Blog 017 – What A Difference A Day Makes

At the end of our last blog we had pulled into Charleston Harbor with our tail between our legs. Exhausted, hungry and seasick. The next morning we pulled up anchor and motored back out through the Charleston entrance channel. We both had butterflies in our stomach from the previous passage but agreed that the best thing for us was to get back on the horse right away. We chose Winyah Bay to the north of us as a “bailout” anchorage if the weather changed. What a difference a day makes. Perfect sailing weather and midway through the channel the wind came up. We decided to cut out of the main shipping channel a little early, turned to the northeast into the wind and hoisted the main. We wrapped the main’s halyard around the winch, raised the sail with a double reef still tied-in from yesterday, unfurled the Genoa, turned 35 degrees to port and we were sailing again! As quickly as the wind filled our sails, gone were our anxieties from yesterday’s rough passage. The seas were gentle, the wind strong, and the sun shining. Life was good. We kept looking at each other in sheer amazement of how different this was from just one day before. Everything was going our way until…

Nope, no until – just the best day out on the ocean in along time. Around 9am a catamaran sailed up close aboard as I was shaking out the second reef. Catamarans tend to sail much faster than monohulls so it’s no surprise we were being overtaken. As soon as he could read Silhouette’s name on the side of our boat he hailed us on the radio. Dave and his wife and son were sailing a beautiful 51 ft cat named “Trebuchet.” We chatted for a while – just sailors enjoying the wonderful morning of sailing. We decided to do a photo op and email each other sailing pictures of our boats. White clouds, blue sky, a calm ocean and a following sea. What more could we ask for?

Trebuchet and her crew were heading out to the Gulf Stream to take advantage of the strong currents going north. They were expecting a few squalls but the extra speed would make it worth while for them. They were on passage to Maine and this route was the swiftest. But because we were turning at Frying Pan Shoals off of Cape Fear the Stream was too far off shore for us to take advantage of on this trip. We bid them, “fair winds and following seas” and continued on toward our destination.

We sailed all day and all night with a steady wind and calm seas. We didn’t need any sail or large course changes for the next 20 hours. Liana read a book on the salon settee and I took a nap late in the day. The evening and into the night was perfect. Before the moon came up we could not even see the line of the horizon. Then there were so many shining stars the Milky Way shown like a highway in the sky. The stars reflected on the water and made just a shimmering blur as the moon came up bright orange. A little fog had settled in over Cape Fear. We could see the arc of white from the lighthouse way off in the distance.

Cape Fear earned its ominous name from the hundreds of ships and thousands of sailors who met their fate on these rocky shoals. National Geographic wrote an interesting article and commissioned a chart in the 1970s about the Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks. I was shocked at the sheer number of ships that will be forever on the ocean floor. Before the days of global positioning satellites, digital fathometers and up to the minute weather forecasts sailors truly risked-it-all every time they threw off the lines to take to the seas. Many never to step foot on land again.

Liana came up to the cockpit about 2am to give me a break. I plotted our last position and looked around one last time then went to the salon settee for rest. It’s not often I would go off to sleep in the middle of the night with full sails up but this was one of those nights that everything fell into place. I do all the navigating when we have potentially dangerous conditions. By 4am I was back in the cockpit and we were approaching Cape Fear Shoals and were right on track. The Fathometer showed us the instant we passed over the shoals and we counted down from a 100 feet to just 35. Then back up again and we were safely passed this treacherous place.

Just after sunrise we saw schools of flying fish rising out of the water by the hundreds. All flying in unison like a bomber squadron. Their silver bodies and big wings can fly several hundred feet, skimming over the water before they disappear as quickly as they show up. This was the best sailing we had done since we have owned Silhouette. But after sunrise we lost the wind and had to drop our sails. Early afternoon I took a nap in the V-birth and Liana took over the helm. We were motoring at 7 knots on glassy smooth seas. She woke me up a few hours later not sure what to do. We were surrounded by Navy war ships and the radio was filled with static from their secure communications. And squalls were moving in close. So I took over the helm. The Navy has a rule that no one approaches a war ship at sea without explicit permission. One warship seemed like it was on a collision course with us so I hailed them on the VHF radio. He agreed to turn and allow us to continue course.

This course lead us quickly to the entrance of More Head City and Beaufort, NC. The entrance was easy and we anchored off the Ft. Macon US Coast Guard station. As soon as we dropped the hook the storms rolled in with thunder and lightning and torrential rain but we were safe and secure. Thank you Lord for another safe passage.

PS: We want to give a shout out to our friends Tony & Summer Borja – We love you guys 🙂