Two Birds, Two Sharks, One Sea Turtle, and Many Dolphins....

We left Charleston early on Wednesday with light winds out of the west. We knew we'd only have a couple of days of favorable winds before they turned more southerly.  We didn't have a specific destination, but we're trying to get to an area in Florida where we have a straight shot over to the west coast, near Tampa, so we can arrange to pick up some things we left with Bill's parents over there. So, we left with no real destination in mind, only to head in when the winds turn against us. 

The boat sailed well; we are still learning about her and trying different things with the sails. We don't have a roller furler so if we want to reduce sail we can either reef our genoa (the largest sail) or put on our smaller jib.  We did end up using the jib with a reefed main over night because we wanted to slow the boat down (~5 kts) while there was only one person on watch. 

Our Second Bird

It was a mostly uneventful trip, but we did have some visitors worth mentioning.  Twice during the first day we had a bird fly into our salon! The first one was in and out fairly quick, but the second one took a few minutes to coax out; it tried to get out the windows (that were closed) and flew down into one of the aft cabins, but finally flew up and out an open hatch, thankfully unhurt. We also saw two sharks!  The first one was a hammerhead (you could see his head through the waves) which was swimming near our fishing line, so we brought in the lines we had out. The second one we could only see his fin, which was dark grey or black, but you could tell it was a shark by the dorsal fin and tail. We also saw dolphins throughout the day, but there wasn't enough of a bow wave for them to swim in, so they were off to the side a little, but they are always fun to see. And lastly, and most fun of all, a large sea turtle!  He was swimming near the surface about a twenty five yards from the boat. It was a few miles outside of St. Augustine inlet. We hoped he would come by our boat, but he headed out to sea.

Kumbaya.......Come By Here

Approach to Boone Hall

As many people know, it's the 150th anniversary of the Civil War on April 12. Being in Charleston there is a lot of historical activities going on.
You can go broke trying going to all the different houses, plantation, prisons ,etc. that abound here.  We've been here for several months and decided to go to Boone Hall Plantation which is only a few miles from where we are docked.  

Exodus from Charleston

Well, we are one of the last of the wintering boats here in Charleston. Our friends are leaving one by one as we try to finish projects and get ourselves out of here.  Now that Bill is on leave from work we don't have incoming funds to stay at a marina for very long. We hope to finish up and be out of here by the end of next week. We are headed south (while everyone else is headed north), destination will be the Bahamas or the Florida Keys. We are still waiting for Cooper's passport which is taking longer than usual to process.

Homeschool Kids

The other kid-boat here in Charleston with us, Inconceivable, left Saturday. Sabastian and Paisley were just about the boys' ages and were great playmates for the months we were both here.  But, now they are on their way north to begin the Great Loop, a trip that will take them (basically) up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.  While we have been here, we were lucky enough to join a homeschool group that had different activities going on in the area, including a chess club and book club.  Usually we don't stay in one place long enough to get involved like that, but since we were here for 4 months (yikes!), it has been very helpful to have a little routine to get into and other kids to play with. The marina is also walking distance from the library so that is a big plus.  

A Swedish Training Bark Visits

The navy destroyer left us after a few days, and then a 50m Swedish training vessel docked in our marina. They were offering tours of their ship (above deck) so we took the boys over to have a look around. The vessel name is Gunilla and is from the island of Öckerö on the west coast of Sweden, you can read more about the ship and its program here.  It is a training vessel and had students on board that had left Santa Domingo 11 days before.  In Sweden, after you have mandatory school (until age 16), you go to gymnasium(gymnasieskola) for 3 years.  All of the 44 students on

 

Gunilla Approaching her Dock

board were 2nd year gymnasium students so they were about 18 years old.  The boat has 11 crew members, but the students have to help with all aspects of the ship; navigation, cooking, cleaning, line handling, sail handling, etc. . The boat is staying in Charleston for 6 days then they are off to Bermuda, the Azores and finally to Belgium where the first year students will get on and the second year students fly home.  We were led on a tour of the ship by one of the students, Samuel. All of the students speak English well and were very friendly and polite. We felt privileged to be allowed on board. 

Out With the Freighters in With the Destroyer

Normally we have car freighters and cruise ships coming and going at the docks next to us.  It's pretty cool to watch them and see how the tugs push them around and up to the docks. They're too big to maneuver in those close quarters without (usually) two tug boats to help guide them into the right position.  They are just so incredibly massive and they come so close that it looks like they're going to crash into the docks.  I definitely would not want to be that close to one if I was in my boat. Their props are very deep and they cause a lot of suction behind them. They also could run a little sailboat over without even knowing they hit anything.

Car Freighter Heading up the River

One Year Older.....Cole turns 11 !

...and gets a surfboard for his birthday (March 2). We took the boys to the gulf side of Florida to visit their grandparents and to give the board a better tryout; it's still a little cold in the water in Charleston. There wasn't much surf going on the first day, but what he needed was to learn to balance and stand on the board, and that he did! Next time we'll get all this action on film!  Cole has always had a knack for picking up sports that require balancing (scooter, biking, skateboard), so it was no surprise to us that he took to surfing so easily. 

Coming out for a break