Day 97 – N 32° 47.346’ W 79° 55.464’ Charleston, SC

When you depend on the weather, as we do, plans have to be flexible.  Thursday morning, as we prepared to sail out the Cape Fear River into the ocean for our passage to Charleston, we re-checked the weather forecast and it had changed for the worse, as it frequently does.  Instead of northeast winds 10 to 15 knots, they were forecasting northeast winds 15 to 20 knots with gusts to 25 knots, and showers and t’storms to sweeten the pot.  Friday and Saturday’s forecast seemed better, with northeast winds 10 to 15 knots, with a chance of showers and t’storms, so we decided to delay our departure by 1 day.  We used the day to remove the “moustache” from Kite’s bow section using Lyn’s secret recipe, followed by a coating of liquid wax.  The moustache is a rust colored stain that covers a triangular area at the bow near the waterline.  It is caused by the bow wake passing over the white hull surface as we moved through the brown, tannin-rich waters of the ICW in North and South Carolina.  Kite is now her beautiful, gleaming white self.

Dinghy tries to surf past Kite

On Friday morning, we checked the weather forecast and it had changed, again for the worse, but we decided it was as good as we would get and we could handle the “gusts to 20 knots” that were added into the latest forecast.  So we said “goodbye” to the Wrightsville Beach – Southport area, after a full week there, and departed out the Cape Fear River a little before noon.  Peter had calculated that the 126-nautical mile passage to Charleston could be done in as little as 21 hours (if we averaged 6 knots) or as much as 25 hours (if we averaged 5 knots).  So we didn’t want to leave too early, or we would be possibly entering busy Charleston harbor before sunrise, while it was still dark and too early to get into a marina.  We were ready for the 3 to 5 foot seas, but the winds were stronger than forecast as we got close to 20 miles out to sea, the farthest from shore that our point-to-point route would take us.  We were traveling southwest, so the northeast wind was directly behind us, and in the large, following seas, we didn’t want to risk a gybe of the main sail, so we put out the jib only.  That alone was sufficient to propel us at more than 6 knots while the wind was blowing 15 to 20 with gusts over 25 knots.  We were towing our dinghy behind, and in the large following seas, it was surfing the waves trying to pass us. 

Dinner!

Peter took the helm during the day until 19:00, when the wind was the strongest and the waves were the largest.  It took a lot of concentration to keep the boat on course while 5-foot and 6-foot waves were sneaking up behind and trying to turn the boat sideways.  Lyn made the best of her down time by putting out our “meat line” – a cedar plug with a large hook out the back connected to heavy duty 400-pound test fishing line, and tied off on a cleat on the stern of Kite with a short buffer of shock cord.  Before the afternoon was over, it had produced a nice Spanish Mackerel for our dinner table upon arrival in Charleston.

At 19:00 we secured the meat line without catching anything else, and went onto our 3-hour watch schedule, starting with Lyn at 19:00, then Peter at 22:00, and Lyn at 01:00 and finally Peter at 04:00.  The wind started to subside around 17:00 and by 18:00 it was too light to sustain a boat speed of 4 knots, so we furled the jib, started the engine and unfurled the main and sheeted it in tight to stabilize the boat in the large seas.  The seas gradually subsided, so that about an hour into Lyn’s first watch, she was able to turn the steering over to “Otto”, as we call our automatic pilot, greatly reducing the strain on the helmsman. 

Moon showing us the way ahead

Just before sundown, we were pleased to see a nearly full moon rising into the sky.  It would illuminate the inky black night, giving us something to look at during our 3-hour watches, as the motor droned on, pushing the boat through the windless night.

Otto kept us on course, and our route took us through currents that were favorable, so we were making good time.  We arrived at the busy Charleston shipping channel at about 07:30.  From the picture that Lyn took, you can understand why we did not want to navigate this channel at night – these large ships come and go at all hours.  Peter, as is his custom, had rested but not slept during his off-watch times, so was feeling a little punchy as we entered the shipping channel.  Lyn had made up a Thermos of coffee before we left for just that occasion and served bagels and cream cheese with coffee for breakfast.  And for instant energy, Peter ate his chocolate almond bar that he purchased in Southport for just this sort of emergency.  Sufficiently revived, he navigated Kite up the shipping channel and into the harbor where we arrived at the Charleston Maritime Center marina at a little before 10:00.

Huge container ship in the channel leaving Charleston harbor