MacGregorSailors.com

My crew of 5 is participating in this year’s BEER Cruise in and around Pensacola Bay and Santa Rosa Sound in Florida. We’ll be aboard my 2001 26X, Wind Song. I’ll use this thread to document the adventure. Here is our planned trip:



Plan is to rig and launch tomorrow (June 8th) from Big Lagoon state park near Pensacola. We’ll spend the day in Big Lagoon getting our sea legs and organizing the boat for living on board for a week then beach for the night near an abandoned fort named Fort McRee.

Friday we sail to Little Sabine in Pensacola Beach and officially join the BEER fleet. Captain’s Meeting and dinner at Shaggy’s restaurant.

Saturday we sail east to Navarre Beach, Florida and anchor/beach near the public boat launch and Juana’s Pagoda.

Sunday we begin the return west, spending the night again in Pensacola Beach near Flounder’s restaurant in an area called Quietwater.

Monday we continue west to Sailboat Cove in Big Lagoon.

Tuesday morning we make a short trip east to Fort McRee again and watch the Blue Angels practice. The area is just south of NAS Pensacola and offers great views of the show. This marks the end of the BEER Cruise.

At that point my crew and I have an option. We may end our travels and return home, or we may stay on the boat one more night and haul out Wednesday. That will be an on the water decision based on how tired we are.

BEER cruise is more about socializing than sailing with short sailing legs and lots of beach time. I’ve done it many times and find it’s ideal for the wee ones on board.

Our crew for the trip includes me (of course), my wife and three kids ages 16, 10, and 2.



The boat is ready with all needed systems 100%. Which is weird. As I mentioned in one of the Facebook groups usually I’m frantically finishing up projects in the days before these long trips. Are there repairs on my list? Always, it’s a boat. But nothing that will impact our trip.

Just about everything is already loaded on the boat except clothing and perishables. Today we’ll pack the tow vehicle, run for a couple last minute supplies, give the boat one last washdown and … that’s about it.

I’ll add pictures, and maybe links to the Facebook videos I make along the way during the trip.

I've created a Facebook page for Wind Song and our adventures aboard her. The page is located at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093321825016

Looks awesome. Post some pics

I'm glad to see you are not going east of Navarre. I spent a couple of days between there and Fort Walton Beach and I have to warn you that there is some type of Cylon base in that area.



It has a white eye instead of the usual red one.



I never saw it move from that spot but I could see it scanning for me all night.

We’ll be sure to steer clear.

I'm very interested in hearing how your trip goes. Around Range Point (around the middle of this year's B.E.E.R. Cruise) is as far west as I've been so far. Back in 2016 I was hoping to make it to the Alabama line but the wind died and was not expected to return for a couple of days. My goal is to sail the entire coast of Florida so I turned around and motored back to Ft Walton Beach rather than just sit becalmed in Santa Rosa Sound for the next two days.

Any pointers on anchorages and things to see along that stretch of the coast would be appreciated!

Be Free wrote: ↑Wed Jun 07, 2023 12:44 pm I'm very interested in hearing how your trip goes. Around Range Point (around the middle of this year's B.E.E.R. Cruise) is as far west as I've been so far. Back in 2016 I was hoping to make it to the Alabama line but the wind died and was not expected to return for a couple of days. My goal is to sail the entire coast of Florida so I turned around and motored back to Ft Walton Beach rather than just sit becalmed in Santa Rosa Sound for the next two days.

Any pointers on anchorages and things to see along that stretch of the coast would be appreciated!

That’s a lofty goal. There are tons of places to beach/and or anchor up. That’s part of why I like sailing the area so much.

If you like being close to civilization Pensacola Beach is popular. They call the east side Quietwater. Which is a bit of a weird name because it’s usually not. But anchoring in front of Flounder’s restaurant is a good spot to listen to live music and people watch. Or continue a bit west under the bridge and pull in to Little
Sabine. It’s more sheltered and gets you away from the crowd. Either way, there’s access to restaurants, shopping, ice/gas etc and it’s a pretty pedestrian friendly area.

I’d you’d like to go north in Pensacola Bay, Bayou Chico is a good spot. We go up there and meet with friends at the Oar House restaurant sometimes. They have a public dock.

I like to get away too so we spend a fair amount of time away from
civilization. There’s a great spot just south of NAS Pensacola by Fort McCree that’s sheltered, has a sand island to explore or you can walk across to the gulf. But it’s also very popular and gets crowded, especially on weekends, with power boaters and sailboats alike. Look west on your charts and you’ll see an area marked as either Redfish Point or Sailboat Cove. They aren’t as sheltered but they get you away from the crowd. It’s just a short walk to the Gulf side too. And there usually aren’t as many mosquitoes and no see um’s as there are around McCree.

While you are in the area, you can explore some of NAS Pensacola, they just opened parts of the base to the public again. The various fort ruins are neat, and it’s not too hard to get to the lighthouse. And while you’d need to figure out ground transportation, the museum is well worth a visit.

Once you sail through Big Lagoon, the ICW takes you into Alabama. While your here might as well explore a bit. There’s always Pirates Cove. Kind of a dive bar with good food and a quiet Bayou behind it you can anchor in. Or stay south. The waters at Perdido Pass can get beautiful this time of year. But being from Florida that’s old hat to you I imagine.

If you want to check the FloraBama (bit of a famous bar right on the state line) off your bucket list there is access from what they call Old River.

I’m a bit of a lighthouse nut. If you are too, as long as you’ve come this far you could consider exploring Mobile Bay a bit. The water is choppier because it’s so shallow, it’s often brown from the silt flowing into it. But there’s Middle Bay lighthouse, built on screw pilings that’s neat. And Sand Island Light in the Gulf near Dauphin Island. Neither are accessible but you can sail around them.

That’s probably more than you wanted but I hope it’s helpful.

Thanks. That's a lot of good info!

I tend to anchor out and enjoy being alone when I'm solo. When the Admiral is aboard, she likes restaurants and destinations. Your list gives us options for both!

At this point I have about a third of the Gulf coast sailed at least once. I'm including the Gulf side of the keys in that stretch. I only have a small part of the Atlantic side done but I have sailed the entire length of the St Johns River (south of the Main Street bridge) and all of the navigable parts of the Suwannee. It's going to take a while, but I think it's an attainable goal.

Launch day was hot, but fairly uneventful. Other than the fact it took us two hours at the ramp. Which is insane. But to be fair, we had a lot of work to do, we helped a man who’s truck needed a jump start, and I was teaching my 16 year old how to rig the boat.




We motored to Fort McRee, and set anchor so the kids could play while Jess and I worked on organizing the boat, and making dinner. Overall day one was good. And the views are gorgeous.



I think the boat’s Facebook page is best place to organize the photos and videos we take. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/WindSongSV?mibextid=LQQJ4d

I got up this morning and had coffee while the crew slept. Then decided it was time for a new line for the swing keel. Here’s the old one:




Dropped the keel, donned a mask and swapped it out. Pretty easy since the water is so clear.




I’m pretty sure I got the length right but I’m going to take her into deeper water before I shorten the bitter end.

This morning started off with just me in the cockpit making my coffee and watching the sunrise while the rest of crew slept. It was peaceful and quite pretty. After the crew stirred we replaced the keel rope, and rigged a solar panel up. Technically it’s a camping one but I think it will work for our purposes:



Claims to be 100 watts. We’ll see.

Mid morning we set sail for Little Sabine. I let my oldest man the helm much of the way.




He did well overall, but we need to work on sail trim a bit.



While in Pensacola Bay, thunderstorms began to develop. I debated sailing through them but when the National Weather Service started sending alerts we dropped sails. I knew I couldn’t make it to our destination, so we motored around the bay attempting to stay between two cells. The crew did well prepping the boat for a potential storm overall. In the end we missed the worst of both and just got a little rain.



And once our weather window opened, we made a 10 knot run into Little Sabine for some swimming and snorkeling time before an early dinner at Shaggy’s - one of the area’s restaurants.

Oh! Jess made shirts for the crew which we debuted tonight.






The BEER Cruise skippers meeting was great, seeing old friends and making new ones. There are at least 3 other Macs on the cruise.

After a walk around Pensacola Beach for some exercise we’ve retired back to Wind Song for the night.



Tomorrow’s plan is to sail east to Navarre, FL. If the forecast is correct we should have a decent wind out of the south by lunchtime
And should be a decent sail.

Love the shirts!

Yeah, she did amazing with the shirts. Everyone loves them.



I didn’t take many pictures yesterday but it was a good day. The wind came up early so we left Pensacola Beach around 9am and sailed east towards Navarre. After motoring out of the harbor and passing under the bridge we raised the sails.

It felt good to sail. The kids either slept or relaxed in the cabin while Jess and I enjoyed the views and the wind. I’m out of practice and our tacks were sloppy, it took me longer to trim the sails than it should have, and the end result is the other boats, even the other macs left us behind. But it was still a good day.

By noon the younger kids had had enough so I reluctantly fired up the motor and dropped the sails and we motored at WOT the last couple of miles to Navarre. My 16 year old (who got his vessel operators license last week) asked to drive so I let him man the helm. He did well overall, with a slight bit of a tendency to hug the edge of the channel to close. I’m glad he’s being cautious and courteous but I’d prefer to not to scrape the boat with a can buoy.

Another BEER Cruise veteran, also on an X beached next to us and our kids have had a ball playing together.



At one point they rigged a dock line in between the boats as a makeshift volley ball net. Very creative and good exercise for them.

Most of the crews had dinner and drinks at Juanna’s Pagoda, then we turned in for an early bedtime.

I walked the beach just before sunrise and took video of all the boats in the fleet. We have two X’s and 2 M’s, along with an array of other small and big yachts. If you’d like to see it and other photos and videos, I posted it on Wind Song’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WindSongSV

Today we head back to Pensacola Beach.

Looks like a lot of fun.

Two Macs named "Wind".

The other, "Sea Wind" has a cool propane storage under the helm seat.

Great posts; keep them coming.

Sorry I sort of fell off the updates. We had a couple minor misfortunes. I took my phone swimming, and ended up shutting it off and letting it live in a bag of rice. It seems to be fine.

Where did I leave off? Navarre I think. We had a nice dinner at Juanna’s Pagoda and took a bit of a walk. The next morning we humped it up to a gas station and filled the gas tanks and got ice before setting out about 9 am. The winds were forecast to get up the next couple of days and boy did they. We elected to motor to Quietwater and get in before it got bad. Being one of the early boats in we secured a nice spot about 20 yards off the beach and helped the other boats in as they showed up. The gathering spot for social time was right off our bow.



Dinner and drinks at Flounder’s in Pensacola Beach is always nice.



And we spent too much money buying stuff for the kids at the tourist shops on the boardwalk.



The next morning I pulled to a dock so we could dispose of trash, empty the head and get more ice then we set off intending to sail. Knowing the wind was already up 15 to 20 I set a reef on the main. We pulled out of the channel, Jess got up on deck and hauled up the rags. And we tacked. And tacked. And tacked. Basically making no headway. Seeing the whitecaps in Pensacola Bay, and with the wind continuing to increase we finally gave in and dropped the sails.

Pensacola Bay was tough that day. The crew gave up on me and settled in the cabin for naps and videos. I paired up with Sea Wind (the other X) and we slogged across the bay at 4 to 5 knots. Ballast in, rudders down and sort of “tacking” under motor to take the worst rollers on an angle instead of stuffing the bow all the time. It was a long and wet ride, but not too unpleasant.



I think everyone motored except two of the big boats. Watching a forty footer Catalina sail through it did make me jealous and had started a case of “bigger boatitis”

Original plan was for all the boats to anchor at a place we call Sailboat Cove, but with the wind and thunderstorms forecast for the evening the organizers changed the meetup to the more sheltered cove at Fort McRee. I don’t have any pictures of this due to my phone incident. My 16 year old was supposed to take a bunch, but he’s at scout camp so I haven’t seen them.

The two 26M’s were already beached when we arrived and there were several people around to help us beach. Honestly, this was probably my proudest moment on the cruise though. I had talked to my oldest son and Jess about what I wanted to do to get the boat anchored and beached on the way in the channel. With a plan in place, they got the bow anchor ready with the right amount of rode ready to let out, and prepped the stern anchor as well.

With the wind astern, I slowly motored through the anchored big boats past my intended spot (which I think confused some of the people on the beach a bit), found a little open water and turned the boat into the wind slowly working our way back up.

Now one of the curses of the Macs as many of you know is the large amount of freeboard. The wind will push you around. But after a while you learn to use that to your advantage. And I did. At the appropriate moment I kicked the rudder hard over, the wind helped the bow turn to the north and my crew dropped the bow anchor. Straightened up the rudder, gave the motor a little throttle in reverse to get the boat moving backwards. Maybe 15 yards off the beach I shut the motor down, tilted it up, and Wind Song settled nicely at the waters edge where the men on the beach were waiting to grab the stern line. Turns out we really didn’t need them but it was a great comfort knowing they were there to help.

One of them told me we came in with the least amount of drama of any of the boats. That’s when I realized my family had become a crew and it made me quite proud.

Sea Wind came in right next to us and we all helped them get settled as well.

My crew played while I put the boat in “camp” mode rigging up sun shades, throwing snorkel gear and toys on the beach etc. Officially this was the last night of BEER Cruise but we intended to stay two nights and set up camp.

That evening a line of nasty thunderstorms rolled through. The plan was to have a bonfire on the beach and some of the crews did. But many of us stayed in our boats. Prepping for bad weather I pulled Wind Song off the beach and let her float in deeper water.

The wind howled, and the lightning show to our north was quite beautiful. Thankfully it stayed north and all we received was a bit of wind and some rain. And my crew slept the sleep of the just.

Next morning I slacked the bow anchor, tightened up the stern and beached the boat again. The kids swam, we watched the Blue Angels practice, and had a good time. BEER Cruise was officially over and most of the boats headed for home. Sea Wind and her crew (with kids) stayed through lunchtime so they could play and swim with our kids and then they headed out.

I took my boys and we went to explore the ruins of Fort McRee while mama napped in the cockpit. I’ve been up there several times but never gone very deep inside. We took flashlights intending to explore. We walked all over the top, around the edges, and eventually wound up at the entrance. It’s littered with graffiti and beer cans. I imagine the local kids go up there to do teenage things. We pulled out our flashlights and checked out the inside. Not much there, a lot of concrete. But it’s neat and the boys were fascinated. We stumbled across a copperhead snake inside and had a bit of a stand-off with him. He made it clear he wasn’t leaving. So we choose another path and worked our way back outside and down to the boat.

More swim time followed by dinner cooked on the cockpit grill. We ate like kings. We took too much food, and being our last night why not eat it all? At sunset we built a small campfire on the beach and hung out until the noseeum’s chased us back on the boat.

The next morning I once again intended to sail. But the two year old got into the medicine cabinet and took something he shouldn’t have. Jess got on the phone with poison control while I got the boat ready to get underway and started heading west. Thankfully the pill he took wasn’t toxic and we were told to monitor him, and take him to our primary care pediatrician when we got home. Long story short we motored back to the ramp at the Big Lagoon state park, derigged and headed home. The baby is fine but did give mama and me quite the scare.

I do wish we had been able to sail more, but that’s ok. We have all summer.

I’ve decided that 6 nights in the X with a family of 5 is too much. We either need to plan shorter trips or get a bigger boat. So I’m exploring a bit. Jess and I are already planning a couple weekend trips for this summer on Wind Song. But we also went and looked at some 30-40 foot boats this week. Which is also why I haven’t posted. I’ve been researching various options and looking at Marina costs, annual maintenance costs etc etc.

BEER Cruise final thoughts. It’s a great event and we will attend again next year assuming it’s an organized event again. Even if it’s not we’ve already made plans to do it with friends. Attendance has dwindled which is kind of sad. In years past we’ve had 30 or 40 boats at times. This year I think we maxed at 13 or 14. We had two X’s and two M’s along with an array of other small and big yachts.

If you read this and think “that sounds great” I encourage you to check out the BEER cruise Facebook page and make plans to join us next year. It’s more a social event than a sailing event with lots of beach time, beautiful water, and meeting great people from all over the US.