Autopilot Busted
The plan was quite simple: get up, catch the outgoing tide, turn on autopilot, and enjoy a calm, relaxing sail. Unfortunately, as we were turning on all of the boat’s systems, I noticed that the autopilot control head was saying “No Pilot,” so a bit of checking and the actual autopilot and the electronic compass were both blinking a red error light and not booting all the way up.
After checking everything and discovering that nothing worked we discovered that the SeaTalk Backbone wire that ran from near the Autopilot up the pedestal to eventually connect with the autopilot control was not working. When I disconnected it, the autopilot started all the way up, and when I connected the autopilot control head directly to the block by the autopilot, all worked well.
A few minutes with some spare cables and we moved the autopilot control head to its original spot, bypassing the need for the damaged backbone wire, and we were off.
Amazing Sail
The conditions were amazing, a flat sea and a gentle breeze to blow us along. The only sad sailing part was that with that SeaTalk Backbone cable out of commission, the autopilot could not talk to the wind indicator, so we couldn’t go on “windvane mode” and had to just do a compass heading autopilot-wise.
Too Slow, Time for some Motoring
The original plan was for us to sail slowly and take 48 hours to make the passage, but a gust of wind here or there, and I realized if we used a bit of motor assist, we might be able to get to Charleston SC, before sunset, and we’d be able to sleep that final night instead of being out at sea.
9 pm Arrival
Sadly, no sooner than I’d gotten that idea in my head and had the engine going as best as she could, the wind shifted to be on our nose. We did not make it to the inlet before dark. We arrived at about 9:00 pm, and even so, we were tempted to try the entrance in the dark, but after spotting a dredge working the entrance on AIS, we decided to turn out to sea, enjoy a beam reach overnight, and try for 2-3 knots so we could just be comfortable. We did about 5 hours on the beam reach, then turned a bit downwind for a few hours, and then found our way back to the entrance for sunrise.
In at 7am, Anchor at 8:30 am
We sailed in the harbor entrance at 7 am and made our way up to the USS Yorktown, which is an aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. Our preferred anchorage is in front of it for a few reasons; today’s reason was just how close it is to the Charlestown Maritime Center, where we had a marina reservation.
Anchor down, calm conditions, and just enough time to eat and use the head before it was time to pull the anchor up at 9:30 am to make the short hop across the river.
Across the River at Slack Tide
There are several things I love about the Charleston Maritime Center: the friendliness of the staff, the unlimited free laundry, and how close it is to the grocery store.
One thing I do not like about the Charleston Maritime Center is just how badly the current RIPS through there, especially on the ebbing (outgoing) tide. This is why we always arrive early and anchor across the river to wait for slack tide when the water stops moving.
Across the river, a bit of a dance while the person in the spot assigned to us was untied and sent along their way, since you can’t leave unless it’s slack tide either. Then in we went.
Getting Extra Time
I was also pleased that even though we were told there were only three days available for us and not a whole week like we’d been hoping, the person due in after us called to let us know that they were going to cancel due to some northerly winds that would be keeping them south and unable to sail north. I had a feeling since we needed to stay in Charleston due to the same winds, since our next hop is also north.
So now we’re in Charleston, SC, for a week. A few practical things to do, such as replace that backbone wire, clean the boat, provision, and organize a few things. There are also a few Charleston, SC specific things we want to do, such as bike the city as much as we can, perhaps visit my preferred city cafe to do some work, and visit the hospitality fountain.
Unfortunately, with our quest for an electric engine by year’s end, we will not be doing a restaurant every day (or twice a day) as I wish we could do, given the quality of the restaurants in town.