We decided against an overnight sail to Southport and instead opted for two day trips. We would sail part way and tuck into an anchorage in Winyah Bay for the night. The next day we would sail the remainder to Southport.
We headed out of Charleston at dawn. We were lucky that there was little wind and it was calm.We headed out as the sun rose, shining on the city behind us. Dolphins were playing in the channel.
We had lovely wind and sea state as we headed out into the ocean. It was a close reach and then a beam reach and then downwind .
On the beam reach part of the trip, we fished. First we tried two poles and the lures got tangled in a big mess with one another. But Michael and David were persistent and switched to one green spoon. We noticed that our line was not tapping at one point and thought we had seaweed. We pulled in the line to find a mackerel. Almost immediately, we caught another fish, the line peeled out. We had caught a Bonito.
We were downwind enough by that point to use our spinnaker. We were hesitant but decided to try it. We raised it a bit and then tried to pull the sock down a bit. It seemed ok. We pulled it out all the way and it was lovely.
About that time, Michael saw something reddish gold on the water. It was a large school of red drum. We passed several schools but we couldn’t veer toward them with the spinnaker up. We decided to try and take it down as we were a mile or so from the inlet anyway.
We had a little trouble letting it loose in the front and I was slow releasing the sheet. The sock started down but then everything got wrapped around the spreader. It was a big mess but no damage and we were able to get it down on deck. I worked on the tangled mess of lines while David steered in the inlet. It was downwind, with current against us and it was difficult steering and uncomfortable sailing. We finally got in and anchored at the first anchorage off a beach. No chance for chasing red drum.
Our anchorage was rather exposed to the south but the wind was supposed to die down and change to the southwest. We headed to the beach in the dinghy and noticed as a south swell began to form in our anchorage. We returned to the boat and watched the sunset. Becca blew the horn. She was a natural.
It was quite rocky in the anchorage. We decided to eat dinner and then move to a calmer anchorage further up the Waccamaw River. We navigated up the channel in the dark and anchored. There was one other boat in the anchorage.
We were all very tired and the anchorage was calm. Getting to sleep was not a problem.
