Saturday morning, we arose at daybreak.  We pulled anchor and started south.  Suddenly, we knew we were in SC – gunfire in the morning!  About 10 boats had passed us in the river, each camouflaged with grass and carrying duckhunters in camos.  Here and there, we would see them nesting among the tall grass along the river.  About 30 minutes later, we heard gunshots only 200 feet from us on the edge of the river, as two hunters jumped up to dispatch some ducks overhead!  Glad to see the muzzles of their guns pointed up river, not at us.  We didn’t notice any retriever dogs in use, as alligators patrol the edges.  Rough neighborhood.

We continued on to Charleston, about 60 statute miles.  We were fortunate that we arrived at the Ben Sawyer Swing Bridge when we did.  It had sustained electrical damage, and was only opening at 7 AM, 2 PM and 6:30 pm, instead of on the half hour.  We passed through at 2 PM and arrived in Charleston at 4 pm.  We were on the long face dock intended for big boats – 200 mega yachts with fenders bigger than our dinghy.  After settling in to the City Marina, we were interested to see a 134 foot mega yacht dock in front of us.  Continental Drifter III, Jimmy Buffett in town for a day.

On Sunday, September 20, we departed at 7 AM, backing out into the strong incoming tidal current.  Dataw Island Marina is only 50 miles away!

Beginning at 1 pm, this was planned to be a 170 mile overnight voyage, past the Frying Pan Shoals at Cape Fear, and on to Georgetown SC at Winyah Bay.  There are two long legs to the route, each 70 nautical miles, run at 231 and 253 degrees magnetic respectively, plus the long inlet channel approaches.   We plotted our course on the electronic charts, with waypoints at every 7 miles to track our progress.  All of this was duplicated on paper charts as a back up.  We alerted Debbie’s siblings Stephen and Pam of our “float plan” and for them to expect a call from us at about 2 PM on Friday. 

Generally, we were 25-30 miles offshore, finding 3-5 waves on our beam, and 10-15 knot winds from the north and Northeast, on our stern.   We put up a staysail and motorsailed.   At night, with a new moon, and frequent cloud cover, it was very dark.  We could see no shore lights and we passed no other boats the entire trip, but we could hear military jets overhead all night.   At 1 AM, we were passing through 40 foot waters at Frying Pan Shoals, about 20 miles offshore, keeping the red flashing 4 meter high navigation light on our starboard.  Unnerving to find it was extinguished.

We arrived at the entry buoy at Winyah Bay at about noon on Friday, about 2 hours before low tide.  That meant that the prevailing east wind would oppose the strong currents of the Waccamah River flowing out through the bay.  The seas were confused and stacked up with strong cross currents as we made only 2-3 knots up the shipping channel.   We diverted to the ICW channel heading south on Minim Canal and found an anchorage at Minem Creek.  We put the dinghy back on the davits, took sorely needed showers, and turned in, rejoicing that we had avoided miles of shoaling, tidal currents and 27 fixed and draw bridges on the ICW in NC and SC , all bypassed by going offshore for 27 hours versus 3-4 days of daylight hours motoring.

We continued on from Norfolk at 1 PM, through the navy yards and then the locks at Great Bridge, and stopped at a local public dock for the night as local fisherman tried to drift lines underneath our boat to catch, what, stripers?  We stayed until Monday morning.

At 7:15 AM on , we pulled over to Atlantic Yacht Basin, a marine center, to have our wind instruments taken off the top of our mast in anticipation of the notoriously low  NC and SC 65’ fixed bridges.  This left only our flexible 30” VHF antenna atop our 63.5 ft mast.   We are armed with spreadsheets listing each bridge on the ICW, their type, height, height boards, if any, and rules of thumb based on the number of visible wood fender slats protecting the base of the bridges, indicating water level. Here we go!

For the next 180 miles, the bridges are either swing or draw bridges, or 65 ft fixed bridges whose height above water should only be affected by a few inches of “wind tide” driving waters from Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds.  At about 100 miles south, Fairfield Bridge, our VHF bent double under the bridge.  12 miles later, we arrive at the Wilkerson Bridge, which has been officially marked down to 64 feet by the Army Corps of Engineers.  The bridge height board in fact says 64 feet above water.  We inched up to the bridge, expecting  6 inches of clearance, and likelihood that I would have to go up the mast to rotate our antenna 180 degrees.  Too close to call.  Finally, we called TowboatUS in Belhaven, 12 miles away.  They arrived in their launch an hour later.  First attempt, we all agree, the front of our mast touched the bridge.  They hung two 100 gallon water barrels to our boom swung to port to deflect the mast sideways.  Eventually, we slid under, while warning power boats to stay away.  No time for a 1 foot wake!

We continued on, touching our vhf on each bridge.    We arrived in Beaufort NC, taking a side creek to avoid the bridges in Morehead NC.  We intended to go offshore the next morning late, but in the morning, found weather and sea conditions marginal for the trip, so we decided finally to continue down the ICW.  Rounding Radio Island and past Morehead, we came up to 65 ‘ fixed Atlantic Beach bridge at 10 AM  – at mid tide – and the height board reads 63.5 feet, with 3 hours to wait to pick up 2 feet at low tide! We turned around, found a dock, pulled the dinghy, and went out the Beaufort Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. 

We decided to layover in Annapolis a day or 2 or 3.  Our beloved Maiden France in Chicago has a prospective buyer!  We are hopeful and anxious, since our Maiden has been sitting on a cradle for the last 2 years.  We could use a little boat prayer about now.

The Chesapeake has been whipped up by 35-40 knot winds from the N-NE, causing 4-5 foot choppy waves.  After 4 days of waiting, there is a break in the weather predicted Friday afternoon, so we left early in the morning amid gale warnings.  We sailed 40 miles south to the Solomons, fueled, ran Ollie, rested for 3 hours, and departed at 7 pm for Norfolk, about 110 miles.    Overnight, conditions improved, and we had a good sail amid the push/pull tugs, barges and freighters.  Everyone was crowding the western shoreline for lee protection, so there was a lot of communication with the captains of these vessels.

On September 12, we pulled into Portsmouth/Norfolk at 10:30 AM.  This is a good place to drop off a crew member – OLLIE!   Our good neighbors Kitty and Don had been in nearby Virginia Beach with family, so Kitty came by to pick up Ollie to take him back to SC.  This will facilitate our taking longer offshore passages weather permitting to avoid the ICW bridges and shoaling in NC and SC, hopefully starting from Beaufort NC.

September 5 -Our sail to Cape May was good…………flat seas, warm and sunny and NO EVENTS…………that is, until we arrived to set the anchor.  Cape May has only one small anchorage area located adjacent to the Coast Guard station.  This one and only anchorage has poor holding in loose muck and on a previous visit here, it took us six attempts before our hook finally grabbed.  It is Friday night on a holiday week-end and this area is already over-crowded but we found a spot, .all looks good…….until we noticed the green sailboat parked off of our port, getting a little close as the two boats swung on their anchor rodes in the tide and wind.  Are we a little too close?………We are  thinking we are OK until the skipper popped into his cockpit and very politely informed us of his concern.    After a few minutes of small talk, we decided to pull anchor so all would be confortable.   We circled a few times and then dropped the hook farther off his starboard.  It was 5:30 now, Ollie needed a run and we were all in need of showers.  Just as we were about to set our plan to action, we hear on the VHF  “Sailing vessel Abacus, this is the United States Coast Guard,  Sector Cape May”.  Oops.  We are now being informed that our swing will encroach on the 300 yard security zone of the 210 foot cutter Dependable.  Rather than contest the subject with a ship that has a deck gun, up came the anchor again.  We found another small spot among the boats crowded into the small anchorage area and called it a night. 

After checking the tide tables for current, we needed an early morning start to catch the max flood tide up the Delaware Bay.  At 5 AM on Saturday, Carter drove the dinghy in the dark across the Cape May harbor to find a spot for Ollie’s shore duties, returned and raised the dinghy up the davits and we were off by 0545.  The morning sunrise is spectacular as we head into the Atlantic to circle up the Bay.  We had a great ride up the Bay, averaging 9 kts under sail with East winds running 10-20, motor sailing with full jib and main.    Good Stuff.  We pulled into a Marina at the C&D Canal, 84 miles, at about 2:30.

On September 7, we traveled to Annapolis …..squalls and building conditions as we arrived.  Strong North Easterlies were expected to blow all week along the east coast.  We have spoken to Thom Wagner, who owns Passport Yachts, who usually has a slip for us, but he had two new yachts here that he planned to sail up to Newport for the Newport Boat Show that runs 9/15-9/19.  With gales and high seas forecast for the week offshore for the whole week, the voyage would be too risky. 

On August 30, we left the next morning for Port Washington, about 35 miles away, in much better conditions, to stage for an early morning passage in the East River, changing our target destination beyond NYC to Manasquan Inlet, about 30 miles down the NJ coast.   We arrived at mid afternoon, took one of the free mooring balls, and settled in   As we cleared the East River into NY harbor, we reviewed the weather conditions:  We were in a fine high pressure system, but to the south near the Carolinas, a low pressure center had stalled and was throwing large waves from south, against the prevailing 15-25 knot north winds.  Wind on the stern, waves on the bow, a recipe for a bad slog.  We pulled into Sandy Hook NJ for protection and to wait it out.

The low in the Carolinas stalled, so we stayed in Sandy Hook, reprovisioned, did laundry etc.  It was Thursday afternoon before the low moved enough for the waves to shift to the north east with the winds.  We got up at 5:30 AM on Friday,  took Ollie ashore quickly, and departed for Atlantic City, 83 miles away.  NOAA issued a small craft advisory for the NE winds 15-20, waves averaging 4-6 feet.  Fortunately, the waves were long swells, so while we rolled a lot, we made good time, arriving tired in Atlantic City at 5:30 pm.  The band was just setting up at Harrah’s, power boaters were partying, etc.  Debbie made shrimp jambalaya for dinner, which was terrific, and we turned in, turning up our music to counter the outside din.

WIFI internet connections in marinas can sometimes be problematic, especially Atlantic City.    Debbie of course has her Verizon wifi card.  For others on board, one can connect through a public WIFI service (at an exorbitant $12/day, three times other ports) or, alternatively, go to the adjacent Hooters restaurant, buy some fries or something and use their free wifi J. 

No internet tonight.

We reached Stonington CT (very near the Mystic River) at about 4 pm, took a mooring ball and went into town.  Stonington is another very cute town of mid 1700, early 1800 houses and buildings, including homes of patriots, shipwrights and ship masters, apparently the third largest “collection” of historical homes in CT.   The anchorage is well protected by breakwaters, a peninsula jutting out from Watch Hill, and Fisher Island just to the south. 

From Stonington, we motorsailed in the rain on an east wind and following seas, with only the staysail.  At times, we made 8 knots, with thunderstorms all around and TS Daniel expected within 36 hours off the east end of Long Island.  We arrived at Port Jefferson at 5 pm and took a mooring ball in view of the high east winds predicted.  Port Jefferson is well protected except from the north, but has high bluffs on the east side.  While it rained off and on all night, the winds were not noticeable in the harbor.  From Port Jefferson, we had hoped to leave in the morning to take a late afternoon passage through the East river and to stop in NYC to see Carter’s brother Portis and his wife Laura.  As a result of TS Daniel, that didn’t work out. 

Hayley called to advise that our 9 year old cat, Schuster, the cute, cuddly one, had kidney failure and had to be put down.  Everyone is sad.  Shuster is survived by Simon, the orange serial killer cat.   

On Saturday, August 29, 2009, it was rainy but calm at the mooring field in Port Jefferson Harbor, so we waited until 11 a.m., dropped the mooring and headed for Port Washington, 35 miles west.  As we moved out the harbor toward the jetties, the wind increased progressively until we found 25 knots of east wind outside the jetties and confused, 5 foot waves breaking over the bow.  Of course, none of this was indicated in 3 different NOAA weather reports and NDBC buoy data we checked before departure.  While we probably could have handled these conditions, we were concerned about having large waves on our stern which might hit the dinghy on its davits.  Plus, it would be unpleasant sailing, so we waited for a large incoming ferry from Connecticut, turned and returned to the mooring.  

Our layover in Salem/Marblehead was extended due to our smoking generator.  Of course, it started smoking on Saturday and the local boatyards were closed over the week-end.  Ho Hum......we ended up running the engine to keep the batteries charged while on the mooring and riding out hurricane "Bill", passing off the Massachusetts coastline.   

Early Monday morning we ran aground while trying to "dash" into the boatyard (which had assured us of 7 feet of water).  We were truly stuck in the mud at 2.9 ft. in the middle of the well marked entry channel.   “Must be new silting.  Tides have been strange lately”.  Hmm.    One of the boatyard skiffs came out to nudge us thru the sludge and we made in to the dock by 9AM.  The boatyard was quick to have a look and by 10 we had ordered parts from  Fischer Panda, for overnight delivery.  All under warranty.  We received the parts by 10, installed by 11:30 and off the dock by noon with a flood tide allowing us to float on out.  As we bid farewell to Salem, we were working the charts, calculating our day's destination........taking into account wind speed, currents and daylight hours.  We calculated that we could make it to the Cape Cod Canal by 8 PM with enough light to see.........sunset at 7:27 plus 25 minutes of “civil twilight”, i.e. uncivilly dark at 7:52.  A quick call to the marina in the canal in Sandwich, MA and we were all set.  We had a beautiful sail down Massachusetts Bay into the Cape Cod Bay and arrived just as planned.  (Can you imagine that?)

Now, here is where the plan went awry:  The 7 mile CC Canal runs a fast current of about 4-5 kts.  Keeping in mind that our Yanmar will push us at about 6-7 knots, you can appreciate how important it is for us to catch the ebb tide to take advantage of the out bound current.  We calculated that if we left around 6AM from the marina, we would catch the ebb going out Buzzards Bay.......all very good unless there are  opposing SW winds at the west end which leads us into Buzzards Bay.  When we left Salem, NOAA assured us of NE winds in Buzzards, but by the time we arrived in the canal.........the report had changed to SW 10-15 increasing to 25.  All night long, we slept lightly, listening and hoping that the report would change.  But sure enough, around 3, we started to hear our Stars and Stripes flapping against its halyard, and knew that we were in for a ride.

By the time we pulled out of the marina at 5:20 AM, the wind was already approaching 20 kts out of the SW.  We thought that we would take a look at the west end of the canal and if it looked too rough (which we fully anticipated) we would bail right there at the Onset Harbor which is a protected harbor.  The verdict was in by 6:15.........we  bailed out in Onset to layover for another day to wait for the N winds on Thursday.

 Are we ever glad that we waited out yesterday in port.  The wind really howled all day long and it would have been a horrible slog heading SW into it.  We had a very restful night in Onset, and as predicted, the wind shifted N, providing us with a gorgeous sailing day.  The sun came out, the air was dry and the light to moderate N winds gave us an excellent ride to Long Island. 

We are glad to out of Buzzards Bay, as the morning  NOAA forecast is for 40-50 kt NE winds on Saturday, thanks to TS Daniel.  Those conditions were expected to moderate the farther west in Long Island Sound.  We decided not to sail the coast of NJ until all remnants of the storm have passed.