The predicted weather was for light winds from the southeast throughout our 24hr transit from St Mary's to Charleston, pretty much ideal. We were hoping to sail for much of the trip but knew the winds were supposed to die after midnight.
It turned out we were only able to sail without the motor for 1hr the whole 24hrs. The winds were just too light and too far too the east to let us sail on course.
Of course, if we were "real sailors" we could have sailed at 3kts and tacked up the coast and made the trip in about 3 days, hopefully arriving before the strong cold front with northwest winds and thunderstorms arrived on the 6th. Instead, we turned on the motor and motored steady at 6kts with main and staysail out (which can be tightly sheeted for the apparent winds on the nose) and arrived at Charleston at 10am the next morning.
We passed by Fort Sumter at 11am and turned north up the ICW and were anchored in Awendaw Creek, our favorite spot between Charleston and Georgetown early that afternoon, ready for a good night's sleep after 30hrs at sea.
We hurried on north the next day, bypassing Georgetown and were safely anchored in the Wacamaw River when the cold front with its thunderstorms passed through.
