BEER 2010 (long)

[brackish]

Well after a winter of procrastinating and a couple of weeks of concentrated work, Arion was made ready for her first real road trip to big salt water.  The plan was to leave May 23 and head for Mexico Beach, FL, spend ten days there then either sail or tow over to Pensacola to participate in the B.E.E.R cruise.

440 mile tow down was delightfully uneventful although hills around Birmingham challenged my tow vehicle.  Prepped the boat the next day to launch.  Had arranged to have a slip at the Mexico Beach canal (great bargain, ten days for $115) which was less than a mile from the beach house where the family was staying.  The canal is well protected but only about 500 yards to the open Gulf.  Spent that ten days doing day sails with my sons, grandson, nieces, nephews, BIL, DIL's and other assorted relatives.  Sailed mostly to the point at the end of St. Joe St. Park, about six miles away.  It was nice to finally sail in an area with steady winds.  Boat typically on a beam reach and doing between 5.5 and 6 knots.  Got to test my new 135, Asymmetrical, Tiller pilot, GPS software, and other winter projects that should have been tested at the lake at home, but time didn't permit.  All worked well except for fouling the assyspin halyard around the upper furler drum, something I think I've worked out with the addition of a ring atop the drum.

My plan to sail from Mexico Beach to St. Andrews pass, then inside the ICW to Santa Rosa sound, across Pensacola Bay to the B.E.E.R jump off point did not work out.  BIL was supposed to drive my truck and trailer over, but he had a conflict and no one else was free to do that.  So I pulled out and towed over to Pensacola (I've determined I'd much rather sail for two days to get there than go through the retrieve/relaunch process) arriving on June 3.  Set the boat up to launch the next day, that launch delayed a couple of hours while the Vessels of Opportunity (BP spill cleanup contractors) launched ahead of me.  Had a great meal of red beans, rice and sausage that night cooked by Cajun John which I understand is a BEER tradition.

About fifty boats attended the event, the smallest being a Montgomery 15, the largest Mark Milams Juneau Sun Oddessy 42 (the mother ship).  The most unique was a Drascombe Coaster and there were also a couple of Nimble 20's.  The most prevalent boat was various models of the Macgregor 26.  Probably ten or twelve of them.  Also had a Corsair F27 tri and a big catamaran, not sure what make.  Of course the prettiest was my Compac 23/IV.  During the day before we left, had many folks come by to look and she drew a lot of compliments.

We left Pensacola Navy Marina on Chico Bayou the morning of June 5.  I was single handling.  The week before I had crew standing in line, however, everyone had to go home, back to work, so I was on my own.  Needed to try an extended single hand cruise anyway and best to do it in a flotilla.  Sailed across Pensacola Bay into Santa Rosa Sound to a place called the Pavilions which is in the middle of the Gulf Island National Seashore park, half way between Pensacola and Navarre.  Nice sail about 19 miles and a pretty anchorage.  Ironically, this is the only mandatory cooking stop, no restaurants for miles, yet this is the night we got a very large squall with sixty MPG gusts and many hours of rain.  So it was a sandwich rather than the steak that was supposed to be cooked on the Magma.  The squall put quite a few of us in the water to reset ground tackle.  My little CQR held fine, but the 180 swing put me where my rudder was nudging the sand, so I moved out a bit.  Like to keep the rudder down, less stress on the bearings.

Next morning, after doing a run in the park waiting for the wind to come up, left for a short sail East to the Navarre bridge and Juana's Pagodas.  This was not the best anchorage with a choice of anchoring very deep or risking a swing into the shoals.  I didn't have a dingy with me, didn't think I would need it based on the selected anchorages, but would have like to have had it here.  It was not a place where you could anchor in "step off" depth water despite a 2'3" draft.  A couple of folks who knew the area better, crossed under the bridge and anchored on the east side, much calmer and a better anchorage, still not far from the shore action. 

The next day we all left to sail 17 miles back to anchor at the boardwalk at Pensacola Beach.  This was the first time I had to motor a bit, hit several periods of dead calm.  Our plan was to anchor behind Flounder's restaurant.  Flounder's had a pier with about two dozen slips, and they gave us the use of the pier, but only the water ballast boats with very shallow draft could use them.  The depth was about knee deep MLW.  When I arrived some of the folks that had gotten there before me waved me in but I bumped a couple of times and decided, since we had six hours more to low tide, I would anchor out a bit.  Flounder's gave us the bar area at the end of the pier that had tables and umbrella's and most hung out there or in the water the rest of the day.  Went across to the beach side and saw about a dozen network satellite news trucks with talking heads searching for a tar ball to talk about. 

After an uneventful night, left the next morning for the short sail across the bay, back to Bayou Chico to get in line to pull out.  I got out and set up to travel by four that afternoon and decided to go ahead and tow home that night, with a plan to stop if I got tired.  Made it home before 11:00PM another uneventful tow except getting lost in Mobile for a spell.

BEER was fun.  I'll do it again.  An easy cruise there were restrooms and at least outdoor showers at every stop.  The participants were a diverse group, some couples, some families with young kids, some old retired folks (I related well with them), some party hearty folks.  Because a lot of the time you spent sailing from point A to point B. socializing and meeting everyone was a challenge.

A couple of picture links and the BEER website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jimmy.harrell.photos/BEERCRUISE2010#5481647516191449362

http://bbs.trailersailor.com/forums/tsbbcomp/trailersailor/index.cgi/read/746858

http://www.beercruise.info/

[BobK]

I was lucky enough to live on the water in Gulf Breeze with my sailboat on the dock in front of the house.  The water there is crystal clear and the sand is as fine and white as it can be.  Hopefully the oil won't damage it for long.  I would recommend this BEER cruise in this area to anyone.  Hopefully I will bring my 23 next year.
Brackish it sounds like this cruise is as much fun as I have been hoping it was.
BobK

[Bob23]

Great write-up, Brack. Makes me want to tow my 23 down thar next year. And thanks for the links to the photos.
Bob23

[romei]

Thanks for taking us along Brackish!  Very enjoyable reading.