We decided on Winyah Bay for our next stop. Southport would be an overnight and we were keeping our options open on that but it would be a downwind sail and that was not always pleasant. We left the harbor in the morning. Two large container ships were passing one another in the channel as we went out.
As we headed out, we saw another sailboat entering. It was our friends on Eleanor. Small ocean! We hailed on the radio and got Brendan. We talked for a while. They were finishing an overnight from Fernandina. Brendan said the seas were picking up a little. Everyone aboard was well.
We had raised the main before leaving the harbor. The wind was behind us, too much for our genoa, seas 3-4 feet. We sailed but the seas were too much for the autopilot. I got to practice my downwind hand steering. It was clear we would opt for Winyah Bay.
The run was hard on the rigging at times. Even with the preventer, there was some flapping when a swell would hit our quarter and push us through the wind for a few seconds. We adjusted our course a bit to end up further out and sail a little less downwind but we also had to consider getting to the inlet and having the tide with us at the inlet.
The wind gradually died down and we were motor sailing. We reached the outer buoys and headed in. There was a lot of current with us. As we got in, David made the decision to head further in to anchor and take the waterway tomorrow as we had done with Becca and Michael last year. It would have been nice to do another outside run to Little River but the wind was picking up again which was not predicted.
After anchoring, there was current behind us pushing us up on the anchor. We felt set, however, when we backed down on it. During the night, the current changed and we drifted out of our anchor circle on the anchor alarm. We were concerned we were dragging though it was hard to tell if it was just chain straightening, or dragging. We decided to re-anchor at 330 am. The anchor set really well. The wind had dropped and it was calm except for the mosquitos who were in action. David was up again at 5, ready to go at first light around 6.