What is the farthest/longest?

[The Mutt]

The longest we made it away for a sail from our personal rat race was two weeks, that was in our Jarcat 5, two weeks from the 26th December on the Myall Lakes and Port Stephens with bushfires driving South from Seal Rocks, very relaxing.

Glenn

[Rick Westlake]

When I had my mac 25 I almost always daysailed. Slept on it twice, once on the hook and once at the dock, both for one night. Both times I woke up with a back ache, one of which was extreme. So if you are going to be sleeping aboard make sure you have an adequate mattress/padding.

I put Froli Star springs under my V-berth in Beija-flor, and they do a fine job for me ... when I sold her, I kept the springs and put them under my sleeping berth in Bossa Nova. I think they make a real difference. The Star springs lift the mattress about 2 inches, too, so there's plenty of ventilation beneath it. (No sticky-bottom mattress)

[Man~ana]

One Week

[Kelly Hanson East]

8 days - I tried to rationalise that was close to 2 weeks, but my moral compass forbade this.

I have sailed in the driveway for many, many months though...when the MIL comes to stay...

[Sumner]

We were gone over a month on our second ever sailing experience with our 26S, but were on the water 24 days of that and slept in the boat on the trailer on the road for about 5 more days.

The first time we took the boat out after buying it was to McFee Reservoir in Colorado for 5 days and this was the first time either of us had ever sailed, so that proved to be quite an experience and the story of that trip is here........

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... cPhee.html

After that trip I worked on the boat for about 1 1/2 months getting it ready for a longer trip to Idaho and Canada. That was the trip where we were gone over a month and we spent 12 days on.............



........Priest Lake in upper Idaho and then trailered the boat across the border to......



........Kootenay Lake in B.C. Canada were we sailed for another 12 days and really enjoyed both of those lakes. The story of that trip is here...........

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... index.html

Then it was a few weeks off before we took some friends from Belgium out on Lake Powell (our local lake that is 90 miles from us) where we hadn't sailed yet.............



..............That was a nice trip, but too short for us.

We returned to Lake Powell late in Sept of this year trying to sail the length of it using the outboard for anchoring only. I don't have that story up yet, but will say at this point we didn't manage to sail the whole way, but did make it 90+ miles from Page, AZ to Bull Frog/Halls Crossing, UT under sail alone and in the process I managed to get a small fracture in my shoulder and screwed up my rotator cup and tore a ligament in the shoulder all as a result of anchoring problems (actually tied to shore problems) in 50+ mph winds. Hopefully I'll have that story up in the next week or so. We were on the lake for 18 days, 5 of which were in the same spot so I could heal a little. In the 90+ miles you won't see a road, house or car. Despite the injury it was quite a trip and we plan to return next year and do the final 46 miles under sail only to the headwaters of the lake at Hite, UT.

It has only been 9 months since we bought our Mac and it has given us some wonderful experiences to remember and I'm sure it will give us many more. We are both in our late 60's so we will be trying to squeeze as many long trips in as we can over the next few years.

c ya,

Sum and Ruth

[Chinook]

Hi Sum and Ruth,

Thanks for the post. I'll look forward to reading your trip accounts at my leisure. You obviously have caught the spirit of extended cruising on a small, trailerable sailboat. I'm particularly impressed with your ability to sail so far on Lake Powell. That's a very tricky place to sail. I wish you well in your future adventures.

[traderdave]

Very interesting reading about your adventures, we are 60+ and just bought a 1998 mac 26x and have had no sailing experience. I had lots of powerboat experience , but have not had a boat for 10 years. The mac has been great so far,I can relate to the scream line comments as my wife is not into the heeling part as yet. That could because I gave her a bit of a scare when the wind picked up more than expected. We have been doing day trips on Harrison lake in B.C. and learning a bit more about sailing before we do some longer trips next year.
Thanks for the articles, it gives me a bit more confidence to hear about other people learning the ropes as they go, I'm not the only crazy one out there!!!!

[Sumner]

Hi Sum and Ruth,

Thanks for the post. I'll look forward to reading your trip accounts at my leisure. You obviously have caught the spirit of extended cruising on a small, trailerable sailboat. I'm particularly impressed with your ability to sail so far on Lake Powell. That's a very tricky place to sail. I wish you well in your future adventures.

Reading your great trip adventures was one of the motivations for us doing this, so we want to thank you guys also. We hope to do the Sea of Cortez also after reading your accounts from there. They helped a lot and we will be re-reading them again. We need some more experience and need to gain more confidence also, so the Sea of Cortez would either be next fall or the following year. We aren't getting any younger, so we can't put it off forever. If you don't mind as the time gets closer to that trip we might be sending you some questions.

Lake Powell is hard and we were glad we didn't go there for our first sail. We were headed that way with the jeep pulling the Mac last April when the motor blew up west of town on a long pull, so borrowed a friends pickup and went to McFee in Colo. instead. Powell is like no other place in the U.S. scenery wise, but as we found out can also be not so forgiving. We started up lake about a mile above the dam. Down from Wahweap Marina and ramp where the river channel goes one way around Antelope Island and the lake arm goes the other. We sailed only 1 1/2 miles that day in very calm and no wind conditions. About then I thought our goal of sailing the entire 150 miles or so of the lake was really unrealistic as it would take over a 100 days at that rate. Things got better the next day, but we did just spend a lot of time floating around waiting for a wind and when it came it was sometimes way more than we were comfortable with. We were stubborn about this though and at the end of every day would mark our position on the GPS and then motor or sail to anchorage or a shore mooring and would return to exactly the place we stopped the day before the next morning. We wonder if anyone has ever sailed the length of the lake only using the motor for anchoring?

Traderdave thanks also for the kind words and glad you enjoyed the read. You should like the Lake Powell one also when I'm done with it. We just looked at pictures of Harrison Lake. It looks beautiful, and Ruth said we need to go there. Do the shores drop off fast? I'm assuming it was made by glaciation. Those places can be difficult to anchor.

c ya,

Sum and Ruth

[Chinook]

Hi Sum and Ruth,

Feel free to ask away. A big part of the fun of a cruise is the dreaming, investigating and planning. By the way, a great resource for sailing on the Sea of Cortez is the Tuscon Sailing Club. Check out their website at www.tusconsailingclub.com . There are lots of cruise descriptions and great photos, as well as links to San Carlos. Explore around and you'll find the San Carlos sailing forum. You can post questions there and with the Tuscon sailors. We got lots of good information from them, and made some good friends along the way.

Happy sailing

[TexasDan40]

Sumner,
Looks like a couple of wonderful trips.
This is why I bought a Mac. Can't wait to take my family on similar adventures.
Thanks for posting.
Tex

[traderdave]

Hi Sum and Ruth
Harrison is an interesting lake, there are lots of anchorages and beaches where creeks run in from the side valleys. Also you can explore the Harrison River which connects with the Fraser River and Pitt Lake and then on to the ocean. At this time of year the Harrison is full of Salmon and lots of eagles, seals etc. The ramp is great and only $16.00 in and out and to park. It gets busy in the summer, but right now we have the lake to ourselves. If you make it up let us know.

[Sumner]

Hi Sum and Ruth
Harrison is an interesting lake, there are lots of anchorages and beaches where creeks run in from the side valleys. Also you can explore the Harrison River which connects with the Fraser River and Pitt Lake and then on to the ocean. At this time of year the Harrison is full of Salmon and lots of eagles, seals etc. The ramp is great and only $16.00 in and out and to park. It gets busy in the summer, but right now we have the lake to ourselves. If you make it up let us know.

Dave thanks for the info and we will keep the lake in mind and will be sure and let you know if we go that way. Also the same is the same for anyone coming to SE Utah to sail Lake Powell which is 90 miles west of us.

Mike thanks for the link to the club in Tucson. I have a daughter living in that area. It looks like they are very active in the Sea of Cortez.

Tex good luck on your trips,

Sum

[Boblee]

In the almost four years since we bought the boat we have lived on it for over 15 months probably half of that on the water, it has travelled 800k's down our Murray River, the Gippsland lakes for two weeks, four months travelling up our east coast visting many Estuaries and the Whitsunday Islands, We spent 14 weeks last year in the Gulf of carpentaria and the Macarthur River system, 14 weeks this year on the Roper River 150 k's long, several weeks on Darwin Harbour and then travelling down the Norman river from Normanton on the other side of the gulf and up the Coast of Cape York.
There was quite a few smaller trips but the only limit on these boats is your imagination and will to get out there doing it, the boats are flexible enough to accomplish almost anything.
I must admit though we haven't done a whole lot of sailing as the wife still has problems with anything above 15 knot winds and anything more than 15 degrees heel.
The more places you explore the more you find that need exploring.

[Don T]

Hallelujah Brother................. Have you heard about the gatherin'?

[Kelly Hanson East]

I did most of Baltimore Inner Harbor (once I reached the Chesapeake) to Elk Neck under sail one beautiful night 4pm-12pm - solo. I confess it was coming home from a conference and I expensed the trip....

Im thinking thats about 30 miles or so??