Fleet 144 Overnight Sail

Geri and I are members of a new fleet of Catalina 22 boats like ours based at the Lake Norman Sailing Club. We are not members of the club as it is for folks who berth their boats there and we trailer ours but we are always welcomed as guests (since this was originally written, we have joined the sailing club and now berth our boat there). Since we are more interested in cruising than racing the boat, I was appointed Cruise Officer of the fleet so I get to plan and organize them. Prior to this overnight trip, we had a day sail with several boats participating and this page tells some about our first overnight cruise.

This is our boat, "Sea Sharp Minor" as we dropped anchor just of Jetton Park for the night.

Richard and Mary Norman's boat, "Island Seaker" also anchored

Toasting the sunset from Sea Sharp Minor

Fleet 144 Cruise Report

Well, we got most of it right. The temperatures were nearly perfect with days in the low 80's and nights in the mid to low 60's. Great for July. But the winds were a bit out of phase. Saturday was light and variable but mostly from the northeast. Sunday started at 5 to 10 knots and built all afternoon but out of the SW. Both were dead on the nose for the route we had planned so we altered the plan. The turnout was light as only two boats participated, Richard and Mary Norman on "Island Seaker" from the Winston Salem area and myself and Geri on "Sea Sharp Minor" from south Charlotte, both ofus trailer sailors. After leaving the LNSC about 11:00 on Saturday morning, we headed for the islands across from the Beatty's Ford Landing and rafted up for lunch. It was there we decided that due to the light winds we would abandon our plan to continue up to D9 but instead motor around to the Ramsey Creek side of the lake. We ended up anchoring around 4:30 just off Jetton Park. After cooking up some great dinners on each boat (we had chicken quesadillas) we toasted the sunset and later watched the space station cross low in the southern sky. The anchorage was a bit "rolley" but not excessively so. Sunday we stopped at Blythe Landing to look around
and then headed up to Governor's Island where we rafted for lunch. From there we headed back to the Beatty's Ford Landing. We arrived around 3:30 to load up and head home.

Thanks to Bob at the Lake Norman Sailing Club for his kind hospitality and to Richard and Mary for being ideal cruising partners. We all agreed that we really enjoyed the weekend and need to do it again some time soon.

Cheers.....

Greg Baker
Fleet 144 Cruise Officer

This is the route we took during the two days on the water