep and we didn't know how we would prepare it to eat anyway, so we tossed it back in the water. It lay there stunned at the surface for a few moments before diving down and swimming away. We used google's image search to look it up, and we think it was a Spanish Mackerel. We checked the Mississippi regulations and it would have been big enough to keep. Ah well!
After the fish and as we approached Ship Island, we noticed a little red-winged black bird on the deck. This is not a sea bird. And even sea birds have not been taking up on the boat while we are sailing. The little bird hopped around from the life lines, to the dinghy, to the deck and back around again. It went under the overturned dingy and perched on the bench. Obviously it pooped on the deck! I was worried it was lost from the mainland and looking for a place to rest. Later, though, when we got to Ship Island, we found a ton of them on shore.
We arrived at Ship Island before lunch and anchored not far from the ferry dock. The anchorage was probably the deepest we've laid down the anchor in. A little over 20 feet. We had a big pod of dolphin visitors as we took the dinghy down to go to shore. Our favorite was a baby dolphin swimming with its (we presume) mama. It was so adorable. The baby and the mama swim right next to each other, breaching the surface side-by-side as if they are attached. And then sometimes the babies are playful, they turn onto their backs while at the surface and you can see their white tummies. We haven't seen the bigger dolphins do that.
I made sandwiches to take to shore and we motored to shore, beaching the dinghy near the ferry dock. We heard from someone ashore later that we made the right choice not mooring at the dock because the authorities have been ticketing! Ship Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. You can take a ferry there, and there were many visitors that had come by way of the ferry. There is an old fort--Fort Massachusetts--that you can tour (and we did!). 
The location had strategic value at times throughout history because it provided a deep anchorage and vessels on their way to New Orleans would pass by. Interestingly, the island was set up as a resort with hotels and restaurants in the 20s and 30s after it ceased serving a military purpose. Most of the old cannons were destroyed, but one remains. 
And the resort remnants are gone. No one lives on the island anymore except for the ranger(s) keeping watch.
We also enjoyed our picnic lunch at a shaded pavilion and walked along a boardwalk to the Gulf side of the island where there were chairs and umbrellas for rent and a nice surf to swim in. 
The girls ended up taking a dip mid-afternoon before we headed back to the boat. As we watched them jumping in the waves, we chatted with a ranger who approached us to warn that we better hurry up so as not to miss the ferry. Apparently you get in big trouble if you miss the ferry, but since we were on our own boat he said we didn't need to rush.
We left shortly after the ferry around 2:30. Because we had to navigate shallow waters we motored rather than sailed. I was surprised that we experienced some pretty rolly waves (maybe 2-3 feet) in the pass between Ship Island and Cat Island. Not very enjoyable, but not too bad. I don't know if it was the current or because we were tired at the end of the day but it seemed to take forever to get to Cat Island where we hoped to find a more protected anchorage for the night. We passed a dredging operation in the center of the channel to Gulf Port. We called over the VHF to ask if we could pass on the west side--oh no, no, no, said the captain--he had pipes and all kinds of stuff setup on that side, which we could see as we got closer. So we went around the other side.
Eventually we made it to Cat Island, where we nestled in for some protection from both East and South winds/waves. We were greeted by dolphins swimming around the boat. It was overcast for the sunset and we could see rain to the west of us, but we did not get any. We also saw a shrimp boat in the distance headed our way. We flipped on the lights on our solar panel arch and kept our AIS on so we would be more visible. Once it got dark, it was very interesting to see the shrimp boat because it was completely lit up. Whenever at anchor I always make a point to go out and look at the stars, and this time I thought about how it would be our last night at anchor. And I was glad that there was some break in the cloud cover so I could see the stars.