26 46.81 'N:77 20.20'W
We departed Green Turtle Cay at 07:30 on April 8 intending to go to Great Sale Cay. We were joined by Dagny and Angelsark and had a easy sail / motorsail for 52 nautical miles.
There was a whole flotilla of vessels heading in the same direction. After listening to the chatter on the radio it became clear many of the boats were stopping at Great Sale Cay and one or two were continuing on. We made one more check of the weather and decided to keep on going with only a quick stop at the Little Sale waypoint to hoist the dinghy on deck and secure the boat for ocean travel.
With the dinghy safely hoisted and tied down we kept on going across the Little Bahama Bank then out to the gulf stream. Fifty-seven hours later for a total travel time of 65.5 hours and total distance of 453 nautical miles we arrived safely at Charleston. We dropped the anchor at 01:00 on April 11 in the Fort Johnson anchorage. Dagny had cell service and was able to reach customs and border protection to let them know where we were. We hoisted the quarantine flag and made plans to take the boats to a marina the next morning where CBP officers would come to meet us and do our customs clearance into the US. It was nice and calm in the anchorage and we were very grateful to get some much needed rest.
The next morning we were up and rolling early in order to get the boats moved over to Charleston Harbour Marina to keep our appointment with the customs officers at 09:00. With our clearance in completed we decided to spend a day or two at the marina and make use of the marina shuttle to get us over to the Charleston Port Authority where we had scheduled our next appointment with the officials to arrange our cruising permit for 2 Outrageous. The shuttle driver was kind enough to make an unscheduled stop at the top of the port road to drop us off but we still had a good mile and half walk into the port. After our meeting we had another three mile walk to downtown Charleston to catch the shuttle back to the marina.
We made it back to the boat in the late afternoon and had a small rest before heading back into downtown Charleston with Dagny for dinner at Queology and another stop to enjoy some live music.
On April 12 we were still at the dock. We spent the morning doing some chores then the whole afternoon touring Patriots Point. We toured the aircraft carrier USS Yorkton, the submarine USS Clamagore and the destroyer USS Laffey.
On April 13 it was time to leave the marina life and head back out to an anchorage. We didn't rush though and I made use of the shuttle one more time that morning to get myself to the grocery store to pick up some fresh produce before we headed back to the Fort Johnson anchorage. We spent a pleasant evening watching the goings on in the harbour. From our vantage point we could see the ships entering and leaving the harbour as well as several tour boats taking tourists for harbour cruises or out to Fort Sumter. All the while we were entertained by dolphins and pelicans fishing in our anchorage.
We spent one more day at Fort Johnson and were joined by Dagny as we made preparations for our next passage. With the work done we decided to take the long dinghy ride to Fort Sumter and do some touring then go for a beach walk.
April 15 at 07:30 we hauled up the anchors and departed Charleston Harbour for another run offshore to Cape Lookout, NC. We were underway for 32.5 hours and travelled 206 nautical miles. This was mostly a motor-sailing trip as the wind was light but it was good to put so many miles behind us again as well as missing some of the most shallow sections of the ICW.
We arrived at Cape Lookout at 15:30 on April 16. The anchorage is completely surrounded by some of the most spectacular beaches we have ever seen. This location should be on everybody's must see list. We were fortunate enough to visit in our own boat but you can visit Cape Lookout by taking a ferry from Beaufort NC. We saw many families camped on the beach enjoying the beautiful scenery and the reported spectacular fishing.
We spent the entire day April 17 exploring the Cape Lookout National Park beaches with Allan and Bev from Dagny. We were tired at the end of the day but had just enough energy left to prepare a pressure cooker turkey roast with all the trimmings. Cooked start to finish in under and hour! The Dagny crew joined us for dinner as we again marvelled at the beauty of this spot. So happy we decided to stop here!