April 14-15,2026
We left St. Simon’s at sunrise to sail to Charleston. The wind was predicted to be light in the early morning and then pick up a little. We left at dawn.
It was so calm and beautiful when we reached the ocean. We motored comfortably in the calm clear water for several hours. Dolphins came over to swim with our boat.
In the early afternoon, we were able to sail. At first we were on a beam reach. We sailed with our main and genoa in winds 10-12 knots.
Later the wind turned more downwind and decreased and our genoa was flapping. But it was perfact for our spinnaker. We did not have an opportunity to fly it in the Bahamas so we were a little rusty but David got it all connected properly and we had a lovely couple of hours of spinnaker sailing.
The wind veered more from behind us and increased slightly so we took the spinnaker down and used the main with the preventer. The wind then decreased. We left a reefed main up for stability and started motoring. We took some shifts watching and resting. The seas were not bad so the autopilot could steer and the bean bag made a comfortable perch until it became wet with dew.
We made good time and arrived at the Charleston Harbor a little before light. A pilot boat called to us, wanting to know where we were going. A container ship was coming in from sea. We were told to hug the red side of the channel. The ship was about 8 miles behind us traveling at around 13 knots. A large barge was ahead of us and we passed it. We got through the channel and over to the anchorage by the US Yorktown before the container ship passed.
We anchored by the old battleship and napped. We would move to the City Marina in the afternoon. Overall, a very pleasant passage.