There are two ways south for boats traveling along the East Coast – the ICW or outside (aka the Atlantic Ocean). If desired, a sailboat like Alaya (<65ft mast, <7ft draft) could make it to Miami via the ICW but lots of sailboats opt to take the outside route at least part of the way south. We had been wanting to try another outside leg for a few weeks. The ICW can be pretty tiring – lots of long days motoring in tight quarters. We stayed in the ICW through North Carolina as the outside around the Outer Banks can be unforgiving, it is shallow and there are no safe bailout points. After talking with many sailors in Beaufort, it seemed like we had a good weather opportunity to go outside from Beaufort, NC to Charleston, SC.
As best said by my Mom, “But why would you go on the outside?” Fair question. 1. We want to continue to improve our sailing skills and going on the outside is a great way to do that. 2. We liked the idea of traveling non-stop for a few days and then staying put in Charleston for a while compared to traveling 40-50 miles per day on the ICW.
So, to the outside we planned to go!
We spent a few days after Thanksgiving getting Alaya ready, including provisioning, rigging up the stay sail (a third, smaller sail that is well suited for flying in strong winds) and inspecting our rig. We poured over the weather forecasts, with Randy’s help again (thank you, Randy!) and picked a Monday leaving date.
We planned to sail down the coast, heading out about 30 miles offshore to avoid a notorious shallow area called Frying Pan Shoal. It was going to be about a 40 hour trip over two nights, traveling 220 miles to Charleston. If all went according to plan, we would arrive at the Charleston Harbor entrance Wednesday morning. Timing it to enter as the sun came up and the strong current at the inlet turned in our favor.
We woke up Monday morning at the dock and immediately checked the weather – the forecast, while not perfect, continued to look favorable. We scrambled all morning to finish our last projects, said goodbye to Bruce from Safe Harbor – Jarrett Bay and then headed out around 2 p.m..
It was a sunny and windy afternoon. We raised the sails as soon as we exited the Beaufort channel – we were sailing in the ocean! Conditions were a bit sporty but we both felt good. We were rewarded with an amazing sunset. Even better, almost immediately after the sunset, a beautiful full moon rose over the horizon.
We took shifts napping throughout the night. The wind picked up but our conservative sail plan, two reefs in the main and the staysail, worked great. Neither of us slept great. Our bed down below was super cozy but we were pretty amped up and it was so noisy down below. We quickly learned that we have some work to do on our stowage plan for noisy dishes and wine bottles – thankfully nothing broke.
Lucas woke me up as the sun rose so we could change sails. For safety, we have a rule that no one goes on deck unless the other person is awake and watching. A wave of nausea hit me hard once I got in the cockpit. I forced down some crackers and a sea sickness tablet and went on deck to help Lucas. We managed to get the stay sail down and by the time we both were back in the cockpit, I was actually feeling better.
We sailed throughout the morning with a lot of wind and big waves. Alaya freaking loved it. It was so fun to see our girl spread her wings and do exactly what her heavy-self was built to do.
We rounded the notoriously shallow Frying Pan Shoal, giving it plenty of sea room, around 1 p.m.. Once we were clear of it, we set a course directly towards Charleston. By the afternoon, the sea state had improved dramatically – Lucas woke up from a nap and thought we were in a different ocean!
After more than 150 miles of pure sailing (our new record), the wind turned enough in the late-afternoon that we decided to turn Pierre on and motor-sail through the night. The wind completely died around 8 p.m., so we finally had to lower the mainsail after about 200 miles (another new record). We had another beautiful full moon all night. We saw lights from the first ships we had seen since we left Beaufort, including a catamaran, SV Fido, who Lucas talked with via the VHF radio for 30 minutes – turns out the captain was from Saline, MI! They reminisced about Salt Spring Brewery and how they could use a delicious burger and beer.
As we approached Charleston Harbor early Wednesday morning, I saw a black flash in the water near the back of the boat. Dolphins! Admittedly, I panicked a little when I saw the first flash – was it a dolphin or a shark?! The night and lack of sleep does weird things to your head. After a few more sightings, I internally confirmed they were dolphins. As my heart rate dropped back down, I watched in amazement. I could just make out their incredible bodies surfing the waves right outside the cockpit. They stayed with us for about 20 minutes, diving under the boat and playing in our wake. This is literally the stuff of my sailing dreams.
After a few unscheduled interruptions, Lucas had finally fallen asleep a few hours before, I fought every instinct to yell for him when I saw that first flash. I finally woke him up around 6 a.m. to see the spectacle. As the dawn light was growing behind us and the full moon was shining in front of us, we watched our dolphins for a few more magical minutes before they disappeared. WOW! We were smitten.
I went down below for my last nap as Lucas navigated us into the main channel. We had intentionally slowed our pace down around dawn to meet our timing into the inlet. Thanks to Randy’s pro tips, we timed the current perfectly and rode it all the way into the harbor under sail.
After 227.6 nautical miles and 44 hours we anchored in Charleston Harbor, exhausted. We had to wait a few hours for our slip to open up at Safe Harbor – Charleston City. Around 1 p.m., after fueling up (we only needed 18 gallons!) at the famous “Mega Dock”, we pulled into our slip. Lucas, Alaya and I were very, very salty but elated. We are incredibly proud of ourselves. For me, it was huge to make it through a sporty passage without getting seasick. For Lucas, it was so cool to see all of our hard work on Alaya’s core systems at work in ocean conditions.
Between seeing Alaya spread her wings, setting new sailing records and dolphins in da moonlight, we will remember this passage for a very long time.
