November 9th to the 19th I was able to go offshore sailing with my good friend Guilherme. This was a pretty exciting trip for me. I’ve wanted to go coastal cruising for a long time and Guilherme being willing to take me along was a great oppertunity.

Guilherme left Toronto in early September and had spent the last two months working his boat from Lake Ontario to Moorehead City North Carolina. I left the late afternoon of Wednesday November 8th and drove the 17 hours from Rock Island IL to Moorehead City where I met Guilherme at the Portside Marina on Thursday November 9th.
The drive from Rock Island to Moorehead City was uneventful. I stopped a for a night at the America’s Best Value Inn in Chillicothe OH for some quick sleep. On the way I listened to Even Wrights Hella Nation audiobook.

Doing the trip again I’m not sure if I’d drive or not. I saved around $250 driving, but it cost me a day to make the drive. I’m not sure how I’d do it next time. Getting to Moorehead City was hard because its remote from any meaningful airport and since I had the car an extra day it helped us get some provisions fro the trip.

Guilherme’s boat is a Alhoa 28. Named Carlota after his grandmother she’s a beamy 28ft classic plastic. I’m very lucky the starboard settee was able to fit me and I sleep comfortably there. Carlota has a basic galley with a alcohol stove and a small sink. The refrigerator was off but used as dry storage and we had a cooler for storing food that needed to keep cold. Carlota has no shower and Guilherme installed a composting head this year for the trip. The boat was a little cramped at times but mostly I was fairly comfortable. I did enjoy sleeping on the boat. I had a sleeping bag that kept me very warm and I found the swaying of the boat in the marina or at anchor comforting.

We departed Moorehead city at noon on Friday November 10th. I really had no idea what it was going to be like as I basically had no idea how to sail the boat having only experience on small racing dinghy’s and I’ve never been out in a small boat “at sea”. As we motored out of the inlet the waves grew large (for me) to 3-6ft and I found the boat difficult to steer while bouncing around on the waves. After about an hour to two hours of motoring I became very sea sick and vomited neon green/yellow bile over the side of the boat. Most of the 12 hour sail from Moorhead City to Wrightsville Beach I spent feeling very ill. I vomited at least three additional times. I’m fortunate that Guilherme is an experienced single handed sailor and easily solo piloted the boat through the 20 knot winds and 6ft seas. We sailed fast at 5-7 knots with strong following seas under a double reefed main on a deep broad reach. I really wish I hadn’t been so seasick as I think I would have truely loved the the experience.

Luckly after about a hour nap I awoke and felt well enough to help Guilherme bring down the main so we could motor into our anchorage at Wrightsville Beach at around 2am. It was interesting finding and Anchor location in the dark, but we were fortunate enough to find one without hitting any other boats. We then dropped the hook and ate a sandwich and retired for some sleep.

The next morning we planned to motor to Carolina Beach but it was raining and the wind was cold so we elected to just hide in the boat for another day. Guilherme made a Risotto and we just let the day pass talking. I recovered from my sea sickness and it felt good to be on the boat again.

The next day we got a late morning start and motored down the ICW to Carolina Beach where we grabbed a moring ball. I learned that motoring in the ICW is a pain in the ass as you struggle to keep the boat on the channel and get waked by large power boats. It was cold windy and rainy and really something that you endured more the enjoyed. None the less I got a lot of good experience at the tiller and learning to keep the boat on a steady course.

Grabbing the mooring ball was difficult as there was a strong current in the bay and powerful winds. At first Guilherme attempted to put me at the tiller rather then have me grab the mooring ball. This turned out to be a huge mistake as the mooring field was packed with boats and I had no experience piloting Carlota in such difficult conditions. Fortunately, Guilherme was able to grab the tiller and pilot the boat the ball before I nearly drifted into another boat. I ran forward and inexpertly grabbed the mooring ball getting the boat hook stuck in the ring. It was a mess be in the end we secured the boat to the ball.

Guilherme thought he heard and engine overheat alarm while running hte motor at high RPM and he decided to inspect the impeller. Taking the impeller housing off we discovered the impeller was fine but there was in improper screw installed in the impeller plate that was allowing raw water to leak out of the impeller housing. So we dingy’ed ashore to Carolina Beach where we bought a replacement screw at a hardware store and got some dinner at a bar and grill. I had probably one of the best tasting pina colladas ever, likely because living on the boat the last couple of days I had consumed almost no sweets so the pina collada was extra good.

Coming back in at night from the bar we were soaked by waves hitting the digny. We got back to Carlota soaking wet the cold. There was no heat on the boat and after changing to dry clothes I retired to my sleeping bag.

The next morning we departed Carolina Beach for Charleston, a sail that Guilherme expected to take 25 - 30 hours. This time I took a dramamine tablet and crossed my fingers that the last 4 days of living on the boat would prevent me from getting seasick. This time I was lucky and experienced no seasickness for the 25 hour sail to Charleston. We exited Carolina beach at the somewhat famous Cape Fear Inlet. The sky was beautiful and the seas were calm and we watched numerous fishing trawlers fish in the distance.

The sail to Charleston was not as exciting to start. We had very little wind and couldn’t get the boat to sail well. We motor sailed for about 12 hours until the wind picked up to 15-20 knots. The seas were pretty calm with waves of 1-4 feet. When the wind filled in and Guilherme decided to put out a slightly reefed Genoa rather then put up the double reefed main again. It worked but the boat wasn’t quite as balanced. I think the future Guilherme will put up the main.

We had a good 15 hour sail. We did not maintain a watch schedule and instead just took turns checking the horizon and dozing below. It was pretty cold and I was happy to have my high collar coat the bibs. The sunrise on the Ocean was very beautiful and we had coffee early in the morning which raised our spirits a great deal as we approached Charleston. As we approached Charleston we found the inlet and Guilherme attempted to start the motor and disaster struck.

Rather then starting the starter locked and we could smell and electrical fire in the engine bay. I jumped below and openned the engine compartment to inspect the situation. Blue electrical smoke drifted out causing me to cough but I found no evidence of a ongoing fire. The was reliving but we were at the edge of the inlet in rough seas with no engine. We attempted to sail into the inlet but quickly abandoned this approach. Charleston has a large inlet that we could have sailed up but lack of experience with the local conditions combined with a strong 2-3 knot current out of the inlet would have made for some impossible sailing.

After some struggle we brought up the main and hove too can called a tow. The tow boat US guy came out in about an hour and pulled us into the Charleston Safe Harbor marina mega dock. The tow in was a crazy experience as the tow boat pulled us at over 8 knots (Carlota’s hull speed is somewhere around 6) and we were hit by numerous large boardside waves. At one point the boat broached and water poured into the bathroom hatch which had been left open. Guilherme was at the bow and I piloted the tiller mostly just trying to follow the tow. After nearly two hours of towing we reached the marina and were parked in a small space at the end of the mega dock.

The next two days I spent hanging out with Guilherme at the mega dock trying to help him fix the issues with the boat so he could continue on on. There was some concern the engine may have been hydro-locked but we quickly found that wasn’t the case and it was merely a fried starter. We visited a few historic locations in Charleston including the Aiken-Rhett House Museum.

Living on the megadock was an interesting experience as we were parked next to several multi million dollar boats that were privately owned and maintained by a live aboard captain (often an Australian). As we drank beers in the cockpit we got some side eyes from the local wealthy elite but otherwise were mostly ignored.

On Friday November 19th I flew back form Charleston to Moline IL concluding the trip.

In reflection this was a awesome experience and possibly something I’ll never get to do again. Its great that my wife and work were willing to let me disappear for ten days to do this. I’m very grateful to Guilherme that he was willing to host me on the trip. I’ll be interested to see if I do more of this or not. I do enjoy the boat life. Its very escapist and you at times feel like the sailboat is your space ship. But there’s a high oppertunity cost, you have to learn to sail and learn the ocean and learn docking and marinas. Coastal navigation is complex and requires balancing the demands of the weather and the tides. Mistakes are punished severely with possibly losing your boat. I think I’ll just take this interest one day at a time. The next step is to get good at sailing keelboat. I’ll do that next and see where that takes me.