Arriving Charleston, SC

We are just entering the outer jetty to the harbor in Charleston, SC.  Its a beautiful sunny day and the crew is looking forward to a hot shower and rum drink.   The stationary Low that gave us the steady 25 kt breezes from the North has turned in to Tropical Storm Sean and is going to move NorthWest, so we're glad to be in shore.

From when we left Morehead city at daybreak on Tuesday, we have had terrific sailing conditions with a lot of wind at our backs. We tried a variety of sail configurations some of which proved to be too much to control, so we settled on a single reefed main for much of the day.  The challenge of sailing directly downwind in very big seas is to keep the boat from jibing as the boat surfs down the wave.  It makes for very active steering, and all of us have had a great shoulder and arm workout.  We had one crash jibe in a 45 degree wind shift that ripped a fitting off the port jib car track, but other than that we kept the boat under control.  Wrestling with the wheel for hours on end is exhausting, but we all seem to prefer it to the slow meander down the ICW.

The water from the gulf stream influences the water temperatures where we were sailing and we saw the water temps climb to 80 degrees at about dusk, and they've been in that range ever since.   The Gulf Stream water shows up in interesting ways -- it is a much deeper blue that the sea green water we are used to.  It is teeming with life, and because of its temperatures creates a lot of clouds as the warm water evaporates and rises.  You know you've sailed into different waters when the wave pattern changes,  the water color changes, and the air and breeze somehow feel different.   After a few days offshore,  the sailor senses start to kick in and you get tuned to your environment and start to become aware of things that you wouldn't normally notice.


We've had some dolphins join us yesterday and last night, but they manage to avoid Mary with her camera.  Today, entering Charleston there are more so maybe they will cooperate.

Last night was a perfect sailing night: clear with a full moon lighting our way the whole night.  Same 20-25 kts of wind, and BIG following seas.  Now that we are approaching port, I won''t jinx us if I say I can't believe we went a whole week with out a drop of rain.  Mary and I had the 6-10pm watch and the 2-6am watch, and we had absolutely perfect sailing conditions during both.  Rob, Tom and Catie wanted a little more speed during their watch from 10pm-2am so they added a full jib.  I got to get up at about 1:00 to help take it back down when the wind picked back up to 25 kts and the boat was tough to control (but some exciting surfing down the waves at 10kts).  Mary and I brought about half the jib back out on our watch, and trucked along at 7-8 knots until the moon set in the west and the sky started to brighten at our backs.


Aquila has performed beautifully this whole trip.  Everything seems to be in good working order, and we've made great time as the boat performs well in these offshore conditions.

All in all a great week and a fun trip with a good crew.

 - david



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