Howard,

I sail a few places around here. Mostly for the short trips, and most frequent, I go to the Bladen County Lakes. They have three of them, and they are all relatively small, but they are under an hour drive from where I live, just outside of Fayetteville. There is Baytree, (private lake), it's become much harder to get in there now that they have changed their entrance policy, you either have to be a resident or a friendly resident has to be there to let you in. Then there is White Lake, kind of a narrow but long lake. Their boat access isn't very sailboat friendly and the best idea there is to get in the know with someone with lake from property so you can use their portion of beach. Then there is Jones Lake, pretty small (smallest of the three) at just 260 acres but fun in it's own way. I think it is a good lake to drill on because of it's size, a lot of tacking and jybing. The good thing about it is the boat access is a beach, it's free year-round, and they don't allow boats with over a 10 hp motor. All these lakes are shallow though, which could be a positive or a negative depending on the situation. And your right, this has been quite a drought down here in NC this year, everything but the beaches are low.

Then, when I can I take it in the ocean. There, location isn't nearly as important to me.

How about you, where do you normally sail. Where in NC are you located?