Hilton Head to Georgetown - long day

Last night outside Hilton Head was a bit rough. We had very high winds and shifting currents, and neither of us slept very well. The morning forecast was worse than expected. Since the oceans waves were supposed to calm down after a few hours, we decided to wait a couple of hours. It was a difficult decision as today was one of our longest trips. We planned it so that we would arrive just before sunset since we have no desire to anchor in the dark. 

The tactic worked. Although the first couple of hours under way were uncomfortable with three foot waves on our nose and a short period, conditions improved throughout the day.

We watched the sunrise at anchor and delayed our start

If we were not rushing to get home, we would have stopped in Charlestown for some great food and nice walks around town. As played, we saw the famous bridge from our ocean route and kept going.

We traveled 105 nm today at ten to eleven knots. To combat boredom, we listened to a podcast about the history of Portugal. Ann and I are visiting there in a few weeks, so it will be nice to have some historical context on our visit. So far, we are only up to around 800 A.D. after eight episodes. All we've gotten out of this is that people used to kill each other all the time because of their different interpretations of their religious idols. And they persecuted the Jews. 

This is our third straight night at anchor, and we have not been off the boat since Port Canaveral. To get some exercise, I put on the Bee Gees and did Zumba style dancing at the helm for about 30 minutes while Ann looked on and wondered what exactly she's gotten herself into.

Since we're on a boat trip, obviously something had to break. Today it was our center windshield wiper. The wind and waves resulted in ocean spray that often went over our roof. At one point I ran the wipers continuously. Unfortunately, the center wiper suddenly went haywire. This was annoying because the last part of today's trip was directly West into the sunset. The center windshield was covered in salt, and I had difficulty seeing straight ahead.

After we finally anchored, I saw the problem. The only way to fix that is to go up on the roof. I'm going to wait until we're docked tomorrow night to tackle that one. 

Windshield wiper fail

We anchored right before sunset. Although it was a long, tiring day, we looked forward to watching the NCAA final four.

Sunset and Final Four - a great combination

Tomorrow, we want to get an early start. The forecast is very good, and we are crossing from Georgetown over to Southport (Cape Fear) in the ocean for about 65 nm and then taking the ICW another 21 miles up to Wrightsville Beach where I booked a marina for the night. It will be nice to get on land again and to wash down the boat, fill up our water, and eat dinner in a restaurant if all goes well.