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Presidents Day off Work,   February 21st
  Destination: Neuse River
      Had the rare instance of a day off work (holiday), seventy degree weather and 30mph winds with gusts of 40-45mph... yee ha... Houston this is a kick ass ride!!!!    Started out just puttering down the Neuse, then spied another MacGregor 26X on a lift and went to check it out...  no name on the boat, but neat to see another Mac near my home port.

    I then put up about a 1/4 to a 1/3 of the jib and that was it!  Had 1-2 ft waves with white caps and doing 7-8 mph with just a small part of the jib up.  Not another boat in site... did see one sailboat try to get out of Blackbeard's, but they soon turned around.  Good to know what this boat can handle and especially how much sail to put out for the conditions.

Father Son Sunday,   February 27th
  Destination: Neuse River
      Just another nice day in February... hehe...  took the boat out and had my Father meet up with me and just did a nice easy sail around Union Point and up past the bridge a little.  Actually had both sails up for a bit.

 

Search and Video,   March 9th
  Destination: Pamlico Sound
      So the station asked if I could use my boat to go film video of a capsized fishing boat... Hmmm... work at the desk or work on the boat.. duh. 

  
( note the Live Truck off the left)

  So I gassed up the boat and went and launched at Oriental with one of our reporters.  I did warn the reporter that it will be rough out in the sound, 3-4 ft waves and 10-15 mph winds.  Luckily she has previous experience on sailboats, so seasickness was not an issue.  So I was in 1-2 ft waves doing about 22mph (thanks to the new 90hp engine) when all of a sudden she heels hard over 50+ degrees, and a wave comes up over the cockpit and soaks me... I thought we were going over all the way. I was able to grab the throttle and shut it down and the boat slowly came back up. 

     So one of two things may have happened... we hit a whale on one side, or the centerboard suddenly dropped at 22 mph... yea and no water ballast in.  The reporter survived but was slightly shaken up... and changed her mind about wearing a life jacket. 

Pulled up the centerboard line... nothing left on the end except a frayed wire... ok so the board is down.  I jump down below and look for damage or leaks.... none... and strangely silent... I don't hear the centerboard slapping the sides of the trunk... most likely because I don't have one anymore. 

Yup, it's gone. 

    We continued to the coordinates that the Coast Guard gave us.  Got video of the Coast Guard chopper doing a search pattern.  Just got to the spot, there is one big trawler towing a swamped vessel, 2 other fishing boats and a Coast Guard boat.  As we were filming the trawler got the swamped vessel on its hull and then they all headed back to their port... and so did we.

Here is a video link to the story:

*** Ordered a new centerboard from Blue Water Yachts and installed... see mod section.
 

Spring Break,   April 18 - 23
  Destination: Emerald Isle
      Our good friends aboard Compromise invited us to hangout at their beach house again this year, and we had a great time.  Took the boat out a couple of times, once with the girls and then just the boys.  Had a great sail down the inter coastal from Emerald Isle to Morehead City.  Emerald Isle just finished putting together a new wildlife launch site.  Decent parking, long ramps... however depth is an issue... 2.5 at low tide through the channel they dug... they are in the process of dredging it to make it deeper.

Memorial Day Weekend,   May 28-30
  Destination:   uh.. nope... Some island across from Beaufort Inlet
      Took the boat out with the wife's brother, his wife and their two kids.  We were planning to go to Shackleford Island but there was a storm just sitting over it and Cape Lookout... it wasn't moving at all... it just sat there. 

So we headed to Morehead City... unfortunately I short cut a channel marker and cut back on the number of blades on my prop.  Had to hit the nearest beach and then pull out the spare prop.

Good thing was the weather was the exact opposite of the other place... we had great weather and a nice beach area to play.

After playing on the beach for a while, we headed toward the Morehead City waterfront.  Got pulled over by the local wildlife officers and told that I needed to have 2 fire extinguishers for a 26 foot vessel, I was all set to take my lumps when I remembered that "technically" the MacGregor is 25 feet 9 inches...  so they gave me a warning ticket instead of a real one.

Flamingo Run,   June 18 - 19
  Destination: Cape Lookout... uh... Shackleford Island
      This has become a small annual event, a pre-cursor to the pirate fest the group at ncsail.org puts on. 

Since it was a long weekend I decided to launch from Oriental and take the Adams Creek "the ditch" route to the Beaufort Inlet.

Weather looked good in the sound with sunny skies and a brisk wind... however after getting out past the Beaufort Inlet the chop and increased winds on the ocean had me concerned for the safety of the crew.  

And after radioing other participants and found that only two boats made it to Lookout... the rest stayed at dock.  So the Captain (me) decided to go to the sound side of Shackleford and spend the weekend there. 

  The wife and kids loved the warm water and soft sand... and so did the bottom of our boat at low tide... hehe.

   Did have a bit of a startling moment at night... while we were sleeping a bunch of drunks were flounder gigging and got so close to our boat that I bolted out to see how hard they were going to hit... luckily they missed... probably helped that I tied bumpers to my two anchor to act as buoys.

  Tried to do a little sailing back down the ditch... about 90% possible, winds got better as we got closer to where it empties to the Neuse River.  Then my older daughter Nicole took the wheel to show off her sailing skills.

 We kept an eye out for two other boats in the group... JennaBird and Seahorse who were trailing us.  So when JennaBird popped out we turned around and headed at her.  Nicole did a nice "sail by" and we exchanged greetings... (JennaBird thought we might moon them...hehe)

Kerr Lake,   July 4th Weekend
  Destination: Kerr Lake
      Decided to celebrate the 4th weekend by going somewhere new.  So we tried to load up the kids, but they wanted to spend it with friends... so unfortunately it was just going to be just me and the Admiral... hehe.

The weather was perfect, the drive to the launch was nice.  Was surprised to find the launch are empty on a holiday weekend. We launched at Henderson Point and then motored around for a while checking out the area.  Meet up with some of the NCSail members, did some sailing and then anchored for the fireworks.

Met another Mac26x... who (happily) blamed me for getting a Mac... The fireworks were nice.

Did some more sailing and anchored for lunch and a swim.

So Kerr Lake had now been the deepest water we have had the boat in so far... 101 feet!

Jacksonville MacGregor Group,   Labor Day Weekend (Sept 1-6)
  Destination: Jacksonville, Florida
      After missing it last year due to Hurricane Earl... and Hurricane Irene just passed by this year... so we cleaned up the yard (not really), shipped the kids and dog off to the grand parents, loaded up the boat and took to the road.  The road travel going down was good up until we stopped at the gas station... our radiator blew.  Spent several hours with Billy getting it repaired (he blew one trailer tire).  Still got to the launch by nightfall and spent the night on the boat.

 In the morning we met up with another MacM 'Galactica' and we all launched and headed out. 

Did some sailing around and noticed another MacX bearing down on us... it was Jim King in 'Konig'... so we pretty much made him our tour guide and followed him out to the open Ocean.  Billy and I did a little full speed crossing right in front of him just for fun.  Video of Crossing

After sailing for a while we headed back inland towards the Little Talbot Island beach where we would have dinner and spend the night.  Everyone brought a dish to share and pretty much everyone was beached for the night as the tide went out.  We did get a call from Victor and Kendall on 'Compromise' , they were at the launch with a disintegrated fuel bulb, since I had a spare and I was still floating, I took off for a rescue. 

      In the morning we started taking off from the beach... had to help several boats that were not quite floating yet... we had one of the Mac's (Konig) speed in front of the boats giving us just enough wave action to push them off the beach. All 13 Macs headed down the ICW toward St. Augustine.  Did some sailing were we could, but mostly motored down.  We went through the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine and got a slip at the Municipal Marine at St. Augustine.  For some reason... could be my Pirate side... they put us on a different pier than everyone else.  We toured St. Augustine with Billy and then met up with everyone else for dinner at Columbia's which is a very nice Cuban Restaurant in the historic part of town.  They gave us a private room for our dinner party. When we got back to the boat I noticed what sounded like and electrical short coming from everywhere... after making sure it was not my boat I asked around and was told the sound is from snapping shrimp.

    The next morning several... not all... headed thru the inlet to the ocean for the trip back up to Jacksonville.  I was a little nervous... just like going thru our local inlet... but it was pretty calm and then had nice rollers once out on the ocean.  Had a good constant breeze... got to see sea turtles and dolphins, and the Admiral had taken some sea sickness medicine which pretty much knocked her out for the sail.  I thought for certain we were going to get nailed by a squall line that was hovering over the land area... but it never headed our way.  Had a great ride coming in the inlet... tons of dolphins all around the boat... I see their eyes looking at me... awesome.

    The remaining five of Mac's motored 25 more miles to the Jacksonville Landing.  We were able to tie up all five Macs back-to-back and we went to Chicago Pizza for dinner and drinks.  We had also discovered that the bolt that holds the mast on the base had come out... only the stays were holding it up.  After dinner the five Macs motored the mile and a half over to the City Marina where we stayed for the final night.

     On Labor Day we had coffee and shared our leftovers for breakfast.  The others went off to load up and take off, while Jean and I still had another day off so we sailed back towards our launch area and then sailed well past down the creek.  When we decided to turn around and head back we got hit by a squall on the way back... I was caught totally off guard by the sudden high wind and rain, and with boat in front and in back of me I decided the safest strategy was to beach the boat and wait it out... which turned out to be just 5-10 minutes.  We then took the boat in and headed home.  What was kinda funny, we stopped at a hotel for the night... when we woke up we found we were right next to the gas station here the radiator blew.

    Video from the trip via Compromise Capt.
        Video from the trip via Konig Capt
           Another Video from Konig of KnotShore and XX
              More Video from Konig Jacksonville Landing

Pirate Sail ,  September 30th
  Destination: Cape Lookout
    The whole family had a good time this year at the Pirate Sail... especially me since I didn't have to plan any of it.  (more pictures at http://www.enctrader.com/ncsail/ )     

 Ok, so we had a great time right up to the point that we had to leave....

 
This should have been a warning for me about being stranded... 

So usually I don't pay too much attention to tides and when I anchored it was an exceptionally high tide. 

Usually I keep the boat floating as the tide changes, but since I didn't plan on leaving until the next day I didn't think much about it... oops. 

We were stuck on the beach 2 days.  The kids and I dug a channel around the boat and with some help from some Harker's Island fisherman we were able to be pulled out. 

When I got back to work I found a Gilligan picture taped to my chair... haha.

Discovered New Launch,  October7th
  Destination: Neuse River
      Found a new free launch that puts us right across from Minnesott Beach... there are some low overhead branches so I have to put the mast up while half way down the ramp. It is 8 miles to Oriental from there and 14 to New Bern. 

Point Marina Sail In,  October 21st
  Destination: Point Marina
      Had another nice day of sailing to Point Marina, the kids had fun sleeping in the dock house in sleeping bags.  Instead of anchoring this year, 'Compromise' and 'KnotShore' rafted up to the dock.

Neuse River Again,  November
  Destination: Neuse River

     Victor and his son wanted to do some sailing on the Neuse river again, so we teamed up and headed out.  Winds were light but still a nice day.  I lead them over to the new launch I found near Minnesott.  We eventually anchored there for the night.  Had problems with one of my gas tanks... which kinda lead me to the Bow Fuel Tank I later did.