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Russ wrote: ↑Fri Oct 24, 2025 8:31 am Very nice. Imagine the day when you install the mast and sail that boat.

Hmmmm…..
Maybe someday with the mast thingy stuff…
Meanwhile Motor Cruising works pretty good for us

Hi All!

We had a pleasant surprise this past weekend while we were about to pass below the Beaufort Memorial Swing Bridge!!!
Coming the other way was another Mac26X rigged as a motor cruiser!!!
Surprise! Surprise! We both had the same reaction! HOWDY!

We rafted up and chatted for a bit! What a nice couple!
They are even local too!
K&D live here in Beaufort and are members at the yacht club across the Beaufort River from our marina.
What an interesting couple with similar experiences!
They were just returning from overnighting up at St John’s Island.

Here are a couple of photos we shared









It’s a nice surprise on a beautiful day!

Best Regards,
Over Easy

hurricane melissa 2025 category 5
Looks like this may be heading your way. Take care and stay safe.

LEE

Hi Lelandmorris!

One heck of a hurricane hitting Jamaica! A huge Cat 5 that’s then headed to Cuba and out to the mid Atlantic.

The projected track has it well out and well off the coast so no worries there.

Thanks for the thoughts!
The International Red Cross is taking donations if anyone is interested in helping out.

Best Regards
Over Easy

Hi All!

Hope things are going well for everyone.
We are having some really nice weather down here in SC!
Lots of clear skies and temps in the mid 60s & 70s with gentle breezes!
Such a bonus extension of our boating season!
While it’s not gonna help with the house refurbishment schedules we went ahead and extended our slip to the end of November.
It’s our early Christmas present. (Boat while one can )

We’ve had the opportunity for several afternoon cruises this past week. We have the place virtually to ourselves!
(Mind you we’ve not been keen on the increasingly earlier sunsets though )
We are fortunate to be here and enjoy this serendipitous bonus time.

We’ve seen lots of dolphins and waterfowl!
The migratory birds are a beautiful sight!





Hope all goes well for everyone.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

Hi All!

What a nice day to be on the water!
Light breeze , calm waters and partially sunny with temps in the low 70s.

Started with Brunch on the boat consisting of home made Gormet pan scrambled egg sandwiches with aged Swiss cheese on Brioche buns and Columbian coffee with hazelnut creamer!

Had a great 4 hour cruise down the Beaufort River almost to Bay Point then a turn to starboard to go up the Broad River to Skull Creek. From there we turned back down the Briad River back to the Beaufort River where we turned to port along the Fort Fremont coast and up to the Coosaw River which was another turn to starboard. After a while we came to Distant Island Creek and a turn to port. We followed up Distant Island Creek to where it runs along the Secession Golf Club. (Crummy name if you ask for a fancy golf course…. But no one was playing as per usual… hard to see how it stays open if one never sees anyone on the course…)

By then we opened up a snack of Ritz crackers and a variety of sliced cheeses. Great way to spend the afternoon!

We gradually made our way back to the Coosaw River and took Cat Island Cut to return to the Beaufort River where we eventually made it back to our slip at sunset.

After tying up we enjoyed a pair of Gin and Tonics as we finished up the remaining cheese and crackers in the cabin. What a really nice day out!








Best Regards,
Over Easy

Hi All!

I know I probably should have waited till spring prep came around but Harbor Freight had a great bargain on a three function LED flood light and wiring harness combo at a $70 discount



I liked the 6 lamp unit features as it seems to provide a nice set of features for the package and some redundancy. Don’t get me wrong… I like the remote control movable search light but it has some trade offs like the coarse movement and the light back scatter from the deck.

This new unit is rugged enough for permanent mounting up on the bow rail such that it would be ahead of any portion of the boat which should eliminate any back scattering aspect.

I haven’t finalized it as yet but the deal was a good enough incentive to give it a try.

Once I get a bracket plate worked out I’ll first see how the existing remote searchlight would work on the bow railing. Then compare it to this new fixed position unit.

Ideally I’d like to use an anodized aluminum plate u-bolt clamped to the front curvature of the bow railing with the light(s) under slung.

The existing remote moveable searchlight is an ABS plastic housing while the new fixed position unit has robust SST brackets and a heavy aluminum weather resistant structure.

Under slinging either unit seems appealing aesthetically and if we ever get around to putting the mast up as this position would seem to have less interference or snagging with the jib sail.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

Hi All!

We are having a fantastic streak of good weather here this week!
We got back out on the boat for several hours yesterday!
Clear blue skies and shirt sleeve temperatures! (Long sleeves )
Just really nice to be out.

The water was as smooth as glass and brilliant.
No dolphins but several great herons to be seen.

The sun is setting at 5:30 pm now… bummer …. We miss the long late evening cruises of the summertime….



Hoping to get out as much as we can before we have to haul out….

Hope all goes well for everyone.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

Hi All!

Tuesday was a great day! Lots of fun!
Wednesday was also a great day to celebrate as well!

The sun was warm, the skies were clear and the water calm!
Starting out at low tide was interesting to see all the oyster beds and sandbars exposed.
There were several dolphin family groups to watch this afternoon!
The calves are getting bigger but still stick close to their Moms. The Dads are right there as well too! Very nice!


Lunch out on the boat is always a treat!

Did a little preliminary sketching to see what might be the best location to add a fixed location searchlight(s).
Here is what the 7” searchlight might impact forward visibility when up on plane.


I lined up on another vessel to portray some of my forward visibility concerns.
Her the circle is roughly to scale for a 7” searchlight mounted just under the bow rail.
It really has the possibility of hiding potential obstacles.
It’s not much better if I were to mount it above the bow Nav lights either…and would complicate things if/when we ever get to install a bow anchor roller and drum winch. It’s sorta why when we mounted the base for the existing movable remote control searchlight it was placed on the lid of the anchor rope locker.

Here is an alternative that would utilize a pair of 4” square searchlights to the bow rail uprights.

While the reach of these search lights is about 900 ft is about half of the 7” searchlight’s 1800 ft there is much less forward view obstruction to contend with.

One of the advantages of either fixed location means that te lighting would be always available rather than having to dig out and mount the remote control one we currently use. The other is the fixed locations out in front ahead of any boat structure eliminates the backscatter lighting that reflects with the current setup. This has been found to be somewhat problematic for one’s night vision particularly on moonless or overcast nights.

While the longer range projection of the 7” searchlight is of benefit I’m not keen on the amount of obstruction incurred.
The pair of smaller 4” searchlights definitely can take advantage of the existing obstruction of the bow rail uprights to have less impact.
If we really need the extended reach the current remote control search light does have that but at the ‘expense’ of the backscatter.
The shorter 900 ft reach of the 4” searchlights basically translates into slower nighttime transit speeds which isn’t all that bad a trade off for better night vision and less forward visibility obstruction all the time.

So while the 7” searchlight is pretty neat function wise and there was a substantial savings when combined with the ‘free’ $70 wiring harness it looks like I’m gonna go ahead and return them in exchange for the pair of 4” units and cobble together a custom wiring harness. It’s one of those things where a really nice product just might not be as good as an adequate product in the greater scheme of things.

The motivation is with all the waterways we have here to explore we have been more frequently finding ourselves out well after sunset, especially in the early and later parts of the boating season, than we had originally anticipated when we got started. It’s one of those evolutionary adaptive things. Another up side of the pair of 4” searchlights is a bit of redundancy that the single 7” searchlight doesn’t afford.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

Hi All!

We have been fortunate with the weather this week! It was in the mid 70s this afternoon and a light breeze with mainly sunny skies as we were able to get out on the water this afternoon.

We cruised up along the USMC training facility of Parris Island. It was quite pleasant!

We enjoyed a stunningly beautiful sunset!









Best Regards
Over Easy

Very nice pics.

Hi All!

Boy has this been an interesting week here in SC!
That Artic Blast of a Polar Votex dropped the temperatures from the mid 70s to nearly freezing!!! Brrrrrrrrrr!
Then two days later it was back up into the mid 70s again! Whew! That was a close one…

No boat time this week as when we had time it was too cold and when it warmed up I was pounding away at the home remodel/refurbishment To-Do-List… literally! The living room/ new kitchen area flooring is nearly complete BUT requires a fair bit of pounding to ensure it is fully locked tightly together. Before that there was the floor leveling and filling and grinding and cleaning. Whoever said that laying down laminate flooring planks was gonna be easy ( moi ) sure has changed his tune. There is a lot of up/down and crawl around along with carefully moving heavy boxes and detail fitting required to get it right.( At this point in life I’d prefer getting it right the first time ‘cause I sure don’t want to do it again! )

Our younger adventure daughter has just come home from 350+ miles of hiking the northern portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. They aren’t kidding about it being a “crest” trail as she was literally hiking the ridge recrests of mountains! Seriously high and seriously impressive! Wow! (And to think I was there when she first learned to take her first steps! )

She just flew in yesterday and is going to stay until Thanksgiving when she heads back out west to start her ski instructor job on a “new to her” mountain/volcano. She loves being outdoors and experiencing what it has to offer. Glad that she is who she is and is getting to do what she enjoys!

While here she is wanting to help with the new kitchen so after the last 10 planks are down and in place we’ll start on cleaning and priming the new cabinets and counter bases. It will be really nice to have an extra pair of strong hands to help with that!

The older adventure daughter is currently out west still traveling and camping her way along into Colorado for the next week and some. Her itinerary has her arriving here just before Thanksgiving! She plans on staying here through the holidays into possibly Spring. That is something I’m really looking forward to! The extra hands to help with the renovations is going to be really appreciated!

Boat haul out is still scheduled for the end of November. With the return of the warmer weather we hope to get out with our daughters while they are here to share our beautiful waterways with them weather & time permitting. Time flies!

The new 7” searchlight is gonna get returned and two smaller 4” ones are going to be installed instead as alluded to earlier. They will have sufficient reach and less view obstruction. We travel slower at night anyway.

Prices for the drum winch we are interested in are still artificially high due to the tariffs. The domestic alternatives have lousy reviews and customer complaints. It’s not worth it to go through the time and expense to get and install something like like only to have it crap out when one needs it or repeatedly need repairs. So that mod is still on the holding pattern.

Today is gorgeous outside and it’s time to get busy while the sun is shining and the weather is fair!

Best Regards,
Over Easy

Hi All!

Had a beautiful day out on the boat today!
Temps in the high 70s and clear skies!
Who would have thought it was mid November!

We were able to take our younger adventure daughter and her dog Bonzo out with us. Bonzo did great for his first boat trip! Settled right in to boat life!

We were entertained by a dolphin family group for about half an hour. They swam right up to and around us. We were too enthralled to think about taking pictures. It was really nice!

Arrived back in our slip about a half hour after a perfect sunset!
















Best Regards
Over Easy

Nice photos. Looks so peaceful.