The above title is printed on our summer placemats at home and is something we are trying to live by as we slowly work our way south. Although the Bahamas are our ultimate destination our route is full of places to discover and things to see as we take full advantage of the nice weather. As I’ve mentioned before one of the rewards of the cruising life is the lasting friendships we make along the way and we have been fortunate to reunite with two crews we met during our first trip back in 2016. It’s a special feeling to arrive in a distant anchorage and be greeted by friends.

Our 130 mile hop down the coast to Charleston was rather uneventful which is a good thing. The rain squalls of the previous day had moved on as we motored out of the Cape Fear river in relatively flat seas and sunny skies. We didn’t have a big weather window and wanted to be in Charleston by 7 a.m. the following morning before the conditions deteriorated. The issue wasn’t so much the strong north winds but they would be accompanied by short steep waves (6 feet + with a 6 second interval) in a following sea making for a very uncomfortable ride. The 10 a.m. departure would get us to the harbour entrance at day break just as the cold front was due to arrive. Actually the only excitement for the day was when we heard a strange noise. There are few military bases along the coast and we often hear and see all kinds of military aircraft. Suddenly out of nowhere we heard what sounded like a helicopter approaching and at the same time the steering started to pull hard to starboard. I quickly cut the throttle and drifted to a stop, a search over the side didn’t show anything but the fear was we had caught something in the prop. However there hadn’t been any vibration and the noise seemed to come from further forward of the engine. We tried to back up to see if anything floated to the surface but nothing showed, however once we got underway again everything was fine. After much discussion we think we probably caught an old fish trap float on the keel and it was banging against the hull.

The rest of the trip was uneventful but an unexpected offshore current pushed us along faster than expected. After a couple of speed reductions we arrived off the channel entrance just as the sun started to rise and the forecasted north winds started to increase. We could feel the temperature dropping as we steamed into the harbour and by the time we dropped the anchor beside our friends on 2Outrageous the wind was over 20 knots and gusting.

Today’s picture is of “Whitebird” in front of the Yorktown