Goodbye to Fernandina. This would be a fantastic place to live if it wasn't for the large, noisy and very smelly paper mill and wood products factory on either side of town. Of course, if there were no factories there probably wouldn't be a great town here.
We are heading out St Mary's Inlet for South Carolina under blue skies and little wind with our large high pressure system still overhead. The winds and seas are forecasted to be light and favorable for the 30hr trip. We'll see, the forecasts never seem to match reality.
There were a couple shrimp boats working off the Inlet we had to maneuver around as we turned to head north. No problem as we were motoring with basically no wind and the smooth seas you can sea. So far the forecast is holding up. We're supposed to get more wind this evening and will be putting the sails out.
We were able to put the sails out and catch some of the light winds from astern but, still needed the engine to keep us moving at a 6kt speed to get us into port tomorrow before dark. The waves did come up somewhat when the wind is blowing against the tidal current but still only 2-3ft from the aft quarter so not a bad ride.
Another sunset at sea. Red sky at night. And the forecast is for more good weather tomorrow.
Still cruising offshore just north of Savannah after a relatively smooth night. The wind is up enough that we are sailing (for a few hours) and a family of dolphins came over to play around the boat. I got some video with my GoPro camera I will have to edit and see if it is any good. I seem to get better video with my phone, but that has to be above the water. The GoPro is the camera to use underwater.
We have made good time and meanwhile, can't get reservations at a convenient marina in Charleston, so we decided to just keep on going to Winyah Bay, at Georgetown, SC. We should arrive there about 5pm if the conditions hold up. So far, so good.
It's 5pm and we are heading up Winyah Bay just as planned, passing by the old lighthouse. It is always windy at the Winyah Bay Inlet and today was no different as our 10kt winds with us the whole trip from Fernandina built to 20kts. We put a deep reef in the mainsail and sailed up the inlet with main and staysail.
By 7pm we had made it to a convenient anchorage at Butler Island and pulled over for the night, 36hrs after departing Fernandina. Surprisingly, the offshore conditions were exactly as forecasted, which is a first for the last 4 trips we have made south and back. I'm afraid we will get spoiled now and think any ocean passage will be as comfortable. But, it was very nice to have an uneventful passage. No transmission breaking. No heat exchanger or oil cooler hose leaking. No big winds or seas. And we even got 6hrs of sailing and a visit by dolphins. A great trip. Now its back to the ICW motoring to Yorktown.
