Return to the U.S.A.

[Kyle]When the wind had finally moved far enough to the northeast from north, we pulled up anchor and left The Bahamas for the U.S. Even though we were sailing close to the wind, the sail was pleasant with the last of the reefs to windward flattening the seas. In due course, that all ended and we were soon having to hold on and dive out of the helm seat to avoid the errant wave. By sunset, we had reached the edge of the Gulf Stream. Our speed over ground climbed into the teens and stayed there for the next day and a half.

As we shot north, the wind and waves gradually veered astern. Conditions morphed from annoying to pleasant. The warm waters of the Gulf Stream kept the temperatures nice and tropical, even though we were pushing into what was the end of the Northern winter just ten days previously.

The wind started to blow hard from the south. We used as much sail as the gusts would allow since we knew it was forecast to continue veering to the west and increasing to gale force. The last hundred miles to Charleston, South Carolina are in pretty shallow water and I didn’t want to be there in forty-knot gusts.

An Easy sail with Pelicans at both ends of the passage

When our second and last morning came, we had just left the Gulf Stream. We were seventy miles out and all the forecasts were saying the gale should be arriving any minute now. When we finally sailed into the flat water between the breakwaters at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, the most wind we had seen so far was eighteen knots. By the time we sailed past Fort Sumpter just a few minutes later, we were going upwind at seven knots with only three square meters of jib unrolled. The channel turned directly upwind, so we rolled it up and started the engines. It was a few minutes before they were warmed up enough to drive us forward into the building thirty-knot gusts.

When we arrived at Charleston City Marina to clear in, we were pleased to find that our assigned space was alongside their big megadock, with no fancy maneuvering required. A lot of the boats who were scheduled to leave had elected to stay through the blow, so they cleared out a little slot that was barely longer than Begonia. The wind was blowing directly onto the dock, so all I had to do was use asymmetric power to keep us centered in our gap and aligned with the dock as the wind blew us in sideways, letting the fenders absorb the impact. Leaving would be pretty much impossible now, so it’s a good thing we have a couple of days to let the storm blow itself out before we have to try.

Aside from the dock crew ready to assist us, we were also greeted by two couples from the local Ocean Cruising Club (OCC) port officers (Kurt and Carol) and visiting OCC member boaters (Bill & Lydia) that had been monitoring our progress – we had quite the welcome. Our on-line clearing-in request wasn’t going as smoothly as expected so we were not quite sure what our legal status was without an "all clear" message; we opted to thank everyone from a distance and agreed to meet up later once rested and official.

We last left the USA by boat in November of 2016(!), and have only manged a few brief returns via plane: Kyle to collect parts and visit with his Mom while we were in Chile (March 2018), and a quick day trip to San Francisco to reset our visas in January of 2020. Our planned "proper" vacation around Easter of 2020 was all cancelled due to Covid, so visits with family and friends are long overdue.

We had a warm welcome from fellow OCC Members on our arrival
Bill and Lydia (of Take Five), and Kurt and Carol(Charleston OCC Port officers )