You’ve already heard about our harrowing welcome to New Bern (if not, you’ll want to read this). That aside, we were determined not to let it ruin our experience. Surprisingly, the only real damage was a torn zipper on the bimini (which can be easily repaired) and an oar that was knocked out of its […]
It was a flat calm morning with a fog so light that it was more of a mist as we hauled anchor at Mile Hammock. We were the second boat in the anchorage to leave. I found Mile Hammock and the surrounding area to be really pretty, as was the whole section of ICW through […]
We departed Southport Marina bright and early on a calm, quiet morning and had current in our favor as we headed into the Cape Fear River. We loved our time in Southport, but it felt good to cast off the lines once more. We passed a HUGE container ship on the way, but that was […]
“United States Coast Guard, United States Coast Guard, United States Coast Guard, this is the sailing vessel Silent Sky. Over.” Warning: this one may be a bit incoherent/out of order/adrenaline-laced. I’m posting this in real time, so the next two posts actually happened before this. We were just hit by the most severe thunderstorms either […]
After our 28 hour passage, it was nice to pull into a slip and get out to stretch our legs. We arrived pretty early in the day, so we headed over to Olivers for brunch (I can’t tell you the last time we actually went to brunch!). It took us some time to get used […]
Roll. Slam! Roll. Slam! We left Charleston with a favorable current and raised sail in the harbor. It was gustier than the forecast called for, but it was generally beautiful sailing. (Jack strongly disagreed.) We reached the harbor entrance just after the Charleston Race Week pursuit race start, and we joked that we can now […]
We got to St. Johns Yacht Harbor about an hour after slack and had no problem getting into our slip. Since we got in early enough, we took a cab over to Lewis BBQ for lunch. It was packed but so worth the wait. Afterwards, we walked around Charleston and ended the day with dinner […]
Our goal for the remainder of the week was to make as much distance north as possible, with the hope of ending up in Charleston. The first day back on the ICW was such a contrast to open ocean sailing, and it was strange to be back on murky brown waters and dealing with so […]
With final weather checks completed, a float plan filed and confirmation that the Iridium GO! was working, we cast off the lines around 2230. A friend we’d met the night before happened to be walking down the dock and gave us a hand with our lines and waved us off. Slipping away in the dead […]
We hauled anchor and were treated to another perfect early morning sail – our last in the Bahamas – and it was truly bittersweet. Conditions were perfect, something we’ve become accustomed to in our time sailing the Sea of Abaco. Silent Sky was just flying downwind and she felt great. But it was hard to completely […]