Days 6, 7, 8

Day 6 and 7

Great barbequed steak dinner at the Kerlin’s house the evening before. They are amazingly gracious hosts. Greg offered to drive us around in the morning to help us provision and refuel the boat.

By 9am we were up and re-provisioning the boat for what we hoped would be the next leg – offshore to Miami…but that was not to be. Weather reports indicated gale winds, large seas (up to 20 foot waves) beginning tomorrow (Thursday night) and continuing for several days. After discussions with our Weather service (Commander Weather) we decided to leave in the afternoon. bound for Charleston We spent the rest of the morning putting stuff away, tying stuff down, refueling and putting the provisions we had bought in the morning.

At 3:30 we cast off (timed to catch the outgoing tide) and set off for Charleston. It was a beautiful evening, relatively calm and actually got calmer and warmer as we motor-sailed through the night. Thursday was the same..sunny, warm 10-15 knot winds on the beam and we continued to motor-sail, keeping the boat speed above 6.5 knots. Our goal was to get to Charleston after midnight and beat the expected storm.

For much of the day on Thursday we were accompanied by groups of Dolphins as much as 12 – 15 at time jumping in and out of our bow wake (see pictures on the Picasa web album). The first group (Pod) arrived around 11am, played for ~1/2 hour then left, to be replaced a few hours later by another pod for another ½ hour. Neat!

We took 2-hour shifts on watch, followed by 6 hours off watch during the night which changed to 3 hours on watch and 9 hours off during the day. We were well rested. We had soup and/or sandwiches for lunch and casseroles for dinner (beef stroganoff, Mexican chicken and rice, etc.) and so were well fed. All in all a good voyage.

At 11pm on Thursday we entered the channel to Charleston just as the wind picked up and a light rain started to fall. We arrived at the City dock around 1am and were tied up by 1:15. It was a group effort, with Bobby navigating, Alan steering and Art and I looking for the marks. The wind had picked up, the current was strong, the rains were intermittent (but became heavy later) but we were plugged in, the boat tied up and much relieved.

Day 8 –

Friday we slept in, took showers, then the shuttle bus downtown for sandwiches and such. Except for a little clean up we didn’t accomplish much else. Dinner was at Carolina’s, a nice restaurant that tolerated our “casual” dress. I had great short ribs.

Saturday we changed the oil (it appears we burned ~1 liter since we left Baltimore ~120 engine hours ago), oil filter and fuel filter. We also adjusted the stuffing box so that the leak was only one drop per minute (which is good). We did make a visit to West Marine (the marina runs a shuttle bus there) to get a better pump to change the oil than the one I had on board.

We talked with the Weather service who urged us not to leave Charleston till Tuesday morning!. Due to a stalled low it would take that long for the winds and seas to become tolerable (and safe). We had expected to be in Miami by Monday, but now we wouldn’t be leaving Charleston (~500 miles north) till Tuesday. We will check again on Monday to confirm that is still the case and not worse. If we do leave early Tuesday morning (say around 7:30am) we should arrive in Miami Friday morning.

Alan, with much regret, had to leave us. He is an officer in a national real estate management society and their annual meeting starts on Wednesday in Anaheim, where he has to officiate. So…Sunday morning, after one last group movie (wearing special “Priority” polo shirts – see the Picasa web album) he headed to the airport where he would pick up a rental car that he would drive to Punta Gorda, (his Florida home), pick up fresh clothes and head to the Fort Myers airport.

The three of us (Bobby, Art and me) plan to head off Tuesday morning for Miami but have alternate routes (one with a stop at Fernandino beach which is 24 hours away in northern florida, another with a stop at Port Canaveral, which is 40 hours away about half way down the coast of florida) in case the going is tough. But the long range forecast is for good weather on the route to Miami through Friday so we are hopeful. We will check with the weather service on-route (I have a satellite phone since we’ll be ~40 miles offshore for part of the route)

We will adopt 2 hours on, 4 hours off during the night and 3 hours on 6 hours off during the day. Should be more than tolerable, especially if the weather is reasonable.

Gonna try to find a bar that shows C-span so I can watch Ben being interviewed at noon today…not sure they have such bars in Charleston.