1119EDT position - no longer in the Gulf Stream. Should arrive in Charleston late tonight:
Trip to Europe (and back) begins
- Thread starter dLj
- Start date
We are docked. It was a fiesty entrance. For several hours we kept getting the US Coast Guard "Small Craft Adivsory" notifications for here. Waves, wind all the stuff you aren't supposed to go out in. Best part was that the apex of the advisory was when we were arriving...
We had about a 3 nm stretch coming into the entrance of Charleston with rather noticable wave action, breaking waves from the stern. We got pooped once, not badly. I was reflecting on the Northwest entrances into numerous port out there. Not sure they are 3 nm long though...
Anyway, we made it - arrived about 2:30am and are sitting on the fuel dock at Charleston City Marina.
I was reflecting - we last filled up in South Caicos with fuel and water. We still have lots of water, but except for three days of pure sailing, the entire rest of the trip has been either motoring or motor sailing. Dang, this ship has range!
dj
We had about a 3 nm stretch coming into the entrance of Charleston with rather noticable wave action, breaking waves from the stern. We got pooped once, not badly. I was reflecting on the Northwest entrances into numerous port out there. Not sure they are 3 nm long though...
Anyway, we made it - arrived about 2:30am and are sitting on the fuel dock at Charleston City Marina.
I was reflecting - we last filled up in South Caicos with fuel and water. We still have lots of water, but except for three days of pure sailing, the entire rest of the trip has been either motoring or motor sailing. Dang, this ship has range!
dj
I figured you'd be in part of the coastal low that's bringing us all the rain today (and last night). Glad you made it safely!
Yes, we were running trying to get as far north as we could while avoiding this week's rather unpleasant projected weather.I figured you'd be in part of the coastal low that's bringing us all the rain today (and last night). Glad you made it safely!
The first weather projections showed us just enough time to make St. Augustine's but as we approached our way point to turn out of the Gulf stream and head there the projections had moved back in time so we set our sights on Charleston.
Weather projections has us very close but still getting some snot. Will (current crew) and I talked about it and it didn't look too bad so we went for it. This time the weather timing projections were pretty much spot on. Luckily for us, we had overestimated the time it would take us to get here (thank you Gulf Stream) so we only caught the bad weather at the tail end.
We did get hit with one squall that put us over enough for blue water to almost be up to my port side deck house windows. We had just been sitting there talking about reefing just in case.. You know the saying....
Port rail went well under water. But it was very short lived and we jumped out, rolled in the Genny, put out the staysail and reefed the main heavily. From then on we were sailing flat, and pretty fast...
The most fun was riding the breakers for about 3nm coming into Charleston. In post 1165 by @kappykaplan above, that long straight section was where we had entered the long entrance channel (it's close to 20nm long) coming into port. Since we were getting in really late, way after dark, I figured better to play big ship and get a feel for how to keep in the relatively narrow entrance channel. I was running the boat from inside as the weather was miserable outside requiring full foul weather gear including gloves. I have been in tropical weather a long time. It only worked for a short time and then I had to jump out and hand steer. Will drove the boat for a good part of this as he was enjoying it immensely.
An interesting lesson in what i can and can't do from inside the deck house. I can almost run this boat as if it were a pilot house boat, which it's not. It would be really interesting to see how much difference a true pilot house boat would be. It seemed like a lot of steering came from both watching the waves and feeling the rudder and boat pitch as waves were coming and going. It would be very interesting to experience a true pilot house to see if in fact you do get all those "inputs" inside the pilot house.
dj
Have to say, I was pretty proud of the docking job I did last night at the fuel dock here. There was only one smallish spot on the dock big enough for my boat. I put her in first shot - step onto dock - tie her off - placed just right. I took photos today of the space I had in front and back.
dj
dj
I didn't even think of trying to back in. This is not the most responsive boat in reverse.
I came in nose first, a little hot, and as my nose was just about where I wanted it, hit reverse hard. Enough to both stop forward motion and swing the stern to starboard - that's the direction of my boats prop walk. I got really lucky I had my angles and speed just right so the boat pivoted within the space I had. I must have missed the boat behind me as I pivoted in by not much more than 6 inches or so as the stren pivoted in while the whole boat was stopping before I had a problem in the bow... When done, I probably only had another 6 inches or foot to the boat Forward. We then just adjusted to the pictures shown with the lines as we secured her.
dj
Very funny... I wonder why it looks almost brand new....Say, that is a mighty fine looking bow sprit. Looks darn near brand new.
dj
I've been fretting about my air draft for some time - as soon as I thought about the possibility of running sections of the ditch (ICW).
When I bought the boat, the documents that I got stated the Air height as 62 feet plus antennas. So that would be putting me at 63 or a bit more to the top in my antenna up there. The Wilkerson, or highway 264 bridge is supposed to only be 64 feet clearance and a pretty tight 64 feet depending...
Talking with @smokey73 about this - he's a WEALTH of knowledge on this part of the world and super generous with his time a HUGE thank you! - I decided I simply had to go measure my actual air clearance to know just what I had to work with.
My goodness am I glad I did! My measured air clearance is actually just about 60 feet - including my whip antenna height! Now that gives me a very nice option to run the ditch from Beaufort to the Chesapeake if weather is not allowing me to go off- shore around Hatteras.
I actually kind of prefer going around Hatteras, if just to say I did it - but also I really prefer ocean sailing rather than motoring up skinny routes...
But time is of the essence. I gotta get to Arizona for my new granddaughter...
dj
When I bought the boat, the documents that I got stated the Air height as 62 feet plus antennas. So that would be putting me at 63 or a bit more to the top in my antenna up there. The Wilkerson, or highway 264 bridge is supposed to only be 64 feet clearance and a pretty tight 64 feet depending...
Talking with @smokey73 about this - he's a WEALTH of knowledge on this part of the world and super generous with his time a HUGE thank you! - I decided I simply had to go measure my actual air clearance to know just what I had to work with.
My goodness am I glad I did! My measured air clearance is actually just about 60 feet - including my whip antenna height! Now that gives me a very nice option to run the ditch from Beaufort to the Chesapeake if weather is not allowing me to go off- shore around Hatteras.
I actually kind of prefer going around Hatteras, if just to say I did it - but also I really prefer ocean sailing rather than motoring up skinny routes...
But time is of the essence. I gotta get to Arizona for my new granddaughter...
dj
I hope you followed the "woodworkers code". Measure twice, cut once. If it is 60 feet including the whip antenna, then that means your "published" air draft is about 3 feet more than your measured height from the waterline! That is a huge disparity and not to be a Debby Downer, but I'd check that carefully
I am a little skeptical at a 3 foot difference from published to measured. I'd expect more in the line of a few inches or a foot at most, mostly due to actual loaded displacement in your current condition to the assumed load for the published air draft. Just saying, something does not seem right. There should be some published inches of draft change per 1000lbs of load for your boat. It is part of the design calcs and sailboat data commonly provided.Did the PO shorten them mast? It is hard to believe that you have enough weight on board to lower your float line by 3 feet. That would be pretty obvious. Was the "document" just something you got from the PO or is it from published sailboat data for your year, make and model?