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B&B Messabout 2017


Alan Stewart

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Oyster,

 

It was a pleasure to have you both visit. Chloe sure was cute sailing that little box around.

 

Here a couple of pictures to start with. The camp fire on Saturday night. Steve sure plays a mean guitar and harmonica and Bob can belt out a shanty.59ed716363d60_Campfire.thumb.jpg.f89651a15051c05a9083b6935faf55ca.jpg

 

Alan sailing Carlita with family.59ed71b78910e_AlanandCarlita.thumb.jpg.7d6956477c252031edc82dc4e919b728.jpg

Forrest and sue on a Spindrift 1259ed721910749_Spindrift12.thumb.jpg.5d73c96820e23f36e7153bb618ef3075.jpg

 

Bill brought his Ocracoke 2059ed723fcd042_BillOcracoke1.thumb.jpg.4c68b23358aa1319240faf2a3c6e0dcb.jpg

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So much fun for this upstate New Yorker without a boat! Thanks to Chick, Pete and Bob who took me out and let me have some helm time (I probably am done sailing until spring so that was really a nice way to end the summer). Thanks to all who made me feel at home especially Carla, Graham, Alan, Taylor, Natt and Beth. What a great group!

 

Thanks to all who sang along Saturday night. I love music and that was fun.

 

Thanks to all the boat builders. I took so many pictures of modifications and rigging ideas and I can't wait until I can start adding hardware!

 

All in all a great weekend. I mentioned my wife calls me "Mr Annual" for my yearly commitments, so if I get "Jazz Hands" finished, I'll see you all in a year.

 

 

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Thanks to all the B and B crew and the participants who helped make a truly memorable Messabout.

 

Amos and his family joined Sally and I for a sail. Local Honey is in the background.

Second photo is Pete sailing Chessie.

Third photo is Paul working Carrie B upwind.

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   Well folks, another great B&B messabout has come and gone. It was great to visit with old friends and make new ones. I especially like to meet the younger generation of builders. We old codgers should try our best to interest young’uns to the hobby. Speaking of younguns, thanks to Steve and Amos for spending time with Summer Breeze and Me. I enjoyed your enthusiasm for my favorite hobby. And thanks to Tom for the old Evinrude that followed me home. I mentioned to Tom that I had become interested in restoring old outboard motors, and he immediately invited me home to get an old 7 ½ Evinrude that had been lying around his boat house for years. I also got to spend a little time with the Master  (Graham) as he was relaying some of our past experiences together exploring my ideas about what boat I thought I wanted, and what boat HE knew I wanted. Seems that he always did know better than I. So far I’ve built ten of his wonderful designs!

   I can’t go on without mentioning the feast Saturday! I love Eastern NC barbecue with its vinegar base sauce. Well, to tell the truth, I also love western NC barbeque with Carolina Sweet sauce. Oh yeah, back to the food. What a spread. I stuffed myself! And there was still more for supper (dinner?).…and breakfast on Sunday. Whew!!! Oh, yeah, don’t forget the SWEET TEA!!! How many gallons did I consume? I had loaded the Breeze up with goodies before leaving home. Canned Chef Boyardee spaghetti, chips, crackers, Beefaronie, and VIENNA SAUSAGE. Doggone if I didn’t take most of it back home with me.

   After a pleasant afternoon visiting and sailing around, we anchored for the night directly across from the B&B waterfront in a little cove. It’s so peaceful snuggling up down below with Summer and listening to my old cassette tape recordings taken from the public radio program Make believe Ballroom. This is all music from back in the big band era, late 30s until mid 50s. Miller,  Dorsey, Sinatra, etc. Yeah, I know, I’m showing my age. Actually, most of this music is even older than I am. Then, I’ll pull out a good Clive Cussler novel until I get sleepy enough to doze off. In case you don’t know about Clive Cussler, check him out. His books are centered around the oceans and involve villains who are threatening life on Earth as we know it. The hero always saves the day. They usually work in an organization called NUMA. That stands for National Underwater and Marine Agency. In the books, NUMA is a government agency that is involved in exploration and marine sciences among other scientific endeavors. Along the way they seem to get involved with the schemes of evil villains bent on taking over the world. In real life, Cussler also is head of NUMA, and that organization also explores, finds, and documents, and sometimes recovers significant wrecks. They are best known for recovering the confederate submarine Hunley from Charleston Harbor back in 1995.

   So here are a few random shots. You other folks do a much better job of taking pictures than I, but Let’s look at them. Then we’ll regale y’all with a little about our annual mini-cruise. Just click on over to the Boating and Cruising section on this here forum for  Summer Breeze’s 2017 B&B messabout Mini Cruise.

 

Sunrise Saturday morning.

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Ready for bed. Cassette player ready. Messing About in Boats magazine to finish before starting Cussler. 

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The next generation They belong to Amos.

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Thrillsbe and Local honey.

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HE BROKE IT! Nope, Grahams dink. It stowes aboard Carlita!

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Summer Breeze, taking a rest between excursions.

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Tom going with us for a short sail...

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...and Steve.

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A race?

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Graham is rowing so fast that the picture is a blur!

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Sunset Saturday. (I do love the sunsets...

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...and sun rises.)

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The morning mist shrouding the flotilla at the B&B dock.

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Mists in the cove that The Breeze and i spent the night in.

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So, now click over to the mini cruise story.

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Hey Chick, your boat is looking really comfy there. I have also enjoyed reading a couple of Clive Cussler's books. With all of this Messing About going on I feel that I live in the wrong part of the world. I guess wife and I will will just have to put North Carolina on the itinerary next July when we visit the kids in US.

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Drew - I've lived in both the ACT and in North Carolina and I can tell you that Peter's trying to help and Chick is well-meaning but he's like an inadvertent siren trying to lure you onto the skeeter-infested rocks (bless his heart).  The next thing you know he'll have you eating Vienna sausages for breakfast instead of the livermush that nature intended.

    NC is a singularly beautiful place, even in July (or maybe especially in July, as I really love NC summer) but at that time of year it ain't for the faint of heart.  These days every time one (or fifty) of those little black Pilbara flies lands on my face I give myself a black eye trying to bat them off because way back in the dark corners of my brain I remember that anything that lands on my face (in NC) is trying to eat me (many of my fellow Americans think everything in Australia is dangerous but you and I know that the Aussie flies are really only looking for a drink of sweat and I'm in real danger of beating myself to death trying to get rid of them).  If it's not the mosquitoes (I love that Cap'n Oyster describes them as F-15's with mylar wings) it's the horseflies - You're what's for breakfast in a North Carolina summer. :)

   So when you visit in July, make sure to take advantage of the lovely bug repellents that are available these days and also take shelter when the afternoon thunderstorms roll through.  It's tempting to sail through them because sometimes they're the only wind you get but I can tell you from personal experience that lightning don't feel so good.

   And ask everyone where you can find good barbecue and go to every place they suggest.

   If you change your visit to May or October you might have a better time (unless you get an October hurricane), but if you have to visit in July it's still worth it. Just make sure you stock up on Spam so you don't have to eat Vienna sausages (I like Vienna sausages, just not as much as I like Spam).

   And just for perspective - I've heard tell that the bugs in NC pale in comparison to an Alaska summer but I haven't got hard evidence to support that.  Actually I'm not sure anyone's ever gone to Alaska in the summertime and lived to tell the tale.

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Awww Ken, I just don't know what yer talkin' about! Guess I was lucky those 17 years I lived over on the coast. Or maybe it's clean living. I dunno. But on those RARE occasions that the bugs found me, I have to agree with what you said about them. Anyway, maybe Drew should come and check-it-out himself. I'll even provide the Vienna Sausage and Sweet Tea..... 

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You guys are SO generous, thanks for the advice ;). Ken, I had to laugh at your description. I grew up at Caloundra where the Pumicestone Passage mozzies would carry you off if you didn't take precautions, so I know what you mean. Chick, I have no idea what a Vienna sausage tastes like, but it sounds like a culinary adventure similar to the times when I served with US forces and ate some interesting breakfasts! Anywho - thanks to everyone for the great pics of the Messabout. I am contemplating entering the "Dragonfly" in some social type club racing, so am about to find out what it can do compared to other boats. Her biggest handicap will be her skipper, who is more aligned to cruising than racing. Those club racers can be mean!

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Although I like a fast boat -- like Drew, I'm "more aligned to cruising than racing."  That's why I like the CS20.3's cabin and big cockpit.

 

it was sure nice to meet so many of my forum friends.  Good to place faces to forum names and to see actual boats.  I think Chessie was the only CS20.3 present -- but besides myself, present were Steve and Amos, also builders of the CS20.3.  Both had a sessions at Chessie's helm which provided a kinda preview of what they could expect [with their boats] in light winds.  Saturday afternoon Chessie took on board Amos' wife, Laura, and daughter, Noel.  We had a very nice light wind.  Here are the best of the photos that I took.

 

Amos at his camp site.

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Amos and Pete McCrary, Chessie's builder.

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Saturday morning.  I don't know the boat or skipper near the opposite shore.  Weren't the stars just brilliant against a moonless night sky?

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Chessie's cockpit galley.

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Dockside photos of Chessie.

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I missed the Sunday sailing because I had to leave early.  The ride home to Manassas, Virginia, is 333 miles.  I find it a hard and stressful drive.  After a total of 6 nights in Chessie's cabin, I find it is quite comfortable.  So, next year, I'll plan an overnight stop at a RV campground within about 100 miles of Bayboro.  Then I'll be able to sail on Sunday and leave in the late afternoon.

 

See you all next year.

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Got back to Milwaukee yesterday afternoon, after a stop to visit cousins in Virginia.  Today it's 41 degrees, gray, blowin'.  These pictures bring such good memories of some great days with the B&B family.  I'll post some more shots soon.  It was wonderful to meet everyone and spend some time in the B&B home waters.  Great boats, great folks.  

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Drew, You have no idea what a Vienna sausage tastes like??? How sad for you. You are missing a gastronomical delight beyond megalithical proportions! Our Carolina banks skeeters may not be the biggest in the world, but what they lack in size is made up for in unimaginable ferocity and sheer numbers! Good luck in the races! Post pictures!

 

Pete, that was me and Summer Breeze on the other side. We did enjoy the night sky. And no skeeters.

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