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Becalmed off Charleston, SC

Wednesday, May 2, 2012
70 nautical miles to go to entrance of the Savannah River.

What would they have done back before motors? Sat out the lack of wind…that is what!  Maybe dropped the anchor if it was shallow enough. But that would represent a lot of work…so maybe they would do what we are doing, merely drifting and do maintenance while waiting for the weather to change.

In our case, with access to cellular radio waves, I am able to check out weather reports and forecasts on the internet. Having done so I am able to see that it is unlikely that the wind conditions we are experiencing will change significantly enough for PRIDE to sail the rest of the distance to Savannah and arrive as scheduled early Thursday (tomorrow) morning. Hence, sometime later today we will take the sails in and start the engines and mosey slowly over to our appointment in Savannah set for early tomorrow morning.

The weather along the Southeast Coast of the United States has been light and the sea slight. Up until breakfast time this morning we had enough wind to sail between 3-4 knots against the light southerly winds of the last 24 hours. In that time PRIDE sailed from Frying Pan Shoal near Wilmington, NC to the vicinity of Charleston, SC.

The little bit of usable wind died out at breakfast and since we have been drifting with sails up but strapped in tight to reduce chaff. The on-watch crew have been getting deeper into cosmetic maintenance. Maybe at the mid-day watch change there will be swimming call. Kind of depends if there will be any wind at all. If none…yes. But if wind comes around…probably not.

Jan C. Miles, Captain Aboard Pride of Baltimore II