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Auto Pilot Full Test,   June
  Destination: Emerald Isle to Morehead City
           Finally got a break in some weather so headed over to my friend Vic's vacation house at Emerald Isle and took it out on the sound.  The wind was coming at just the right angle and we sailed all the way to Morehead City.  Actually had all 3 sails out.  Then we pulled up to the Sanitary Restaurant which had just put in a new dock.  We had a good dinner and then powered all the way back to the launch in one hour... it's nice to have a powersailor! 

Sailing Academy Vacation,   June 9th - 14th (<--yea, that is a full week!)
  Destination: Charleston, SC
           So our younger daughter got a chance to go to the Navy Jr. ROTC Sailing academy down in Charleston, so that was a great excuse for a sailing trip of our own.  So we drove down with the boat and dropped her off at the sailing camp just and hour west of Charleston and then we headed for our launch site at Sandy Point. 

And by we I mean the Admiral, dog and my older daughter Nicole... who actually wanted to go with us... she has lately started to turn into a normal person who talks and associates with her parents again... gone is the brooding early Goth teenager.

          It was a little hot so set up of the boat took a little longer than the usual 15 minutes.  After getting in the water we starting looking for a night anchor spot... well away from the channel...

 which I learned from the last Charleston trip actually had very large commercial traffic that will not stop for your little boat.

        So we found this little shallow area... about 2 feet deep... gotta love a 1 foot draft boat.  It was near what looked like an old railroad bridge.  After anchoring successfully and making sure we are well away from the channel we starting cooking a dinner for a king.

Ribs and corn on the cob in the husk... good stuff.  Had a good quite night at anchor and a nice view of the bridge all lit up.

In the morning we pulled up the anchor and headed for the Ocean, had some good wind and made it all the way to the Ocean under sail.  Got to see several large vessels... (Paddle Wheel, Aircraft Carrier, Car Carrier)

and skirted by a couple of civil war forts... (Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie)

Once we got out on the ocean it was nice for a while then the wind picked up as well as the waves... so we started back when all of a sudden the trolling line I had out for the past 4 hours suddenly starting screaming like we had something...

 something really big... or something immovable...

so I gave the reel a little more tension and lost 4 lures almost immediately... immovable or a shark (the crew says shark :-) got to keep the planer though.

On the way back we tried to stop at an island that has a piece of some castle on it, we now refer to the island as bird poop island. It looked like it had a sandy beach... not, turns out to be black mud and then overpopulated with birds.  Who proceeded to take off at our approach and then bombard us from the air... we beat a hasty retreat and a change of clothing afterwards.

      The plan for the day was to dock at the Maritime Center for the day to visit the Aquarium, and take up overnight docking at the City Docks.  So we pulled into the Maritime Center and after the dockhand said the word "shower" we decided to stay there for the week. 

Their bathroom and shower facilities were nice... however, we soon learned why the docking was cheaper... the docks are all floating docks with no protection from the shipping channel or the weather. 

We got beat up pretty bad due to weather and waves, as did some other boats that were there... and there was the heat... 90+ degree days... thank god for Billy's A/C box.  Jean had a neat trick... she put a towel over the top windows that help cut the direct light/heat from getting in the boat... good thinking Admiral!

Nicole had fun making a "necker hole" cave for sleeping in on the port aft bunk.

So we went and hit up the Aquarium, here is what it looks like from the water... pretty neat.

They had a 4D Spongebob movie running that Nicole was extremely excited to do.  It had 3D glasses, the seats shook and bubbles and water hit you every so often... she loved it.

We then hit up the main part of the aquarium:

We learned a lot about Sting Rays... where the stinger was, which helped us leave the water quickly when we tried to wade over to Fort Sumter... there must have been 6-10 of them around us.  Towards the end of our tour we got to see one of these:

The fire alarm went off so we had to evacuate the building... tour over.  We then decided to stop for snow cones and walk into the downtown area near the market and scope it out for the next day.

So the next day we went right down to the Market area and signed up for a horse and carriage tour.  It was another scorcher of a day, so the covered carriage and light breeze was nice.

We then had lunch at a small deli and then went and toured the City Market... wow this thing is long...

Then had a really long dinner... mostly to cool down in the air conditioning... and then waiting on the Admiral to finish a large plate of blue crabs.

Nicole and I actually left her there twice and went shopping while waiting for her to finish.

It was worth the wait as she said it was the best she ever had.

It was now time to head back to the launch, stow the boat and head for the hotel... yup civilization.  A night in the hotel (with pizza delivered) is just what the crew needed to get refreshed, showered and made up and a good (no waves) sleep before picking up our younger daughter from her sailing camp.  (we had to sneak the dog in, as it was no pets... not hard to sneak a 6 pound dog in... a hair towel is big enough)  The hotel had good parking in the back for the boat, which I got caught answering questions again from onlookers about it's uniqueness... just part of owning a MacGregor Powersailor!

Got to the camp for graduation, she passed.  Also found out she won the award for most bruises... she did a lot of capsizing, half of it on purpose... it was hot there too.  Loaded her up and headed home... with a short detour:

Pirate Voyage in Myrtle Beach (used to be Dixie Stampede)

(how can I pass on pirates and pirate ships?!?)

It was a good time!

(some more pics)

Knot Shore is an RV,   May
  Destination: Ocracoke Island
          Memorial Weekend!  Yeeha!  Heading to Ocracoke!   The weather is totally cooperating!  The whole family is psyched!  Nothing can stop us now... EXCEPT...

The ramp at Cedar Island is UNDER CONSTRUCTION... really?!!>!?!??  OMG!!!

I just drove an hour and a half... what the heck do I do now????  Hey look... the ferry is in dock... hmmm I wonder... nah... holiday weekend... probably packed... no chance... try anyway.

The nice lady at the booth said "YES"! they have room! (saved my butt)

Had a nice ride over in the ferry...

 the older daughter Nicole is still freaking me out... talking to me, engaging and asking questions...

who are you and what have you done with the other Nicole?

So I don't know if I should post this here or on my RV site... we did not take the boat out on the water at all... unless you count the ferry ride.  We played secret RV campout at the launch parking lot on Ocracoke. (no pictures, rangers might read this)

So we unhooked the jeep and used it to tour the island... which was half of the trip anyway.  Met with some celebrities on the island:

We also headed down to look at the horses/ponies on the island.  Took way too many pictures of the horses, as Nicole got a hold of my camera... and loves horses.

and then crossed the road to the beach side:

We also hit up the Blackbeard Museum, and nice informative place with a gift shop. 

We got Nicole an oyster with a pearl and necklace gift... she had fun opening it on the boat.

We also headed over to Teach's hole

Met up with others from NCSail.org (Jenna Bird, Lazy Day) and caught a nice sunset and then we headed over to Howard's Pub for dinner (Jeep made it easy getting there)


Here is a shot of Knot Shore speeding home with Jenna Bird and Lazy Days shrinking in the distance behind me.


Ok now the rest of the story... er picture
(ignore the aft of the ferry...hehe)

MUCK About,   July
  Destination: Upper Chesapeake
           I try to never let the weather keep me from attempting to go on a sailing trip... exception for hurricane conditions, and only because I have to be at work (yea like that is the only reason).  It looked like hit or miss for most of NC... but mostly hit for the Upper Chesapeake.  By the time we got there... ok, 7 hours is a really long drive for a weekend... may have re-evaluate the ROI on this one... it was raining pretty consistently. 

But I set up the boat, put the full enclosure up and stayed on the trailer at the ramp... hehe RV boat again... this is getting to be a trend... maybe I should not have bought a separate RV.

The rest of the group got permission; due to the deteriorating conditions, to tie up at the small docks next to the ramp.  After helping get everyone tied up we all agreed to have a picnic under one of the shelters that the rangers said we could use... very gracious. 

A lot of good food (especially the marinated steak tips... thanks Compromise!) and fellowship. 

Even had an expert snake removal using the MacGregor mast crutch... told you these MacGregors are versatile!

Had a nice night on the boat... didn't feel any waves... hehe.  Launched the boat and waited for everyone else to get up and get moving.  Keep the crew occupied by meeting the locals...

Weather cleared and look great... expect the wind is missing. Oh well... can't have everything.  Did have one crew member abandon ship... turncoat!

Christina was welcomed aboard the Double Cross with Billy and crew... god have mercy on her soul... or his soul...

I think the Admiral on Knot Shore was a little nervous putting her faith in Captain Billy...

probably had something to do with the spinnaker incident on the lower Chesapeake..

of course this probably didn't help...

The other crew member was hanging out in a different way

We had some wind for a while but it eventually died off entirely... so what to do?  Go tubing of course! 

Had to do a crew transfer on the water with Double Cross.  Brought the nose of Knot Shore up to the aft of Double Cross (slowly), had the crew grab the bow rail of Knot Shore and pulled us in enough to step over.  Geez... we actually looked like we have done this before!

Did tubing for a while and then headed into the Sailing Emporium marina... good name... nice facility.  Spent a lot of time in the pool and then helped get the supplies for the cook out.  That turned out to be a lot of work... may have to look at going out instead next time.

The Sailing Emporium had a nice sunset dock
 

Enjoyed the view and the company...

Labor Day Weekend,   September
  Destination: Neuse River

                           Decided to do a little solo sailing and test out the new fishing pole modification.  Launched from the Bridgeton ramp, got just past the railroad bridge when I get a cell phone call from the wildlife officer saying the my trailer was not parked properly... on a gravel unmarked parking area... really. 

So I had to head back to the launch to re-park my trailer.  So did that and headed back out. 

The weather was spotty patches of rain, but good wind.  The autopilot was working great, so that made it easy for me to make lunch and go fishing... all at the same time. 

I was able to pretty much avoid most of the pockets of rain, until I got close to the ramp, then I had to put up the full enclosure and wait for a pocket of downpour to pass over.

 The fishing went better than ever, caught 2 Spanish mackerel and 6 blues on the rig that Harry on Jenna Bird showed me.  The "planer" device is really cool,  it keeps the lures under the water and then when a fish hits the lures the planers pops the whole rig to the surface... I could actually hear the pole make a "twang" noise when a fish was caught. 

I was thrilled, but the wife was not when I told her I just released them... ok.. note to self... keep fish.

Pirate Sail,   September
  Destination: Beaufort to Lookout

                      Another Pirate Sail... and the Mutiny continues as the crew has again abandoned ship... good thing that Knot Shore is rigged for solo sailing!

 Did some more fishing and brought home a couple of mackerel. 

The weather was good for that Saturday sail, but was going to go bad out at Lookout overnight... so we sailed out to the hook and then headed back for a pot luck dinner at the docks.