Becalmed

At Sea
30 59.20 N 078 32.66 W

Being becalmed at sea is very frustrating. With too little wind, the rocking and rolling of the boat in the waves causes the sails to flog from one side to the other. That forces us to take the sails down and motor. But without sails up, the boat rolls even more causing us to have to hold on to avoid being thrown out of bed. All in all it's better with wind. The forecast says that starting this afternoon the wind should pick up.

Yesterday we were so becalmed that we only moved 12 miles the whole day. Around supper time we started the motor and we motored all night. We can't motor all the way though. We don't have enough fuel for that.

We were surprised to hear a helicopter yesterday. I jumped up and looked. A big black military copter showing the British Union Jack flew close and inspected us. That seemed odd. A few hours later we spotted a war ship about 6 miles away. Aha! The copter was probably from the war ship and its job wws to inspect any vessels close by.

There is a cold front with thunderstorms approaching Thursday evening. It is unclear whether we would be better heading in to Charleston or to just stay out at sea. If we head for Charleston, we might arrive at the harbor entrance just at the same time as the storms, and then reach the inner harbor too late to secure a marina slip for the night. That would be ugly.

Libby appreciates the extra sleep she gets because we have Jim on board to share watches. She asked if the next time we're offshore with just the two of us, if we can try 6 hour watches. Sure. I'll try anything.