Beaufort North Carolina to Charlestown...Rain, Wind and we meet Jen

32:46.43N 79:56.83W

9th May 2015

8144 Miles from Ramsgate by log.

            We ended up on the anchor ball next door to the catamaran “sweet Sensation” who we had previously met at Turner creek near Savannah two days before. I would say small world but as we are all heading in the same direction bumping into each other is kind of inevitable. On the subject of bumping into each other the anchor balls had been placed very close together and it was not a comfortable first night as the two boats moved about with the changes in wind and tide, but no contact was made and “Sweet Sensation” left the following morning leaving us with plenty of swinging room. On the first night in Beaufort Norma and myself headed ashore for a bit of a walk about and to book into the marina. At the marina desk Norma was mortified to find out that the husky voice on the radio who she had been calling Sir belonged to a Southern Belle who was very polite but obviously less than impressed. After taking advantage of the marinas showers and washing machines we sat on the waterfront drinking a glass of wine as the sun went down over the bayou.

Spectra at anchor just offshore from the No See Um Generation factory

            Early(ish) the next morning we walked around the old town and liked what we found. The historical landmark district of the town is virtually jam packed with antebellum mansions all oozing southern charm, Norma has now officially banned me from using the phrase, “I do declare honey bunch” as I have rather over used it ever since our day out in Savannah.

I just cant decide which one I like the best, I guess I will just have to buy them all

            Potted history of Beaufort (from what I can remember from our walk): Founded in the earliest colonial times Beaufort became one of the richest cities in America on the back of the plantation slaves and took a leading role in the war of independence. At the time of the civil war it had a population of 6000 whites to 11000 slaves. Emancipation changed all of that and the city became one of the largest centres of freed slaves for many years. It’s wealth declined as the cotton industry collapsed and 38% of the population moved away leaving Beaufort in a period of steady decline, eventually becoming one of the poorest regions in the United States. With the approach of the second world war the Parris Island Marine basic training camp and nearby military airfield were established and the defence contracts poured in creating a local renaissance. The last single race school was closed in 1971 bringing Beaufort into the modern world and it has enjoyed a steady economic growth founded on the defence industry, farming and tourism ever since. That’s it, all I can remember but it is a beautiful city and well worth the visit if you are in these here parts.

Church dating back to the war of independence.  It was used as a hospital during the American Civil War where some of the tombstones were utilised as temporary operating tables.

On the evening of day two in Beaufort, Jen, our potential crew came up to meet us along with the skipper who had resigned from her previous yacht. Apparently the yacht had just been purchased after sitting on the hard standing for four and a half years and the owner wanted to more or less drop it in and sail it back across the Atlantic. Having experienced the teething problems when taking a well maintained yacht blue water cruising the drop in the water and go approach would have sent me running for the hills as well, so I think he made a wise choice saying no the yacht is not ready for an ocean crossing and voting with his feet. All went well with the meet up and I think she is a keeper so we are now all set for the trip back. The last leg will be a bit crowded with 6 on board but hey it’s not a holiday it is an adventure after all. We are just waiting on Jen to get all of her ducks in a row and then confirm that she is coming.

Our trip up towards Charleston started late as we had a bit of a lie in and then the weather closed in. The day started well enough with the local American military jets buzzing overhead under the cloudy sky giving us something to watch as we chugged along under staysail and engine making pretty good time. Unfortunately for our peaceful progress a large low pressure system has settled in over the Jacksonville area and we were soon feeling Its effects. With the wind regularly into the 30+ knots bracket and due to the narrow winding channels that we were steering along we could do nothing but follow our track taking the wind and rain on whatever quarter it decided to batter us from next. Rather inevitably something had to give and one of the shackles on the stay sail turning block gave up the ghost in a 40 knot gust, no real drama but we furled the sail away and decided to call it a day earlier than expected. With Norma studying the charts looking for a likely anchorage I steered us through a twisty little channel (50ft wide) whilst peering myopically into the driving rain I was by this stage wearing my full waterproofs for crying out loud, It was freezing( I was however still bare foot you have to maintain standards after all) . Norma found us a spot 5 miles ahead just at the end of the narrow channel and I happily called it a day gratefully turning left out of the ICW into a subsidiary river called Rock creek where we dropped the hook in the lee of some trees and dived below for hot tea and warm towels.   

Beaufort swing bridge Forest Gump ran over this in the film and birds nest on a channel marker

We are given a send off from Beaufort courtesy of the US Air force.

            Sitting in a completely isolated anchorage with nothing around except for miles of empty marshland and with the wind howling outside we decided to have a film night and what better film to watch considering our present location than Forrest Gump. I don’t care what anyone else thinks that is a good movie and we both had a no see um in our eye by the end of it. The weather report next morning was full of dire warnings to small craft of high winds and higher seas. The low pressure system that has kept us on the inside tract (ICW) has developed into Tropical Storm Mona and stalled itself 20 miles or so off shore smack bang between Jacksonville and Charleston, or in other words just about on top of us, I thought it was blowing a bit last night. With that in mind we set off early and motored, yes you guessed it North, into the grey and windy dawn. As it turned out the day wasn’t too bad at all. At least the rain kept away and we made very good time to cover the 47 miles up to Charleston through some pretty deep water for a change, the depth sounder even went into double figures on one occasion. In fact as we approached a cut between two rivers we met a mini liner head on as they came up river from the sea. I checked his vital statistics on the AIS system and he came in at 180 ft and only 2.1 meters deep so I guess he was made with these waters in mind. I rather graciously radioed the skipper and said I would hold back and allow him through the cut first, the net result being I got to follow a deeper keeled boat for a couple of completely stress free hours, happy days indeed.

The good ship American Star leads the way through a cut

With thoughts of the trip back now beginning to dominate our thinking we have begun to convert the boat from travelling home to blue water yacht again. We have started stocking up on foodstuffs, the long life milk store is filling nicely again, as is the canned goods cupboard.  I have decided to replace the domestic battery bank as it is not holding its’ charge to my liking even though the batteries are only three years old, 4 x 220 amp hour that’s going to cost a bit. I suspect the erratic charging while I was having generator problems did them no good at all. Norma spent the day cleaning the accumulated grime and suntan cream from our life lines and I have stripped the water maker down and finally given up on the salinity probe. I have a bag of those things, each one costs £100 and lasts 6 months or so before giving out incorrect readings (totally over sensitive and a complete rip off, please note Spectra water makers if you are reading). With the probe sitting in a glass of fresh water it still says high salinity and rejects the product water. I have taken advice from other cruisers who run similar systems and followed the emergency advice in the manual, now I run the produced water straight into the bilge for a few minutes and then taste it, salinity probe says bad my taste buds say good so divert into the water tanks, check every 15-20 minutes job done. I only fill one tank at a time as a safety measure and it all seems to work fine so 50 litres an hour of good drinking water and we will not be a thirsty or smelly bunch when we hit the UK. The stay sail sheets have nice new shackles and I am making enquiries about either getting the old girl lifted for a bottom clean and anode change or contracting a diver to do the job in Wilmington. You wouldn’t believe the growth that has attached to the bottom since we started up the ICW this water is a veritable organic soup. The colour of the water is a dark murky brown and all of the boats, us included, soon sport what is known as a Chesapeake moustache from the bow wave staining the sides. An interesting point is that the dolphins, of which there are many, all stay grey and sleek looking there must be a special dolphin brand antifoul out there somewhere.

Norma gets to work with the Cillit Bang

Anyway long story short we dropped anchor in Charleston this evening and are now sitting listening to the wind howl outside again. Tomorrow we go ashore to see what we can see.

Watch this space for the next exciting episode from the adventures of Spectra………