28 Hour Ocean Run to Charleston

Wrightsville Beach to Charleston, South Carolina  – 124 nautical miles sailed

We had a decision to make. At this point in our journey we had the option to either continue along the ICW into South Carolina, passing through Myrtle Beach, Georgetown, and a number of other smaller towns, or we could take a 124 mile, 28 hour ocean passage directly to Charleston. The first option would be safer, but much slower, and one big problem was that there didn’t seem to be much of anything for anchorages and few marinas for the first 60 miles. Besides that, we were told that the stretch of ICW between Georgetown and Charleston is very shallow in spots, so we could foresee this being even slower as we would have to time our passages with the tides.

 

The other option had its problems too. First, there were 15 knot south-west winds forecasted for the day, which we’d be taking right on the bow so there would be no sailing and we’d have to motor all the way into two foot waves which means rising and crashing and general boat pulverization. Secondly, we had to pass through the Cape Fear inlet to get to the ocean and there would be an outgoing tide meeting the incoming wind, which is a recipe for tall and dangerous standing waves that can sometimes be impossible to get through.

 

We agonized over the decision, especially me. I was honestly scared to take the inlet as I expected the worst conditions. But after seeing the parade of boats heading our way on the ICW this morning I had my doubts we’d be able to find a place to anchor for the night. So what did we do? Well, seems like I sometimes do learn from my mistakes because I found a marina that was located right at the start of the inlet and called them to ask what the sea conditions were likely to be getting out. One of the staff was happy to speak to me and said there would be some rough water stirred up by the waves and tides, but not terrible so he didn’t think we’d have any trouble.

We decided to take the inlet, and if conditions were scary there or out on the ocean, then we’d simply turn back and proceed along the ICW. Yes, it could have cost us a few hours, but the potential time savings we’d achieve with an ocean run could then be spent exploring Charleston, which was especially appealing as the weather forecast for the second half of the week looked dicey and not great for travel.

The inlet was rough to be sure, and scary for a moment or two when standing waves nearly brought our boat to a halt, but we made it out and the ocean condition in the open water away from the inlet was acceptable. So we set the autopilot and started the first of many hours crashing through the waves.

As the sun dropped below the horizon and darkness fell, I realized how utterly terrifying this moment would be for somebody who had not done overnight passages before. First, darkness on the ocean or in the middle of a giant lake is not the same as land darkness; there is no ambient light. You cannot see the shape of the waves. You cannot see any potential obstructions in the water. And the only indication of land are the twinkling lights that look very, very far away. Add to that the noisy engine (and the fact that you are relying completely on that one engine) and the incessant and distressing pounding of the boat hull against the waves, which sometimes sounds like the boat is being ripped in half. At that moment of dusk we were about 25 miles offshore, there were no boats in sight, and we hadn’t seen one since leaving the inlet, so one feels very much alone.

 

We’ve opened an invitation for friends and family to join us for parts of this trip. But after what we’ve experienced so far, I really don’t know how enjoyable it would be for a visitor. Sure, the cities have been great and some of the small towns are nice, but the long days on the water can be grueling, monotonous, and offer very little of interest to see. So for the visitor’s sake, I’d say that the city visits would be best, but it is difficult or impossible to time these with any level of accuracy. For example, we didn’t think we’d be reaching Charleston for at least a week from now, but we will be arriving tomorrow because of the decisions we made to take advantage of favourable weather windows. If we had missed some of those windows then we could have been arriving in Charleston a week later than we’d estimated. Before starting the trip we were overly optimistic that we’d be able to work this out for visitors, but we’ve realized it is very difficult, which is probably why none of the other boaters we’ve met along the way plan to have visitors. This should get somewhat easier in the Bahamas as we will be situated in a smaller area for about two months, and we do have friends booked to come at the end of February, which we are very excited about.

I will finish this journal off by noting that the ocean water temperature is now 23 degrees C and just a couple of days ago it was 19.5. It seems we are headed in the right direction.