Hilton Head

Ruth and I just completed a great sail down the Atlantic coast from Cape Fear to Hilton Head, SC. We covered 200+ miles in a little over 30 hr., all down wind, with the Spinnaker flying and the autopilot steering. We almost totally passed South Carolina in one day. Previously, we had sailed 30 miles up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington to escape the strong cold front that came through. The south west winds were fierce, and blew us up the river, then a couple of days later, as the cold front settled in, we were blown down the river. When we reached the mouth of the river at Bald Head Island, NC. the winds were over 25 knots, and the seas were very lumpy, so we turned into the Marina for the night. The next day the winds and seas were a bit lighter so off we went. We had intended to stop at Charleston, SC., but passed the inlet in the very early AM, so just kept going. The moon was quite full and it was a clear, cold night for a sail. Good thing it was clear cause we passed within 10 ft. of large, steel, unlit buoy, that hadn't shown up on radar. I just looked up in time to see it in the moonlight. It was quite a busy night since we passed inlets to several cities, along with their traffic and buoys. Several large ships coming out of Charleston.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, there also has been a noticeable presence of the Coast Guard. They are everywhere, doing their business seriously. They keep track of all boats large or small. We hear them hailing ships coming and going. At about AM, they called, on the VHF radio channel 16, to the boat at Latitude XXX and LongitudeYYY, traveling south east at 10 knots. I answered, since that described us. They corrected me, saying that they were hailing the boat traveling south east, and noting that we were traveling south west at 7 knots. They knew we were a small sailboat because we were traveling down the coast in shallow water. Boats coming into port are often questioned about who they are and what they are doing, including sending a list of crew. Traveling down the Atlantic coast with the many rivers and ports one begins to see the importance of boat commerce. Ships coming out of Charleston last night were headed to Hamburg Germany, Norfolk, VA, and New Jersey. It is necessary for us to sail reasonably close to shore to take advantage of the gulf stream. The gulf stream is a warm body of water that flows north along the Atlantic coast then curves east to the north Atlantic. When sailing north one goes way out and gets a push. There is also a counter current close to shore that that travels south to compensate for the gulf stream. That's the one for us! It gives us a one or two knot boost. Further, If one goes way out to the gulf stream and catches a north wind, it can get mean, with the stream headed north and the wind headed south. This last cold front, for example, produced 40 knot winds and 18 ft seas in the gulf stream. Ruth and I learned about the Gulf stream the hard way a couple of years ago. Sailing so close to land also has it's moments. The water here is very shallow, sometimes for several miles out. Getting into Hilton Head we encountered breaking seas a couple of miles out, with very shallow water. We skirted around the area, and still sailed thru water as shallow as 4 ft. Gulp choke!

We are off to explore Hilton Head and to rent a car for travel to Charleston, Savanna, and other places that we sailed past in the night. So far, Hilton Head is impressive, with the tall pines, expensive houses and many buildings. The marina here is first class, meeting us at the dock with helping hands, a welcome package of information, and a bottle of Chardonnay. They have cable TV, and a telephone line, with its own phone number, at every slip. Very civilized! Some boaters are off to play golf or tennis. Nice to be here, with good weather expected for several days.