Chuck Gordon, Commodore MARCH 2018 – NSA TIME!!! March came in like a “lion” with strong NW winds and most of the vessels in town sitting on their keels!! As I write we are expecting high NE winds, high water, rain and maybe snow flurries!! This is typical unpredictable March weather but springtime is coming! The Shrimperoo is this Saturday, March 17th, and we are looking forward to a large crowd at O'TOWN Restaurant to celebrate “NSA TIME”! Remember that the focus of this event is to recruit new members so please encourage dock mates, friends etc. who are not members to join in the fun! If you have not renewed your membership please go online and do so or renew at the Shrimperoo!!! Your Bridge and Board have approved 2 donations to Bow to Stern Boating Center. These donations will help promote sailing among young people in the area as well as the growing presence of “collegiate sailing teams” coming to the Oriental to train and race! We are sponsoring a second NSA Sail (we sponsored one last year) that will debut in the SailPack Regatta. See the article below from the NC State sailing team coach, for some important information about this upcoming regatta. We also approved sponsorship for a deserving Pamlico County youth for one week at the Bow to Stern Sailing Camp. I am very proud of the NSA's contributions to the growth of youth and collegiate sailing in Oriental!! There are two more seminars remaining in the SCOO/NSA WINTER SEMINAR SERIES. The topics to be presented are: Diesel Engine Maintenance, and Introduction to Race Management. We hope you will be able to take advantage of these educational opportunities which are held Saturdays at the Oriental Town Hall starting at 9AM. Hopefully you have seen the notice posted on the Memorial Day Cruise Forum (and emailed to those registered for the cruise) that the Anchorage Inn and Marina has recently reopened and will be calling about slip reservations at the end if March. If you have not subscribed to the Memorial Day Forum please do so! Event forums are easily accessed at the bottom of the page for each event. I encourage everyone to go to the website and subscribe to all the open forums because forums are our best vehicle to keep ALL MEMBERS informed with timely information! I want to thank all of our members who have renewed and continue to support the NSA! I also send out a a hearty WELCOME and THANK YOU!! to new members! We are celebrating our 45th Anniversary with a very healthy and growing organization and folks, YOU ARE THE ONES RESPONSIBLE for this continued growth!! As we continue to grow it takes more people to lead, organize, plan, etc. so I am asking for those of you who would like to take a more active part in our club please contact me!!! We welcome everyone!!! As always, the lovely and talented and Immediate Past Commodore Sharon and I look forward to seeing you soon! Chuck Gordon
Cruising Outlook The Spring Cruise is around the corner! This is a reminder that the Spring Cruise is the weekend of April 28. Cruise Captain Steve Noe is planning a fun sail to an overnight anchorage and back. Although the weather will drive the location, make your plans to anchor and bring a dinghy or make plans to raft up with friends. Mark it on your calendar, or better yet register TODAY! The link to the event details and registration is here. Subscribe to the Spring Cruise Forum to share your favorite destinations for different points of wind and stay informed about this event. Since the Spring Cruise is a “go with the wind” theme, the Forum will play an important role! How do you subscribe to the forum you ask? Login to the NSA website, then go to the following page and click on the “Subscribe to topic” link near the top of the page. This action will send you regular email updates whenever someone posts to that event. Let’s get the discussion going! 2018 Week Long Planning Plans for the Week Long Cruise are coming together. This year the plan is the Albemarle Loop (a portion of it anyway). We will be visiting Belhaven, Alligator River, Albemarle Plantation and Edenton. The trip will include anchoring out as well as marinas to give a mix of locations, even though the return trip covers some of the same waters. For those with extra time, a "cruise extension" is also planned to Ocracoke. Click on the following link to view the current float plan. Dog Days Cruise Change of Location As planning for the Dog Days cruise has come together, we have decided to change the location from Little Washington to Belhaven to accommodate boats that can only go for the weekend. Belhaven will be much easier back and forth, or make it a 3-day weekend for those with the time. Information is on the event page, and an announcement will come out when registration opens. Halloween Cruise Pre-Pre Planning The Club has secured 10-15 slips at the Anchorage marina for the Halloween Cruise to celebrate Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree and the 300th anniversary of his last battle right off Ocracoke. This is a heads up that due to popularity of the Pirate Jamboree, we will open the registration in July to meet the deadline for providing boat information to the Anchorage marina. As always, event information, including cruises, is available the Events page on the website. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the 2018 cruising season! Pat and Jeff Kenyon 
2018 Shrimperoo at O’Town Thanks to everyone for participating in our first NSA event of the year, 2017 NSA Photo Contest Winners to be announced at Shrimperoo Thank you to all NSA members who voted - the 2017 NSA photo contest winners have been decided, according to Lynn Scott. The winners will be announced at the Shrimperoo. Also, Eric Kindle has welcomed us to hang the winning photos at The Bean for the month of April. Stop by The Bean, have a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy! Paul and Becky Griffin Welcome, Members-New and Returning! The Member Center has been very active with many renewals and new We had several new members who joined us: Paul Allikas, s/v Earendil, Pecan Grove; Will Clower, “Amari” unknown where she is moored; John and Valerie, s/v “Halcyon" a C & C, at Whittaker Creek Marina; Penny Flaherty joined as a Yacht member, sailing vessel information is unknown; Janet and Keith Gapen, s/v “Grace” a Doral located at Oriental Harbor Marina; Michael Geaney, m/v EverAfter a Gulfstar; Jason and Cara Keys, s/v “Another Day In Paradise” a MacGreggor located at home in Zebulon; Christ Lupton joined as a Yacht member as in the process of purchasing a Pearson at Pecan Grove; Robert Short (no vessel information available); Richard and Jessica Varcho, s/v “Sara” a C & C located at Pecan Grove Marina; and Phillip vonGretener, vessel “Bombadel” a Beneteau located at Pecan Grove. New members, please be sure to login to the club website (www.neusesailingassociation.org) and complete your profile; your profile enables the most efficient communication with the club. Please be sure to welcome them if you happen to see them at your marina! Remember if you have not already paid your membership dues, you can easily do so online now. The deadline is April 1. To pay online, after you login to the club website, you should see a notice that your renewal is due; follow the instructions on the notice to complete your renewal. If you're not sure if you've renewed, after logging in, click on your name in the upper right to view your profile and your membership status. The Oriental Boat Show is also coming and is a great opportunity to introduce sailors to our great sailing association. Please help us provide coverage for our booth. There will be a sign up sheet available at the Shrimperoo and online. Donna Ryder
March Vessel Safety Check on YOUR To-Do List
As you work on your list of items to prepare for the 2018 sailing season consider including a Safety Exam for your vessel. The volunteers of the Cape Lookout Sail and Power Squadron have given of their time to help us prepare by reviewing the list of items we need to assure that we have our registration/documentation and safety gear in order. To facilitate this activity we have the registration ready for you to participate in this activity on Saturday, March 24th 2018. Your timely scheduling for a vessel safety check will assist in the efficient use of time by these volunteers. This year, I will be alerting you of the arrival of the examiner for those that signup. Please include the phone number of the skipper or crew member who will be present for the review. Thank you for your interest and participation in this Safety Exam. Here is wishing everyone a safe and enjoyable sailing season. Brian McLamb
How Can You Contribute to Collegiate Racing in Oriental? On March 31st and April 1st, more than 150 college sailors, and Dana Magliola,
Challenges aboard Misto in New Zealand The last month has been a rather strange one here aboard Misto without a lot a sea miles being covered. There have been some high points as we were able to meet up with some friends from the World ARC and enjoy another week or so in the Huraki Gulf around Auckland. It meant a return to the island of Waiheke, which we have become very fond of. At the other end of the spectrum Howard had to return to the UK for his mother's funeral. He caught the ferry from Waiheke to get to Auckland airport and Ros returned Misto up to Whangarei to the Town Basin Marina there. It seemed like the most sheltered place to be as New Zealand expected to be impacted by cyclone Gita. The day Howard departed the water heater sprung a spectacular leak from one of the fittings. Although Ros got it under control enough to use the heater it took a week to find the appropriate fittings and it was only really fixed on Howard's return. We arranged for a Yanmar tech to come and do some major service items on our engines. The exhaust elbows needed replacing, one cone clutch was slipping and it turned our that 3 out of 6 fuel injectors also needed to be replaced as they were pitted, likely due to poor fuel from somewhere along our route. This has been very frustrating as parts had to come from Australia but they did not arrive as promised. Thus, we have changed our scheduled haul-out date three times and are still not sure exactly when it will happen. As I write we are hoping that the tech will arrive this morning and that we will still be able to do some planned travel to visit friends in New Plymouth over the weekend before we fly to Australia next week. We hope that everyone at NSA is able to get their planned maintenance done before the sailing season starts and with less frustration than we are currently experiencing! Howard and Ros Cheetham
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the Oyster Roast! The unseasonably warm weather (75 degrees in February!) brought out over 120 NSA members and guests to bask in the sunshine, visit with friends, and eat copious amounts of (HUGE!) oysters. If you missed out on the fun, feel free to relive the event by viewing the photo gallery 
Next up on the NSA social calendar is the Shrimperoo on Saturday, March 17th at 2PM at O’Town. Yup, you read it right…we’re changing the venue: the Shrimperoo will be at O’Town this year There will be plenty of shrimp and assorted foods. Bob Laverty will be back again this year with some great live music. The event is open to the public, so bring friends! Non-members will be charged $10 for admission, which can be applied toward their NSA membership if they join that day. We'll have a Member Station set up to assist with renewals and any non-members wishing to join the club. As always, don't forget to bring a side dish or dessert to the event!
members signing up. A big thank you goes to all who helped with membership at the Oyster Roast, Susanne and Bill Lovelace, Pat Messer and Joe Mattea who helped Pat with registration. There were many others who helped in various ways to make the Oyster Roast a success and to you all--a big thank you!
coaches, as well as parents and fans, will be in Oriental for the 2018 SailPack Oriental Intercollegiate Regatta, North Carolina's largest one-design collegiate regatta. This event features twenty teams from 18 colleges and universities from as far away as New Jersey and Florida, as well as local rivals UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, Davidson College, and the host team NC State University. The event will take place on the Neuse River waterfront and there will be great viewing opportunities on the water and at Lou Mac Park in Oriental. (Here are all the teams competing in this year's regatta: 
a North Carolina-style Pig Pickin' at the Red Rooster (behind Silos) featuring BBQ and a live band. This event was a huge hit last year and we expect it to sell out once again. Bracelets for admission (and food!) are available in advance for purchase for $15 each at Inland Waterway Provisions Company, The Silos Restaurant, First and Citizens Bank in Oriental, as well as the Pamlico County Chamber of Commerce in Grantsboro. Every single penny from the sale of tickets helps to defray the cost of hosting the regatta.