Here Comes the Sun

Sunshine Morning

Had to show the above photo first on this post.  Its about an hour after sunrise in Charleston, South Carolina and we are at the marina sitting in the cockpit in shorts and t-shirts enjoying the glorious sunshine.  Man what a difference a few hundred miles makes.  There would be a 20 deg F temperature difference from Norfolk.  We are moored in a place called Charleston Harbour Marina which when we pulled in yesterday had dolphins swimming around inside.  The marina is in a great location; downtown Charleston is only a water taxi away, the USS Yorktown, a old aircraft carrier, is parked next to the marina and we have a view of Fort Sumter which was the location of the start of the civil war.  So this is the neighbourhood for the next week.

  

Dan Meggitt 

We ended up departing Norfolk around 4pm on Wednesday (8th Nov).  It was still blowing hard and the forecasting service had advised an early morning departure but we felt confident and did not want to lose the wind too early..  Our passage crew member arrived mid afternoon.  His name is Dan Meggitt and we got in contact via a website forum.  This was the first time we had taken crew who we did not know onboard and so there was some concern as to how they would fit in.  We had got a reference but still that is only worth so much.  Am sure Dan had similar concerns about who he was to be sailing with as he had no chance to get any references or see the boat..  Turns out we had nothing to worry about.  Dan is a certified skipper and has completed a solo circumnavigation about 10 years ago onboard a 32ft  boat so sailing wise he is was more than competent but he was also a really nice guy and we all got on very well.  Dan lives in Beaufort in North Carolina so he drove up to Norfolk to join us.

Once Dan was onboard and had been shown around the boat and Nic had got her last Starbucks we headed off.  It took us about 4 hrs to motor out of the harbour, across the Chesapeake entrance into open water.  Once there we tried to set the main but the wind was almost directly behind and so it was tricky to hold our course without gybing.  We pulled down the main and set the genoa.  There was a fair sea running and so we were rolling more than was ideal but we were making 8kts so could not complain.

We rounded the Cape Hatteras Mark at around about 9 o’clock in the morning with it still blowing 20kts and set a course SW towards Charleston.  That was the hard part of the sail completed and it seemed like after that the weather just gave up.  By 8 o’clock that evening the wind had died and we had to put the engine on.  The weather stayed light for the rest of the trip which mean’t we motored for approx 36hrs to reeach Charleston around 0830 on the Sunday.  Total distance covered was approx 400NM.  This was a big milestone for us.  There are certain sections of the trip which you know are going to test you more that others and this was the biggest of those in the the US but as it turned out it wasn't as bad as we thought.  With this completed we can enjoy the remainder of the US but obviously not relax too much.

Dolphins playing in the bow wave

Dolphins playing in the bow wave

The above photos shows some dolphins which surfaced near us on day two of the trip.  There was about half a dozen of them and they swam around the boat for a bit and then played at the bow for a couple of minutes before breaking off and disappearing.  Its always great to see dolphins and especially the kids were absolutely amazed at seeing them and being so close to them at the bow.  It looked like they would roll over on their sides to get eye contact.

Having Dan onboard made such a difference.  That extra person just gave us that bit more coverage and sleep and he was really easy going.  The way we organised it was that Sam and Nic did a 4 to 8 watch, Dan drew the short straw with the 12 to 4 watch and Scott did the 8 to 12 watch.  All in all it worked pretty well.  There was overlap particularly during the day but you could get enough rest and Nic was on for breakfast and dinner time.  The first night is the worst until you get used to the routine.  Sam did great getting up for all his watches.  It was really interesting speaking to Dan about his sailing trip as much of the route we are doing is the same.  He gave us some reassurance regarding transiting the Panama Canal and crossing the Pacific.

Dan and Sam getting Fenders ready

We have decided that we will probably be looking for someone to join as crew from Panama.  Whoever it is will need to be able to stand a watch on their own and hopefully help with teaching the kids.  Thats our ideal crew member anyway, although the most important aspect is compatability.  We were really lucky with Dan.

We will spend the next few days exploring Charleston and may even range as far as Savannah before pushing onto Florida.  Not too sure if that will be another overnight sail or if we can stop overnight along the coast.  We are hoping that a friend of ours Gayle from Jacksonville will be able to join us with her small boy for that trip.

Just want to say thanks to our friends who are staying in touch by posting comments on the blog, particularly Aunt Margaret & Uncle Ian and Steve & Julie - we love hearing from you :)