Charleston
20 November 2007
*written while in Charleston..have no idea of the date.
Our trip from Beaufort to Charleston was cold and lumpy, but the trade off was that we made good time. We had a following four ft sea and 15-20kts on the beam so we cruised at about 8.5/9 kts most of the way. However, the seas and wind were a bit confused at times which made it uncomfortable and did I mention FREEZING!. I had on four layers when doing the night watch and was still chilly. Not a great trip, not a bad trip, but not one for the books either.
We arrived in Charleston on Friday afternoon. I had never been there before so was very much looking forward to experiencing the sights, sounds and smells of the historic southern city. We went ashore Friday night full of gusto. We found a little playground for the kids and then settled on a meal at a local crab house, but half way through the meal I started getting so tired I thought I was going to cry. All I wanted was out of the restaurant and back to the boat asap. The four hour on/off watch schedule had caught up with me. We grabbed the check, called a cab and returned to the boat after what seemed like an eternity. Everyone went straight to bed.
We had anchored in the harbor which was crowded and seemed to have a pretty consistent two kt current. We had wanted to put out two anchors but that meant everyone would have swung but us so we decided against it. That evening around 4:00am O woke me up and said "I think we are dragging" I poked my head out of the porthole and said "No we are not dragging another boat is hitting us!".We RAN out on deck and O fired up the engine while I pushed to boat off of us. Nobody was on board the other boat as it was a locally owned sailboat. O put us in reverse and we backed off of her. I thought it was the other boat that had dragged but it was us. To be straight we didn't drag we just swung differently because we are a cat. Sometimes the wind sometimes catches us between the hulls and moves us around differently than it does a monohull, which the wind just goes around. The current and wind were coming in opposite directions and the current was pushing us back while the wind was moving us UP on our anchor. We didn't drag we just swung on top of the other boat. It's funny because they were not even the boat we were worried about when we anchored. Lesson learned. Thankfully the boats just tapped and there was no damage done to either. While we were waiting for the sun to rise so we could reset our anchor, we watched another catamaran swing into a trawler. It's nice we aren't the only ones out there on a learning curve.
After that O and I stayed up enjoying a cup of coffee(me tea) and soon enough the kids were crawling out of bed. Saturday we walked around making our way to the Charleston Aquarium which was a disappointment I thought I was going to loose it in the salt marsh exhibit! Not exactly riveting stuff. Afterwards we met up with some other cruisers we met while in Annapolis. They plan on making the same trek as us plus they also have two children 10 & 2. It was wonderful to meet people embarking on the same journey. We all hit it off immediately! I hope we see more of them in the Bahamas. It was so nice to bounce things off of them.
The trip to the Bahamas will take us about three days because we will be slowed down by the current in the gulfstream. We are all looking forward to getting there. Ben is excited because he knows it means his birthday, swimming and the infamous people that wear fruit on their head! I am looking forward to the warmth, swimming and having full use of the boat again something we haven't had in too long.
As I write this we are en route to the Bahamas. We have a light wind from the South which has created a nice warm breeze! It hasn't felt this warm outside since we left Annapolis in the Spring! There is no traffic on the radar, the water is like glass. I can actually see the stars reflecting on the water...beautiful. We are not sailing but all is calm. The sky is chock full of stars and everything seems a million miles away. These are my type of crossings. I just hope it continues.