Beer Cruise 2007

I planned my trip so I would be driving thru Columbus GA. and Montgomery, AL. in the not so peak traffic hours and in the process, I arrived at Pensacola Shipyard Marina Complex at 1 AM in the morning with "Linda Jean" my 1968 Morgan 24 in tow. Thinking I would just wait for dawn to get the boat ready to launch, I was surprised to wake up at 7 AM to a wet an dreary morning. By 10 AM wearing rain gear, I launched then after looking at a weather map in the Marina Store, I decided to delay heading out for a day. It rained hard at times until after 15:00 that day. The next day I sailed out on 31 May with a reefed main and my heavy 110 up at about 0730. As I headed away from the Bayou Chico channel, I noticed a Hunter 24, raise his main, sail a short distance, then pull down the sail and head back, too windy for him. By the time I passed channel marker 25, my sails were wet 10 ft up and I was thinking of reefing the jib. Looking in the cabin, I realized the sink was now full of water and running over on the cabinet. I had forgotten to close the sink drain thru-hull and sea water was coming in. With the sails loosed, I went below, kicked in the bilge pump and mopped up the water as best as I could with "Linda Jean" sailing herself heading toward Santa Rosa Island. With the seas running 3-4 ft., it was a little bumpy in the cabin but I managed to get most of the water. What a way to start a 14 day cruise. With the island fast approaching, I put a reef in the jib and turned East to head into the wind and tack toward Navarre Beach. By 1500 after beating upwind all day with the rail in the water frequently, I eased up to Santa Rosa Island to anchor. I was a little slow getting the anchor ready and I was aground with the anchor in hand. I had gotten too close. Darn, I really need to pursue getting a depth sounder. After pushing and pulling for the next 15 minutes, I was able to get my 5000lb boat floating free again. With her properly anchored, the wet carpet on deck to dry out in the sun, I rowed ashore in my dinghy to see the sights. I was about 3 miles west of Navarre Beach and as I walked across the island, I found where the hurricane had washed away some of the highway. The road was definitely not usable with patches of asphalt missing and sand dunes covering it in other places. This was to be the quietest night at anchor for the whole trip. With an East wind still blowing about 10mph, I sailed West to Quietwater Beach. I made great time going down wind and arrived after a quick 2.5 hour sail.

I had hoped to meet up with a friend on Saturday but after a couple of delays it did not work out and I ended up staying there until Sunday afternoon. By now the wind had turned to be a West wind and was blowing about 20mph. I sailed West, motored under the bridge and then sailed West again. While tacking away from the bridge, and before passing Deer Pt. my jib sheet swivel snap broke. With the boat sailing herself with the main loosed, I went up on the bow and quickly tied the sheet to the jib and a short time later had tamed the jib and was tacking up wind again. It was not 10 minutes later, the line used to reef the mainsail, parted. I did a quick retie of the remaining line and with the mainsail only loosely reefed because I could not pull the sail in enough, I decided to turn around and head back to the safety of Quietwater Beach and do some repairs. The wind was still blowing over 20mph so the trip back was very quick. I located a replacement swivel snap for the jib and for the mainsail reefing, I located some line that was nearly twice as thick to replace the original. It rained most of the night and the forecast for the next day was 20mph West winds. I decided to stay in Quietwater Beach till the wind dropped down or changed directions.

On 6 Jun at 0730, with a forecast wind of only 10mph, I sailed West out of Quietwater Beach with a reefed main and an 80% storm jib. Sailing West, the wind shifted to the South about 1030 and I arrived at Ft Pickens about 11:30. It was near high tide and I anchored off the beach and rowed in with the dinghy. I toured the fort and was amazed with it's size. Back to the boat for lunch, and by 1600 the current really started showing it's self. I stayed the night there but was watchful of my location and the holding of my anchors. The next morning after untangling my anchors, I sailed away with a forecast of 40% rain and 20mph winds. I decided to sail to the PSMC a day early and with a reefed main and again the 80% storm jib, I made really good time sailing in, with the 15mph. wind behind me and 4 ft following seas. Time to rest at the Marina and a hot shower would be great. So much for the Pre-BEER Cruise.

The BEER Fleet started sailing out on Saturday the 9th of Jun with light winds about 0730. There were two boats left at the dock when I left at 0930 I had tied up in the back corner of the C dock and had to wait till Dale and Wendy untied before I could leave. The majority of the fleet had more than a 1 hour head start. I caught up to John & Sherry on "Serenity", opposite Quietwater Beach and sailed next to them for a mile or two. The wind was blowing from the Southwest and with up to 15mph, I was cruising pretty fast toward Navarre Beach, slowly catching up with the fleet. I was coming up on Pete and Jimmy on "Time Away" when I saw a large turtle swimming toward the island. He dived when he saw I was so close to him. I passed "Time Away" and then Mike Miller sailing "1/2 Pint". About 3 miles back from Navarre Beach and with a dark cloud hiding the bridge, and lightning ahead, I decided to sail near Santa Rosa Island and drop anchor to wait out the storm. I could see boats on either side of me anchoring when the storm hit. The hard rain lasted about 30-45 minutes and was great for me because I had time to enjoy a couple of cold drinks while I waited for the rain to quit. With the rain over and the storm now out to sea, I sailed into Navarre Beach but decided to stay aboard for supper and to keep an eye on my anchors because the wind was still pretty strong. Just at dark while going back to check the dinghy painter , I stepped on the tiller tamer line and ripped up the nail on my right big toe. Not a good thing. I wrapped it up, took some Tylenol and went to bed. I would look at the options for it in the morning.

10 Jun, arrived with a North wind and after adding some dressing to my toe, I sailed out again being one of the last five boats to leave. With the centerboard up, I sailed thru some skinny water rather than trying to sail the channel near Navarre Beach. I had up my full main and my 110 heavy jib. It was a 5 hour sail and it was a one tack trip. It was a nice relaxing trip, just what I needed. With not too many boats yet at the anchorage at Quietwater Beach, I picked out one that would keep me out of trouble and yet not be too far out. Most of the sailors from Middle Georgia met at Flounders to have dinner. I went to the store later and picked up some razor blades so I could cut off the broken toenail in the morning. It was a quiet night and there was almost no wind in the morning. The fleet headed out early, most of them motoring until they were into Pensacola Bay to start sailing. I cut off the toenail and with lots of antibiotic applied, I wrapped it good and got ready to sail out. The wind was now blowing from the South and "Linda Jean" made a quick trip of the sail across Pensacola Bay to Sand Island. Using the cut behind the island, I motored to anchor near Ft McRee. Visiting with all the boats anchored on the shore of Sand Island is always fun and this year was not exception. I rowed my dinghy back to "Linda Jean" just before dark with the sounds of a party going on around the campfire on the beach. I had to be a little careful with getting my now bandaged toe wet and infected. I looked a little strange walking the beach with a sneaker on one foot to keep out the sand and a sandal on the other so I could use it to launch and retrieve the dinghy. John & Sherry came by in their electric powered dinghy about 9:30 after spending some time at the campfire. I think they still had to get supper.

Tuesday morning the 12th, the Blue Angels were to practice starting about 08:30. We all climbed Sand Island to stand and watch the performance. With a wind blowing from the West of 10-15mph, I pulled up my anchor and headed East thru the cut and raised my sails. The seas were pretty high coming in to the inlet, so I put up only my 110 heavy jib. Once again I was facing a nasty looking storm, so I dropped anchor near marker 20 to wait to see what the storm would do. 30 minutes later, it had moved out to sea and raised anchor and sailed toward PSMC with just my 110 heavy jib. I was making 5-6 knots with just the jib up, but as I neared the Bayou Chico channel, 3 Sea Pearls were catching up to me fast. They caught me just inside the last marker. I later learned they were cruising along at sometimes up to 10kts. It was a wild ride for them with the seas running 3-5 ft. Pulling out the following day went pretty smooth for me, but John & Sherry on an O'Day 272 had some trouble with their trailer on Tuesday evening, and were able to finally pull out at high tide the next morning along with Ken & Jennifer Griffin. After having so much wind during my trip, I decided I would take the opportunity to have a 2nd reef put in my mainsail and before heading to GA. I dropped my mainsail off at Schuur Sails in Pensacola. I received the sail back 2 weeks later with a great job done on the 2nd. reef.

I hope you have not spent too much time suffering thru this long & boring account of my trip, but hope you find it an incentive to do some cruising of your own and maybe your accounts will be more exciting.

Bob Horan

"Linda Jean" 68 Morgan 24