Brrrrrr....

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  Charleston, South Carolina
Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Well, if the night before last had some gusty winds, last night had a LOT of them...  I’m sure we all had some pretty patchy sleep, and as I noticed it was starting to get a bit lighter outside, it certainly felt like it had picked up a bit.  Connor had just gone up on deck to check out the situation, and as he came back down below and Pete asked how it was looking, we all heard a very clear crack - we all got up quickly and saw that one of the lifeline stanchions had broken at the base.  Looking around, the weather didn’t actually look that bad - yes, it was windy, but the waves were really minimal (not what it felt like while sleeping...).  As Hejira was continually getting pinned/SLAMMED onto the dock, we quickly decided the best option was to just get off the dock and get underway.  Pete hopped aboard to start the engines while Connor, uh, threw on some pants.  I took off the extra dock lines that we had out, and by the time we were ready to get her off the dock, Connor joined me to take off the last two dock lines and push like hell.  Other than the gust that graced us midway through trying to get off the dock, Connor and I were able to push and fend Hejira off while Pete motored us straight out into the channel to get away.  I think we were all pretty wide awake after that...who needs coffee anyway?
I added some extra layers as the weather had brought a drop in temperatures and relieved Pete so he could go make breakfast.  Honestly, given how it felt when we were all banging around in our beds, it really ended up being a pretty beautiful morning.  The wind continued throughout the day, but it definitely let up a little bit as we motored on, and we had sunshine so no complaints there.  Early on, we passed through a wider section of water, which was a channel leading from Georgetown out to sea.  As we crossed through it to the narrow canal that led to the continuation of the ICW, we got a call on the radio from Om Shati, the other boat from New Hampshire that the boys had met in Wrightsville Beach.  They were a ways back but spotted the dark hull and gave a call to see if it was us.  An hour or so later, they caught up and passed us through the ICW - it was fun to catch a peak at the boat that Pete and Connor had told me about.  Maybe we’ll catch up with them in Charleston tonight?
Motorboat ride continued.  We were basically just working our way through some South Carolina marshland.  It was quite pretty...but stayed the same throughout the day!  At least when we reached some of the more open stretches of water (of which there weren’t too many), we would usually be graced by a few dolphins.  I had seen in the ship’s log that the boys had seen them the day I left last week, so I was a little bummed I had missed the first sighting (I’ve seen them before out on boats...but I just had a bad case of F.O.M.O. [Fear Of Missing Out] heading off to Thanksgiving for a week).  The first sighting today was pretty cool though because they were jumping more than usual and actually thrashing around a bit - Connor and I agreed it looked like they were feeding, which neither of us had ever seen. Pretty cool.  (It happens fast so, sorry, no pictures! We’ll try to get some eventually though.)
Not much else to report today. We all got a nap in at some point, which was really nice given our rocky sleeping situation last night.  And, as hoped for, we were able to cover the 60 miles needed to arrive in Charleston this evening.  Just to keep things exciting, we made sure to enter the harbor at night - luckily, there was barely anyone out (no wonder, it’s a brisk and windy 40 degrees) and it was quite easy to find the marina. We sprung for some dock space at the Boatyard at Ashley River, and we have wandered in to see some of the sights of Charleston - a definite sailor’s town and one of my favorites.  Tomorrow, weather permitting, we hope to head outside into the Atlantic to give the sails a little workout and the motor (and our ears) a little rest. The plan is to pull an overnight with our eye on St. Augustine, FL.  We’ll see!
~Ellie

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