November 27, 2023 Charleston SC

We left Southport around 10am for our offshore adventure to Charleston. Friend and first-time crew for us, Greg Sharma-Holt, joined us for this leg of the trip. Greg is an experienced sailor and racer from his college days, and this was his first offshore experience. Conditions were mild, as expected, at first. We motored, the motor-sailed for a few hours. The first shift to total sailing was glorious. Full moon, moderate winds. We had a single reef in the mainsail from the start just to be cautious. What smart move that turned out to be! 

During the night the conditions picked up beyond what had been predicted. We alternated between sailing and motor-sailing to match the conditions. Then the wind picked up to 25 kts and the waves and swells increased to match. It was a rock & roll time - best core workout around just to stay upright! Around 3am we were trimming the stay sail and it started flapping crazily. We thought it was torn somewhere.  Myles (Captain) had just gone down for his sleep shift and we had to call him back up to consult. I was urging furling it in when we realized is was totally down and dragging in the water. Myles geared up and went forward to pull it in. He discovered that it was the shackle on the halyard that had broken and the sail was still intact. Phew!. We'll get that back up while in port this week. 

Rough seas continued through the night and morning until after noon on day 2 when we entered the channel to Charleston. What a difference a few hours can make. We docked at the Safe Harbor Charleston Marina around 3pm on their Mega Dock, aptly named. It feels like a mile walk to the restrooms and laundry, an even farther to get Caramel to some grass. We took the stay sail out and inspected thoroughly and it is the halyard shackle that needs to be replaced. We folded it up and will make the fixes sometime this week.

Greg left us to get back to his car in Southport. We're all sore from the 'adventure' and definitely need some recovery time. Myles and I took a shuttle to Eli's Table, a southern cuisine restaurant in Charleston, where we had a delicious meal including fried green tomatoes. Tuesday we'll clean up the boat and then explore Charleston.