We got up at 6am to finish prepping for departure, ran over to the fuel dock and headed out. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but it all settled back once we got under way. The smoke from the Canadian fires was pretty intense, and we ended up wearing masks for a […]
We had a beautiful sail from cloudy Cape Lookout to sunny Beaufort. It’s always strange when two places so close together have such totally different weather. Of course I know it’s not exactly a rare phenomenon, but it’s odd when you experience it in such a pronounced way. It was a beautiful, lazy, slow sail […]
Cape Lookout National Seashore is one of ten National Seashores in the US, and it’s legitimately one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever anchored. Being able to anchor in a place like this is one of the most special parts of the cruising life. We’re surrounded by beautiful sand dunes, the water is super […]
We were up at 3am to finish departure prep. Even though I do as much as I can in advance, there are things we just can’t do ahead of time, and it always takes longer than we expect. As we prepped to leave, a squall blew through and we decided to wait it out. Once […]
We knew one of Windara’s drawbacks would be her draft. On our way south, we had to skip Southport this year because we weren’t able to get a reservation – Southport Marina (now Morningstar Marina) can only put us on their face dock, and it was already booked. This time around, they could only take […]
We met David aboard Flight for coffee and some weather/routing talk first thing in the morning. The plan was to head out on the afternoon slack, and the weather looked perfect. It’s always nice to have another experienced sailor to vet plans with, especially when they seem to have a similar risk tolerance. We agreed […]
We wanted to get into our slip at the Charleston Harbor Marina as soon as possible, but we were busy working during the daytime slack, and in the evening the wind kicked up as heavy, dark clouds appeared on the horizon. We could have tried to go in, but docking in Charleston is tough enough […]
This passage was an interesting one, and this was another case where the forecast and actual conditions were not in alignment. As we approached the Saint Augustine inlet, I did NOT like the looks of things out there. But our choice was to go or not make Charleston this weekend. We left our slip just […]
While we didn’t make it as far as we’d hoped, I’m happy to spend time in St. Augustine. We got tied up, and cleared into the country in time to head up to the hotel’s daily happy hour for hotel and marina guests. As we walked up, I saw a spoonbill feeding in the flats […]
With a short weather window to get to Saint Augustine, we were up well before dawn and hauled anchor just after 5am. As the sun came up, we popped the chute and took off. With 8-10kts of breeze, Windara ate it up, and it was fun to see how she performed under spinnaker and main […]