Moving up the coast

We finally successfully made it out of Florida and all it’s thunderstorms. We sailed overnight to Charleston without any problems. The trip was a peaceful one, although this was in part because the weather was calm, meaning no wind and few waves. We had to motor the whole way. We were itching to get our sails out again, but this was not the time. Happily though, we had two exciting encounters. First, flying fish decided to attack our boat. Not sure why, or perhaps we were just in their way, but we ended up with 6 flying fish landing on our boat. Then, we had a good long ‘play’ with dolphins. They seem like they are very curious creatures and like to put on shows. They jump in pairs, right in front of our bow and then circle back and swim along side of us, jumping up every once in a while. They swim much faster than we are sailing or motoring. They seem to stick around for about 10 minutes and then move on. They are so fun to watch.

We arrived in Charleston in the later afternoon and anchored right in the harbor next to an old aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. It was a rocky anchorage, but was close to the city. The first day we went to shore across the harbor where there was a dinghy dock with the Maritime center. Unfortunately, it was going to be closed in 2 hours for a special occasion so we had just enough time to pick up some packages and go grocery shopping. We also got to stop shortly at a playground to let the little kids play and stretch out their legs. It is odd to get to different places and be without a vehicle. We go from wandering short distances about a boat to walking everywhere and carrying everything we get when we get to land. The walking is usually a very welcome activity by the time we get to shore again. I also like walking around because there is more chance to explore and get the feel of a city if wandering it by foot. Then again, as you know, we have found having a car to be useful if moving lots of stuff or if sight-seeing is far from shore.

The next day, we went ashore to see the USS Yorktown, the aircraft carrier that we were anchored beside. Strangely enough, we couldn’t just dinghy up to Yorktown dock. Instead, we had to take a 25 minute dinghy ride through the main channel and part way up the Shem Creek to the second closest public dinghy dock. It was a long dinghy ride, but the area we ‘landed’ in was very pretty. It was a creek next to grassy marsh land. People were boating on the creek, kayaking through the grasses of the marsh and fishing in both. There was a boardwalk that lead back to shore. We caught a quick ride back to the Yorktown (and where our boat was).

The Patriots Point Museum included both the Yorktown and a destroyer, USS Laffey. They had a great set up with lots of information about the battles the boats had seen but also about the planes used on the carrier and life aboard the boats. We enjoyed our time. We then went back to our dinghy and rode straight across the harbor back to the now-open dinghy dock near town. We walked through the town and around the college. I loved the old style houses, that were very well kept, and the foliage. It was a very clean city and the people were friendly. We ended up at an Italian restaurant for pizza. Then, more groceries and headed back to the boat. I would certainly visit Charleston again. I think there was more to see than we had time for.

The next day we set out for Beaufort, North Carolina. Finally, we had good weather and we were able to sail our boat for more than half the way and then motor-sailing the rest when the wind died. It was another lovely overnight trip with dolphin shows and flying fish. We are getting more and more used to sailing life and managed to do some schooling and work on the boat while underway. We arrived in Beaufort, a quaint town in North Carolina, around 2pm. Unforutnatey, the town is small enough that anchorages are hard to come by. We took 2 hours to find the right anchorage spot for us. We get anxious when trying to squeeze our big boat into tight anchorages with other boats, especially since our boat seems to like to swing more in the wind than many others. We think this is in part because the anchor comes down in the middle of our boat behind the trampolines, rather than then bow, and also because our bows are quite tall, or rather have a lot of space above the waterline that can catch the wind. After checking out some smaller anchorages though, we decided to squeeze ourselves in with the others near town because the anchorage was still bigger. Plus the public dinghy dock is literally across the channel. We are hoping for a sighting of the wild horses that live on the marshy island in front of our boat.

Today we did boatwork, schoolwork and relaxed. We went to shore to pick up milk in the evening and Beaufort is a very cute. The general store has clothes, fudge, icecream, food and trinkets, as well as laundry, which we plan to partake in tomorrow (I am still waiting for my washing machine to actually be hooked up to the new power system on our boat).