Mac Get-Together Jacksonville, FL 5-6 Sept

[markh1f]

Coming from the ICW there is plenty of water up until after where the orange line starts. Slow down at that point and roughly follow the orange line feeling your way in. The tricky part is finding your way across from the right side over to the left side. Once your over on the left side there should be plenty of depth.

Mark

[Wind of Freedom]

All - sitting here contemplating this morning ... working on the logistics. Great idea to monitor VHF 72. What about posting some cell phone numbers?

[Hamin' X]

!	Moderator Note:
	Please, do not post personal phone numbers on the forums. I will just have to delete them. Instead, use the PM, or Email functions of the board. Thanks, ~Rich---Hamin' X~

[Wind of Freedom]

Oooopssss ... Ok. Anyway, it's looking like I won't be able to make it this time ... I'll will have to wait until the next Jax get together in the spring.

[c130king]

Well the Jax Mac Get-Together has come and gone...and it was a GREAT success!

The first four Mac's met at the Little Talbot beach at Fort George State Park on Friday night. Capt Phil (aka PAJ637) in "Southern Soul" motored South on the ICW from St. Mary's Georgia. Capt John (aka JCasale) in "Un-Tethered" and Capt Jim (me) in König motored down the St. John's River from Julington Creek (about 30 miles) and Capt Mark (aka Markh1f) accompanied by Admiral Helen in "Allons-y" motored North on the ICW from the Atlantic Beach area. We all anchored/beached stern-in and grilled some meat for dinner and got to know each other. There were a few issues with bugs (sand fleas/no-see-ums) but nothing significant. Three of the four boats were completely high-and-dry at low tide but we were all floating and left the beach at 8:00 Saturday morning.

On our way back to the St. John's River we met up with Capt Dennis (aka Inquisitor) accompanied by Admiral Renee and Skipper-in-Training Jamie in their as of yet un-named Mac at Sister's Creek Marina. They get the award for dedication. They departed Atlanta around 5:00 Friday afternoon, got to Sister's Creek Marina at 1:00 in the morning and after crashing on the trailered boat they got up, rigged and launched by 8:30 Saturday morning. That is some serious dedication to sailing.

The first obstacle we had to overcome was our fuel situation. The planned fuel stop at Mayport Marine was not to be due to the fact that the marina was closed for repairs...lesson learned -- call ahead if you haven't used a marina recently. But we found a restaurant with a dock right across the river with a gas station very close. We even got a lift from a good samaritan who drove John and I with our four fuel tanks there and back.

Once fueled up we motored out the channel and into the Atlantic for our trip to St. Augustine (the NE winds forced our hand so we went South to St. Augustine rather than North to Fernandina Beach). A little squirrely getting out of the channel as the river current, incoming tide, incoming swells, and winds combined to make the channel entrance a little rough. But once beyond the jettys we had 15 knots from the NE and 3-5 foot seas. We all sailed together for 33 miles in about 5 hours. Excellent sailing conditions.

Getting in the channel at St. Augustine was also challenging as the low tide and incoming swells and winds made for a rough entrance. But no big problems and we all made it safely back into the ICW and we motored under the Bridge of Lions in a row and up a side channel to Oyster Creek Marina. We had all five boats lined up on the "T" at the end of one of the piers. And after getting the boats straightened up we all were able to take some very welcome showers before going out to Dinner at Hurricane Patty's. And we added one more person to our group as Admiral Cindy (Commanding Officer to Capt Phil) and Missy (aka Mascot of "Southern Soul") drove down from St. Mary's to meet us for dinner.

Sunday morning all five of us left St. Augustine and we motored the 30 miles North on the ICW back to the St. John's River. Some did some sailing in the ICW and some just motored North. "Allons-y" went back to her home slip since we passed right by it as we approached the St. John's. "Southern Soul" had to leave our group and this point and continued up the ICW back to St. Mary's. "Un-Tethered", "König", and Dennis's boat all sailed 20 miles against the current to the Jacksonville Landing in downtown Jacksonville. Mark and Helen drove there and joined us for dinner at Hooters. The three remaining boats stayed overnight tied up at the Jacksonville Landing

The Get-Together officially ended Monday morning as Dennis, Renee and Jamie motored back East to Sister's Creek Marina to load up their boat and drive back to Atlanta. John and myself sailed South on the St. John's to our home ports at Julington Creek and NAS Jacksonville Respectively.

It was a great trip. The weather was very good with only one short rain shower. One small incident with fuel but was overcome by some friendly sharing of extra gas...big thanks to Phil. I think everyone had a great time. Hopefully this can become an annual event.

Here are some initial pics...more to come later.

Un-Tethered motoring towards downtown Jacksonville

Beached at Little Talbot at Sunset

Southern Soul on the Atlantic

Dennis' un-named boat flying the flag on the Atlantic (with Allons-y in the background)

Tied up at the marina in St. Augustine

The gang at Hooter's at Jacksonville Landing (From L - R: Me, Helen, Mark, Elmer (John's sailing buddy that went with us...a keel-boater but he is one of the good ones), John, Dennis, Renee and Jamie...unfortunately Phil and Cindy couldn't be with us)

Three Mac's tied up at the Jacksonville Landing

[markh1f]

A terrific time was had by all, it was great to meet all the local and not so local Mac owners. Thanks to Jim for instigating this outing and the great trip report.
My hat is off to the single handers, especially Phil who did the whole trip without an Autopilot...

Here is the gang going thru the historic Bridge of Lions in St.Augustine.



Some things I learned from the Mac Get-Together:
- the fast blue hulls aren't.
- Ms sail a little faster than Xs
- Boats with Genoas go faster downwind.
- Boats with Jibs point higher going upwind.

Something I knew but did not pay attention to is:
Current against wind and waves will bunch the waves up and produce large and potentially dangerous waves if the area is shallow enough. Also the reverse is true, large wave will be flattened out if the current is running in the same direction as the wind/waves.
When we entered the St.Augustine inlet the tide was running out at near it's maximum ebb, if we had timed our approach an hour or 2 earlier or later entering St.Augustine would have been a non-event. As it was the 3 to 5' seas we had on the open water became more like 6 to 8' and gave everyone quite the adrenalin rush and I am sure some white knuckles on the helm... Proper planing would have avoided that.

Mark

[nchogberg]

Looks like a lot of fun. Congratulations on a successful GTG!!!

Nels

[jcasale]

Greetings,

This was an amazing event. The weather, the logistics the equipment all worked together perfectly. The only flaw was that we did not start recruiting other participants earlier. Next years get together will be the same so mark your calendars.

We were able to exploit all aspects of the Macgregor. We beached the boats, motored fast (I need a bigger engine) and sailed in blue water. We turned heads everywhere we went and did it all with style.

My hats off to Dennis, Renee and their daughter for making the trip. It was quite the leap of faith on their part and our trip was better for it.
Phil, you did a great job single handing it on the "outside" without an autohelm. I had two on board and I was still exhausted.
Mark and Helen your stories were great and Helen's pasta salad was amazing. Thank you for the food and the grill.
Jim, I hope your short trip stateside was worth all the work. You get the award for the most mods completed in the shortest amount of time. JB weld is an amazing thing.

For those who did not visit I was told by one of the crews that the Jacksonville venue is more dynamic and has more to offer than most of the other trailer sailor get togethers, most notably the B.E.E.R cruise. This is strictly opinion based but made me feel good because this was the first (and least planned) of these events and everyone appeared to be very satisfied.

This was the longest trip I have taken on the ocean and I never felt as thought he Mac would let me down. The pucker factor was high coming back into St. Augustine but as Phil pointed out that could be avoided with a bit more planning. I learned a lot, met some new folks and made some great friends.

I hope to do another small trip to St. Augustine later this year. The city is even more picturesque during the holidays and with the cooler weather and more favorable winds its a great three day weekend. If anyone wants in please PM me and I'll keep you posted.

John
2000 , Honda 30hp (looking to upgrade)
Atlantic Beach, Fl