Back to the USA - Let the fun begin

May 29, 2023, we are still in the Bahamas, hurricane season starts on June 1 and we were supposed to be North of Cape Hatteras. Unlikely at this point due to bad weather and storms that kept coming off the East Coast of the US. Time for a change of plans, while keeping safety first, rather than trying to find a 5-day window to get all the way north to Norfolk we would break the trip up into 2 parts. Decision made we left Fox Town in the Abacos for a three-day sail to Charleston, South Carolina.

For the most part, the sail was uneventful except for losing our wind vane on the last day leaving us with no wind data. It was about a 50/50 mix between sailing and motoring up to that point, light winds in the 8-15 knots true wind speed. We knew the wind was forecast to pick up so we put the 1st reef in the main for added protection should we get hit by a squall. We sailed our way to the entrance to Charleston and I have to give credit to Nikki for again plotting our course from the Bahamas to South Carolina, she does a fantastic job getting us to where we need to go. 

Our first anchorage in Charleston was partway up the Ashley River. This is a nice spot and close to a dinghy dock. Plus a short ride up the river was a fantastic park with a dinghy dock so Zorro was happy to be getting some park time. There are so many more smells for him than on a beach. This is a busy place in 1 trip to the dinghy dock we had dolphins swimming by us and then a minute or 2 later the Coast Guard doing rescue drills.

I have to admit I love Charleston. It is a beautiful city with a ton of history, some good but a lot not so much. However, I try to look at a city for how it is today and Charleston is fantastic. Lots of parks, and nice historic walks, we did a guided walking tour that gave us a deeper insight into the city and showed us some of the houses that have been there since the late 1600’s. There were a lot of good restaurants, and right in the center of town was an old market that had been converted to a place for local vendors.

After a couple of days on the Ashley River, we had some bad weather coming in and needed to switch anchorages to get more wind protection. We moved over to the USS Yorktown, a decommissioned aircraft carrier. It is huge and should provide more than enough wind protection. From this new location, we could dinghy across to a dinghy dock at the Maritime Center. This proved to be the best location. It was like being in Yaletown back home. There were funky lofts and new apartments, a huge recreation field to play Zorro, and an upscale grocery store, all with about a 10-minute walk to shops and restaurants downtown.

It was at this anchorage that we saw a truly amazing lightning storm, well it was more like two or three as it was not very nice for around three days. Two things here that we quickly realized and led to our decision to move on and get to Norfolk. First, lightning and sailboats are a bad combo, we have a 68-foot mast that acts as a lightning rod. The second is we are currently uninsured as we are south of Hatteras. Not a pleasant feeling when you are sitting in a lightning storm. 

After eight fantastic days in Charleston, we decided to leave and make the three-day sail to Norfolk, Virginia. For those of you that are not aware that sailing from place to place is slow this move from Charleston to Norfolk will be a great example. We left Charleston at 21:00 on June 8th and arrived at Willoughby Bay, just outside of Norfolk at 19:30 on June 11th. It took us just a couple of hours shy of three days. Driving from Charleston to Norfolk would take only 6.5 hours, with many places to stop and get food. Heck, you could even stop and take in some sightseeing and still beat us by a day. Sailing is slow but also a beautiful way to see the world and this trip did not disappoint.  We saw a lot of dolphins and caught a Bonita.

Our stop at Willoughby Bay was short, we just needed a place to anchor overnight as we did not want to navigate an unknown harbour as big as Norfolk in the dark. The next day we moved into a marina right in the downtown of Norfolk called Waterside Marina. We both highly recommend this place if you are planning a stay in Norfolk. We wanted to spend a few days and this being our first marina in months it seemed like a nice treat. Plus we had to arrange a vet for Zorro and Turnerbout was coming for a visit so it seemed good to just hang in the center of town. 

Waterside Marina is right in the heart of things, we were docked on the city wall, it reminded me of Croatia in that we stepped off the boat and we had shops and restaurants right there. A short walk took us to a nice park to play Zorro every day. There is a seawall historic walk, which we did, a naval museum, and a short ferry ride to the old town. It was a great marina. Unfortunately, at our vet visit with Zorro, we had some bad news which eventually turned into a crazy story.