We arrived at Charleston Harbor and anchored off Fort Johnson, just inside the inlet, positioned for an early morning departure for Florida.
Unfortunately, no time to tour Charleston (which we have done several times) as we have to depart tomorrow morning for our weather window.
First light Monday morning and we are departing Charleston, passing by Fort Sumter, heading out the channel.
The winds are light at daybreak but forecasted to build from the northeast and push us straight down to St Mary's Inlet at Fernandina, FL We have a 30 hr window to make this 24+ hour trip before the wind shifts to the south on our nose.
The winds are just about 30deg off from dead astern so we have poled out the headsail and have a preventer line on the mainsail to prevent it from swinging across the boat and perhaps breaking. We have two deep reefs in the sails as the winds are forecasted to be 20-30kt.
During the morning the winds were light and I took a reef out of the mainsail. Within a couple hours the winds had built to over 20kts and we needed that reef back in. That means furling the headsail and turning up into the wind to take the load off the mainsail so we can pull some more in. Accomplished that feat, then back on course to St Mary's with 3 reefs in.
No heat from the sun during this passage so it is a bit chilly, around 50degs. The crew are all curled up with lots of blankets in the cockpit.
This will be a tough passage for Riveh as it is way to rough to go out on the deck to her potty spot. She'll have to go in the cockpit or hold it for 24hrs. Turned out she went once in the cockpit.
Passing by anchored ships off of Savannah, the halfway point. Usually we pass through here in the middle of the night when we depart from Georgetown, further north that Charleston. It's a shorter trip offshore leaving from Charleston and not as spooky passing the anchored ships in the daytime.
The winds are strong and seas at 5-6ft from astern, rocking and rolling us, but we are making good time averaging over 6kts. We had some surfing speeds up to 8.5kts before I put the reefs back in and slowed us down to safer speeds.
Its a one overnight 24hr trip so we now have 12hrs of nighttime sailing. Sue caught this interesting moment in time with the ocean depth at 56.8ft and our speed at 5.68kts.
Nighttime is when you think of all the things that could go wrong with the boat. On two previous trips we have had hose clamps break on the engine causing flooding in the engine compartment. Nothing hard to fix but scary when the bilge pump goes on in the middle of the night unexpectedly. (I replaced the leaking oil cooler this summer that was causing the clamps to corrode.)
We are sailing this time so no worries about the engine. Still making great time and we will be arriving at St Mary's about 6am. The wind is forecasted to die down by 6am so that will be good and we can slow down and arrive in the daylight. Meanwhile, it is a roller coaster like sleigh ride sailing downwind. Good thing is no bashing into waves, but still some sharp rolls back and forth. Amazingly, Sue has not gotten seasick, a first. The Bonine and wrist bands seem to be working.
St Mary's Inlet at 7am, can't see a thing. The wind died down so we slowly approached the Inlet waiting for the sun to rise.
Fortunately we have a chartplotter with GPS that shows you where you are, where the channel is, where the commercial and fishing vessels are that have AIS, and we have radar if we need it.
Of course the wind builds back up as you are passing through the inlet and the waves build in the shallower waters and two dredges are working in the inlet plus a shrimp boat is exiting in the fog, but we made it through with no problems.
By 8am we were in an anchoring spot inside the inlet in safe and calm waters. There was a tug and barge sharing our anchoring spot, but lots of room for both of us.
We spent the day at anchor, sleeping and relaxing. Tomorrow we will move our anchorage spot to just off the city marina where it is a short dinghy ride to shore, with showers and laundry.
A safe and quick passage, but still physically and mentally exhausting. Nice to be anchored and calm.
