Christmas 2014: Dry Tortugas on a 26ft MacGregor

Back in 2011 I bought a MacGregor 26M.  My idea was that I could use it with my work (www.seaviewsystems.com) to inexpensively perform underwater surveys on the Great Lakes while also have access to a small cruising boat that I could trailer that was suitable for coastal cruising.

Well, the idea was not very commercially successful but a great success with regard to cruising.  The Macgregor is "light duty" but I set it up to solo sail and went on a few short cruises on Lake Erie (Bass Islands, Pelee Island and Kellys Island) as well as hauling her up to Mackinaw City and sailing over to the le Cheneau islands on the south shore of the Michigan Upper Peninsula.

Once I bought the Australis, the writing was on the wall for the little Macgregor but I had one last trip I wanted to do with her.  That was to escape a northern winter for 10 days or so and to take her for a cruise somewhere down south where it was warm.  I had thought to sail her over to the Bahamas but a look at the prevailing weather in December showed that there are typically moderate to strong northerly breezes at that time of year which kick up against the Gulf Stream to create choppy, uncomfortable and in the case of the light Macgregor, possibly dangerous, seas.  So, instead, I chose to haul her all the way down to Key West and sail out to the Dry Tortugas.

This video is a little Vblog of that mini-cruise: