Offshore – heading to Charleston, Day 1

I came back on watch at 4 am. Sadly I did not get much sleep, as we were rolling a lot with the ocean swells and just the motor propelling us (sails do a lot to stabilize things, but we couldn’t keep them full as the wind was the wrong direction, so they were no help).

The next day dawned looking super similar to sunset the night before.

The timestamps tell me the first photo is sunset and the second one is sunrise. Can you tell the difference?!

I switched with Patrick around 8 (Nate had joined me on deck by then as well) and then awoke to some excitement mid-morning. We had spotted a big blue thing floating along and diverted to go see what it was. Turned out to be some kind of barrel!

We had coffee and breakfast, and I did the dishes. Not too hard when the boat’s not heeled over.

Seas and winds turned even calmer, and the ocean is always beautiful.

We spent a quiet day reading and hanging out, motoring along. Spotted some flying fish, and some dolphins.

We were almost to the Gulf Stream and turning toward Charleston, as night fell. The moon rose to keep us company.