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Went outside for the 26 hour run down to Charleston, singlehanding Synchronicity with Dave and Jill on
their Lagoon 37 catamaran Jilli-Q nearby. Motored the entire way as there were light winds
dead astern. That is, until the inevitable 3am rain... The wind picked up to 20kts and the waves were
4-6 feet, with the occasional 8 footer to liven things up a little. Very unpleasant rolling motion of
the boat the entire ride, with the added bonus of the following wind blowing the diesel exhaust right back
to the cockpit.
Made better time than we expected, and even slowing down for the last few hours , we arrived outside of
Charleston before dawn and had to circle around in the wind and rain waiting for sunrise.
Not the most fun I've had sailing along the coast.
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Along with Jilli-Q and Outrageous, I made an overnight run outside to St Mary's inlet.
Motored down the ICW from Beaufort, SC to
Port Royal Sound and out into the Atlantic. As I am coming out the inlet I see a couple
of freighters, one of which is heading directly at me - heading for the inlet I supposed.
Pretty soon the were 7 freighters all converging on the same spot, where I happened to be
sailing through. Turns out we were transiting the spot where large ships anchor and wait for
the Savanah river pilots to board the ships and guide them in. In an 8 mile circle there were
7 large ships and 3 little sailboats.
The first part of this little cruise
was about as perfect as they come. Nice day, enough wind to sail, but not be over
powered - a beautiful sunset that colored everything in a rose hue, including turning
the spray from the bow crashing through the odd wave here and there into sparkling pink drops.
There was even a green flash to cap the day! The night was crystal clear with all the stars you
could ask for - Mars glaring red high in the sky and Jupiter so bright it lit up the waves, the North Star off the
stern and Orion rising off to port, with the occasional meteor streaking across the sky.
But about 2am the wind started to pipe up. Not too much - 15-20 knots, but my problem was to time my arrival
at St Mary's Inlet at sunrise - so I did not want to arrive early in the dark. So my problem was
to slow the boat down. I reefed the main at sunset, started easing everything out, eventually started
rolling up the 90 jib on the furler until I had about 8 feet out and was still making 6.5 knots. Every
time I made a change in the sails, the wind increased to counter the change. That was
fine, but the temperature started to drop and it got COLD. Not the biting, wind-chill cold, but a damp
chill-to-the-bone cold. As always, when I do a 24 hr singlehanded run, the last 2 hours before dawn were endless...
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Your Humble Narrator at sea.
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It's nice to have friends
when
sailing off into the sunset.
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Jilli-Q and Outrageous in the distance.
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