Gastronomic Delights and Beautiful Sights in Charleston

The week was HOT here in Charleston - mostly 85 degrees, but "feels like" 99 degrees.  I know you northerners covet warm weather, but this is a bit much for us.  Greg escaped much of it as he had to fly back to Boston for client and candidate meetings.  He says it is still Spring in Boston - no summer yet.  Friday, the wind switched and much cooler days ensue.  More energy to get about!

We've had great fun while here in this fine city.  Visited the South Carolina Aquarium where they have great species of things we saw while snorkeling in the Bahamas.  Ate and drank at: Craftsman Tap House, Cypress, High Cotton, Amen Street, Coast, Hall's Chophouse, Saffron Bakery, Caviar and Bananas, Charleston Grill.  Now - just so you know - sometimes we just did take-away (as they say in the Bahamas), sometimes we just had a drink and munchie, sometimes we had a full-fledged dinner.  If you want ratings or recommendations, just ask.  Did a bit of shopping, checked out some historical sites, rented a car and visited area beaches, checked out the weekly farmer's and artisan's market, got in a couple days of the Spoleto Festival and generally walked all over the entire peninsula.  This would be a great place to live!

Tidal Flats and Live Oak at Boone Hall Plantation

Southern Magnolia Flower near marina - smells so sweet!

But - time to move on.  We plan to head out early Monday morning, fill the fuel tanks and hit the high seas while the tide is ebbing.  Our plan is to travel offshore, the 200 or so miles northeast to Beaufort, North Carolina.  If wind and waves are with us, we will keep going the next 200 miles to the Chesapeake Bay, or we will go inside and travel the rest of the way on the ICW.  Either way, our destination is further up the Bay, somewhere near Annapolis for a bit.  Sharon wants to get to Fenwick Island, DE to clean and prepare the family beach house for summer fun.  Greg may need to get back to Boston for a bit.  That side of the Bay is a great place to hang for awhile.

The Beach at Sullivan's Island

Carnival Fantasy leaving dock, Dream Catcher in foreground

We hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend with great weather and some family time.  'Til next time - 

WAIT- post script here - It is Monday at 7am.  We were going to be gone by now and we forgot to publish this post.  When we tried to leave this morning at 6am, the fast moving current pushed our stern into the harbor so quickly that we were unable to maneuver the bow to the harbor opening.  Fortunately, we didn't hit anything major.  For the next 30 minutes, we proceeded to add lines, haul lines in, motor in reverse, haul lines in, motor in reverse, move lines down the dock and finally re-secured the boat - except now it is a bit further back on the dock, towards the harbor opening.  This took a couple hearty and kind volunteers - the guy on the boat next to us (he obviously had a vested interest) and the guy that was peacefully fishing on the outer dock.  We decided we should advisedly wait until slack tide - which to our dismay doesn't occur until 8:23am.  THEN - Sharon discovered a large clevis pin lying on the foredeck.  It was the size that is used to secure the very large and important shrouds that hold the mast in place.  It was on the top deck and appeared to have fallen from above because there was a mark on the deck where it bounced and then rolled.  Greg went onto the high dock with the binoculars to assess where it may have fallen from.  Nothing was visibly missing.  After looking around the mast area near deck, he discovered it belonged where the boom fits into the mast, the gooseneck.

Clevis Pin

Sailor's Luck!  This could have happened while we were sailing, the pin could have rolled off the deck before we discovered it, all kinds of scenarios ran through our minds!  Here it is all fixed!  So - we wait for slack and will head out then.  Wish us luck!

Bahamas to Charleston Passage

It was a great passage from Matanilla Shoal to Charleston.  Sorry it has taken us a few days to let you know we arrived safely.  Happily docked at Charleston Maritime Center, we have been eating our way around town with our friends Pat and Eric from "Cutter Loose" since Wednesday.  What a great and fun town this is!  But - first -

We left Grand Cay at 8am and motor-sailed with light winds behind us to Matanilla Shoal (the northwestern most point of the Bahamian waters).  Though the wind was blowing at only 10-12 knots, once we turned around into the wind to anchor, the chop was a bit much!  First, we had a hard time finding the charted 15 feet of water and ended up motoring in circles to try to locate shallow enough water to feel comfortable dropping the hook.  We finally found about 25 feet and decided to go for it.  Once we knew it caught, we immediately set to raising the dingy.  In hindsight, we wished we had done this at our more settled anchorage because now, Greg has to get into a dingy that is bouncing around in the sea, unhook the motor from the transom, attach the pulley harness quickly and move the heck out of the way of the swinging motor propellor while Sharon hoists as fast as she can and does her best to get it up on the stern rail motor mount.  Not a pretty sight and one of those experiences where luck was with us.  After the dingy was then hoisted, Sharon went below to try to heat up some stew in the bouncing galley.  The point of stopping here was to get some rest.  We quickly completed our chores, tried to choke down some stew, popped a couple Bonine and reclined.  Not much rest was had, but a couple hours of supine position and deep breathing settled us a bit.

Answering the iPhone alarm at 12:30am, we roused, and prepared to haul anchor.  "Cutter Loose" went first, with us still tethered by the hook so the two of us wouldn't drift into one another, and "Dream Catcher" soon followed.  The best moment was when we turned back downwind and now had that chop at our back once gain - whew!

Though this auspicious start set our teeth grinding a bit, the rest of the trip was a gift.  Within ten miles, Eric radioed Sharon and noted the first push of the Stream showing up in the instruments.  Within twenty miles, we started to see a two-knot push and it never went below two to two and one-half until we exited the stream 230 miles later.  Monday dawned sunny and warm.  With wind still from behind and only blowing at about 10 knots, we decided to hoist the spinnaker (or "fancy sail" as Eric would say).  This added to our downwind ride and we were traveling at about 9 knots over ground.  Cool!

The "Fancy" Sail

The new AIS (Automatic Identification System) tool that we added when we upgraded our instruments in early March served us well through the night.  We can see ships on our chart plotter before we see them with the naked eye.  The signal tells us the name of the ship, the course and speed it is traveling and where and when our paths will cross.  This is a remarkable and very welcomed tool for nighttime ocean sailing.  We both receive and transmit the signal, so those ships know we are out there too.  Nothing came close enough to worry us and in fact, the next day, "Cutter Loose" was able to communicate with the Carnival cruise ship that was headed our way to determine whether he would shift course, or we should.  Very nice feature!

By Tuesday, morning, we found we were ahead of schedule to our destination.  Instead of slowing down to arrive at our scheduled time, we sped up and were able to arrive by Tuesday night.  The one thing you try to avoid is entering any narrow harbor at night.  It is very difficult to navigate smaller spaces in the dark.  But, given our timing, our speed, and the fact that we were entering Charleston Harbor, we thought we would press on.  Greg called the marina for advice on where in the harbor to drop the hook for the night.  So - we had a plan.

We exited the Stream late morning and headed towards Charleston.  About twenty miles out, we were greeted and escorted pretty much all the way to the channel by a pod of very playful dolphins.  They popped out of the water (a couple at a time!), sped underneath the boat from side to side, rode along the bow wave and obviously enjoyed the motion of the boat as much as we enjoyed watching their antics.  A great welcome back to the States!

"Cutter Loose" our buddy boat for the passage

The air was quite damp and hazy most of the afternoon and just got thicker as the sun dropped.  We cut the corner to the most inside buoy marks possible and entered the channel about 7:30pm, trying to beat nightfall.  It is a long way from the ocean into Charleston.  From where we entered the channel, it was at least 10 miles.  We kept the genoa up to help stabilize the boat against the rolling waves and push us along.  Finally inside the harbor, we doused the sail, revved the engine even higher and strained our eyes to make out the lighted buoys to guide us through the various channels to the north eastern side of Charleston.  The toughest part is discriminating between lighted buoys, range marker lights, and shore lights. It is a busy port and we had to stay out of the way of two very large container ships as we made our way up the channel and into the Cooper River.  There, we found a shallow area right off the Yorktown aircraft carrier (museum), happily shut down the engine and said a prayer of gratitude.

Since then, we have retold stories, shared experiences on each of our vessels, toasted our new friendship and the success of a fun and safe passage.  We will say Goodbye to Eric and Pat when they head out tomorrow morning to transit to Beaufort, NC.  We had planned to join them on the next leg, but Greg needs to fly to Boston for client meetings next week, so we will hang out in the marina here in downtown Charleston until next Saturday, May 23, when we hope to leave on the same next leg.  Not a bad place to hang out for a week!

More as it happens!

Weather Prep for Bahamas to States

We're getting underway from an evening stop over at Grand Cay, north Abaco. It's the last cell tower we'll see until Wednesday.  You can find the Cay 30 nm east of Mantanilla Shoal.

We have our final weather updates from Commander's Weather and another one forwarded to us by the folks on the boat sailing along side us on this trip. That one is a daily email from Chris Parker, a well known Carib weather planner.

I thought that those of you who are interested would like to see the detail:

Next BLOG after we arrive Charleston......

SPOT will be on, so check our position by clicking the link above.

Our best to you all,

Greg & Sharon

Wind, Waves and Buddy Boating

We started to write this blog on Friday, May 1st.  Today is Saturday, May 9th.  We have now edited it three times.  Here is our most current plan to head north from the Abacos. We've committed to this and will leave tomorrow. Read on!

We stayed three days in Treasure Cay Marina, Great Abaco and Friday, the 1st moved ten miles NE to Green Turtle Cay as part of our plan to get ready for our transit back to the US.  Green Turtle Cay is one of a long string of "out islands", five to ten miles off the eastern shore of Great Abaco, the northern most Bahama Island.  Just south of Green Turtle Cay and north of Great Guana Cay is an inlet called Whale Channel Cut that is one path to the deep ocean (one to two miles deep!).  This is the path we had been planning to take to begin a 400 nautical mile sail to Charleston, SC.

The trip is expected to take three days (68 hours to be exact) if we cover 140 miles a day, a little under six knots, on average.  We often sail faster, as fast as 8-9 knots.  But, 140 miles a day is a conservative number and a starting point in our planning.  Choppy seas will slow the boat down and waves coming at you do the same.  So, we try to avoid these.  But, it's not always possible.  So, we try to factor in a variety of conditions, while gathering weather data from public sources and a couple of sailing weather professionals to come up with as clear a picture as possible for the following 3-4 days. Technology is wonderful. Weather forecasting has certainly benefited from this.

The first picture below shows our two possible routes we've been considering.

The green line shows our eastern route option. This was our intention, but weather and other considerations influenced choosing the west route.  The green line/east route would be a 3.5 day sail. We would not benefit from a Gulf Stream "push".  But, it looks like the wind and waves would make this a good choice.

The west route is shown as a red line on the left and takes us first to Great Sale Cay, about 60 nautical miles west of our current location.  At that point it turns north.  The reasons for considering this is that it allows us (if we wish) to anchor one night at Great Sale Cay and reduce the number of continuous days at sea, plus another two days of pleasant sailing on "the bank" where the islands protect against swells and is much more gentle than open ocean.  It also takes better advantage of the push from a north flowing Gulf Stream than the eastern route, thereby giving us a quicker ride.

We (with help from the pros and sailing friends) try to match our route (first picture below) with the stream, wherever possible, if and when the wind/waves are also from the south, which is what we've been waiting for.  You can see in the pictures that the stream is closer to Florida.  The red route rides the stream north for a longer time, giving us a two to three knot boost for quite awhile.

Picture of our possible routes. 

We're taking the west one - click to enlarge.

We'll take the red line!

Gulf Stream Sunday midnight 

Click to enlarge

We'll try to incorporate the green, yellow and red stream into our plan.

Wave height and Direction Sunday 

Click to enlarge

The waves are from the east, but during the folloing few days clock to the south, so we'd have following seas (almost) way better than from the north.

Wind Direction and strength Sunday

Click...

Wind is behind us and agrees with the motion of the stream.  This is the single most critical issue.  If wind is from the north (opposing the direction of the stream) wave height and wave period (how close together and how "sharp" they are) makes for a very bad and slow ride.

If you're interested to see more ocean weather go to www.passageweather.com.  It's an excellent site.

There are several other sailboats planning their return to the states.  Everyone has their weather sources and ways of interpreting them.  Most use a professional weather router.  Chris Parker is the most widely used here.  Jennifer Clark is another well-known router who specializes in Gulf Stream crossings, often for high end races.  We decided to use Commander's Weather, based in Nashua, New Hampshire, of all places.  We've been wanting to use them for years (now's our chance!)  We called them last week because there had been talk of two very significant weather systems that could cause real issues.

There was a large low pressure area that went near the Carolinas last weekend with winds over 40 knots.

Then a sub-tropical LO began to form north of the Bahamas, travelled up the coast of the US and became  the storm "Ana".  So we are happy we waited a week to see how this has developed.

A fellow cruiser sends us Chris Parker's daily email which details the conditions in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, and the eastern seaboard.  This, along with Passage Weather and Commander's gives us a good picture to match up and study all together.

Commander's will provide detailed information before our departure and during our trip. They confirmed that Ana will be gone before we arrive in Charleston on Wednesday morning.  We'll use our satellite phone to call them once a day.

So - our wait has been rewarded.  We are on our way west with our new friends Eric and Pat on "Cutter Loose" an Island Packet 460.  We will meet them tonight at Great Sale Cay.  Then, we have two options.  Hang at Great Sale on Sunday and leave from there around 6pm.  Or, sail early Sunday to Mantanilla Shoal and anchor on the bank for a rest and leave at 1am Monday morning.  Either way,  we calculate a morning arrival into Charleston.  And, it will be nice to have another boat out there to occasionally check in with during the wee hours of morning.

We expect to have winds out of the South at less than 15 knots.  There will be a fair amount of motor-sailing, but this is preferred over bashing into waves and dealing with high winds.

We sent a "Float Plan" to Sharon's sister Pam and Greg's sister Pam.  You can all track us on SPOT to see how we are progressing.

We also log a "Float Plan" on the "Small Vessel Reporting System" of the Customs and Border Patrol which we hope will allow us to "clear-in" by phone, instead of having to traipse over to the office.

We will "talk" to you once we hit Charleston and get some rest.  'Til then....

Junkanoo in Green Turtle Cay

Well - it's rained in the Abacos the last few days, but the sun is back today.  We have been hanging out at Green Turtle Cay since Friday, hoping for a weather window to help sail us back to the States.  Not a bad place to hang - lots of fun stuff happening, lots of fun people to hang with.

Friday and Saturday was the Island Roots Festival.  We enjoyed a fresh conch salad.  The chef had the conch waiting in the lagoon right behind the booth.  He picked one out of the water, rapped on it strongly with a hatchet a few times at the top crown to create a little hole, then pushed a sharp tool through the hole, and stuck his hand into the big opening to pull out the conch.  He chopped the conch very finely, added thinly sliced green pepper, onion, LOTS of sour orange and lime juice - the real stuff squeezed from the citrus - tossed it all together and served in a medium-sized deli cup for $10.  We also had fresh grilled mahi.  YUM!

Saturday night was the Junkanoo Parade.  Kids from all over the Abacos come to participate.  It put us in mind of the July 4th parade in Chelmsford.  Although the costumes were a bit more exotic.  They marched all around the park to the beat of the drums and rhythm of the horns, and the girls had a little choreographed dance.  The theme was the four seasons.  Very fun!

Since we've been hanging around, we rented a golf cart (the preferred method of transport on these islands) and checked out the other resorts on the island, we went for a walk on the beach, we shared happy hour with cruising friends, we learned how to play Dominos, we shared a potluck with other cruisers, we voted in a conch blowing contest, we toasted Greg's birthday with friends and the original "Goombay Smash" at the Blue Bee Bar.

Birthday Celebration!

Cruising Friends - Eric, Pat, Greg, Sharon, Radeen, Hayden

Hoping to be able to head out later this week.  We are waiting for North winds to abate - the last thing we want when crossing the Stream is north winds to steep up the waves when the current is running from the South.  Til then -