#SAILING 2 NIGHTS & 1 DAY ON THE HIGH SEAS - THE RETIREMENT ADVENTURE BEGINS

#catamaransailing #leopard48catamaran #sailing

The first leg of our adventure begins with a sail up the coast to #BeaufortNC, part of the #outerbanks. Waiting for the weather to warm up north, we spent a week in Beaufort. Wild horses, endless beaches, and great sailing on this trip, in spite of a few storms!

CAPTAIN’S LOG
Pilar set sail from Charleston, SC for Beaufort, NC. A gale had just blown through for the last (3) days with winds of 30 – 45 kts and sea offshore 14-25’. In fact, a cruise ship bound for Charleston had windows of the lower deck blown out. They took on lots of water and had substantial damage in the cabins and lower decks. No one was hurt in the incident. Luckily, by the time we set sail in the evening of May 28 the seas were very comfortable in a following set with true wind speeds of 20 kts. We had a very comfortable sail through the night, but the winds began to subside in the early hours of the next day. Finally, with 70 some miles to go we had to crank one motor for forward assist and finally the second later in the day. By mid-day the seas were flat calm with winds of only 3-5 kts. So, we motored the rest of the way into Beaufort arriving by 5:00am about 36 hours from our departure from Charleston just as we had planned.

Not wanting to come in the inlet in the dark, and quite tired from our watched we decided to anchor just outside the inlet, rest and come in later in the morning. Within minutes we were surrounded by sport fishing boats leaving the harbor for the fish day. You’ll remember it was calm seas so apparently every boat in Beaufort fished that day. We couldn’t stay at anchor in the wakes of those boats, so we quickly pulled anchor and made our way to the Beaufort anchorage in Taylor Creek just across from town.

We’ve spent a few days enjoying Beaufort, visiting my old friend Scott Hall from Islamorada, and doing some boat projects and repairs.

Repairs and Maintenance – Once anchored and reviewing the boat I found the topping lift had chaffed in (2) places and was done for duty. Just before we raised the mainsail had taken down the US flag that was flying on the topping lift and re-secured the topping lift in its cleat. Apparently, I left it too tight, and it seems the chaff came from the battens on the mainsail. I mistake from which I learned.

I also upgraded our saltwater head pump in the starboard hull. (And cleaned out the raw water inlet clamshells). The pump was very slow and took forever to get enough water for a flush. I replaced the PAR 4, 3.8 gpm pump with a PAR 6, 6 gpm pump. The head filled in 1:46 minutes with the PAR 4, 20 seconds with the PAR 6. I later found the diaphragms in the PAR for were broken. So, I’ve ordered repair kits for the (3) Par 4’s on board and will do those repairs upon arrival of the kits. But we’re keeping the PAR 6 in the starboard hull.

Next week we plan to anchor in the Cape Lookout Bight for a few days while we await weather conducive to sail around Hatteras and into the Chesapeake Bay.

TIMELINE:
0:00 Introduction
0:23 Departure 5/28 4 PM Bohicket Marina, Seabrook Island SC.
1:41 Sailing Carolina Coast
3:44 Arrival 5/30 4 AM Beaufort NC: Beaufort Channel
4:17 A week in Beaufort NC
6:20 Wild Horses
7:26 Work Break: Salt Water Inlets
8:14 Rachel Carson Preserve
10:15 Replacing Topping Lift
13:41 Sunset

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Blue Dot Voyages is a Sailing Adventure Company. We recently packed up our belongings, sold our house and moved on to our Leopard48 Sailing Catamaran PILAR, where we are traveling the world. We offer travel advice as well as boat maintenance tips. We offer charter sailing experience trips when we can. Watch our videos and live vicariously through us!

Master Captain: Stephen Bell
First Officer: Dawn Bell