Frying Pan Shoals

At Sea
33 23.90 N 077 37.83 W

Frying Pan Shoals are the most treacherous place on the whole East Coast according to us. We fear and respect it greatly. Right now we are just about 5 miles to seaward away from the end of the shoals. That puts us 40 miles from shore and 20 miles further out than the closest in place where we could have crossed. Good.

Actually the wind direction carried us out here. After posting this blog, we'll take the other tack and start heading in.

The weather was supposed to be rough today, but so far it is sunny and gentle; just like most of the voyage since we left The Bahamas.

Last night during Libby's watch, I heard her on the radio calling out to a nearby ship. "Do you see us?", she asked. The didn't answer, those bums. I went up on deck to help. When I got there, I was aghast. The ship Libby was talking to was 2 miles ahead of us, but there was a bigger ship less than one mile behind us. Libby didn't see it because she was focusing on the first ship. We were sandwiched between two giant ships. Neither would answer our calls, but luckily neither ran us over.

Last night the sky was perfectly clear and the moon was 100% full. It was brilliant and beautiful out here at sea. For about 20 minutes we had a pod of dolphins cavorting with us. Very cool. Radio propagation must have been exceptionally clear. We heard every coast guard emergency call at every station between here and Miami.

By Sunday morning we should make land fall in Beaufort, North Carolina.

Out With a Bang

At Sea
32 44.38 N 079 45.12 W

Thursday was Jim's last night on the boat. He used his knowledge of Charleston to show us a good time and to give his hosts a treat as thanks.

First, he took us to Hymann's Restaurant which was only a 10 minute walk away from the dock. Hymann's is a famous seafood restaurant and a big tourist attraction. We understood why when we got to eat our dinners. The food was grrrrrreat.

Then, after walking back to the boat conversation turned to a NYT review of the newest Star Trek Movie premiering that day. Once again, Jim's local knowledge was valuable. He took me on a short 1 minute walk up the river shore. There we came upon The Hippodrome. It turns out that Thursday was the premier day of the new Hippodrome Movie Theater showing the premier of the new Star Trek movie. It had a modified IMAX screen, great bucket seats, and the owner claims the best sound system in the country. There was a good crowd for a 21:45 showing on a weekday. However the average age of the Tarwathie crew attending was about triple the age of the audience's average age. The Captain of the good ship Tarwathie in particular had trouble holding his eyes open despite being enthralled by the movie. They say that sailor's midnight is 9PM.

The movie was excellent. All dedicated trekkies (which includes Jim and me) loved it. Even non-trekkie fans would like is as a very good modern action movie with lots of effects. At the conclusion, the audience gave it a big applause. I never saw that in a movie theater before. As we exited we saw a still bigger crowd waiting to see the midnight showing of the movie. Boy, urban life in Charleston is very very different than life on Treasure Cay, Abaco, Bahamas.

Thank you Jim. It was a pleasure having you aboard.

This morning, we are out at sea once again. We would like to head for Beaufort going around Frying Pan Shoals. However, there may be rough weather tomorrow morning so we're holding off on a decision till tonight. The alternative is to put in tomorrow morning at Cape Fear and to pass Frying Pan Shoals on the inside using the ICW.

Green Turtle Cay Junkanoo

Charleston, NC
No LL

Check out our album of photos and videos of the Green Turtle Cay Heritage Day and Junkanoo. Here's a video.




Here also is a follow up picture taken from our GPS record of our Bermuda Triangle Weird anomaly from a few days ago. We didn't just make it up!!!

Welcome Home To The USA

Charleston, SC
32 47.16 N 079 54.88 W

Well the deed is done. Yesterday midday when we finally intersected The Gulf Stream, I decided that we would miss the Monday-Friday 8-5 office hours of US Customs in Beaufort on Friday afternoon. That would put Jim in trouble because he has to be back at work on Monday. Instead, we headed for Charleston.

Soon we met up with a catamaran who was following The Gulf Stream north. I chatted with him on the radio. It turns out that he left Marsh Harbor about the same time we did. He chose to go to West Palm Beach Florida first to clear US Customs. Then he came out into The Gulf Stream for an express ride north. He said that he got a 3 knot average boost from the current. At times he was moving 12 knots over the ground.

I got immediately jealous. I thought that we too should have gone that way. We wouldn't have been becalmed, and even if so we could have motored with the help of the extra kick from The Gulf Stream. Who am I kidding? It would have taken us two days to get to West Palm. That would have wiped out the time gain.

Then I thought that I made the wrong decision in not trying for Beaufort. If we got a solid 3 knots boost from The Gulf Stream we could have been there by Friday afternoon. Who am I kidding again? Murphy's law says that we would get there at 0501 PM. I just like to second guess myself with navigation decisions.

FLASH! We got mobbed by a big pod of dolphins. We estimate 15-20 in the pod. They swam along side Tarwathie and cavorted for a half hour. Libby, Jim and I all enjoyed the sight. It is amazing to see up close how little they have to move their tails to propel themselves through the water at high speed. See the video below.

From Bahamas 09

Today approaching Charleston, we were mobbed by another pod of dolphins. These were of a different species, very much smaller than the bottle noded ones. I th0ught they looked like pygmy dolphins.

We got in to the harbor despite having to dodge huge container ships and against the fierce current. Customs checked us in. What are we going to do now? Very mundane. Libby does laundry, I shop for grocreies, and Jim books himself a ticket back home.

Tomorrow, Jim travels home while Libby and I go to sea once more to get to Beaufort, and from there to Oriental.

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.