Charleston

Sparrow Unloaded and Cleaned up in Charleston

Sparrow ended up motoring the last 120 miles in dead calm seas but also fighting a Gulfstream eddy, arriving in Charleston at 6pm on the 10th, right at high tide to gain entrance to the Charleston Harbor Marina. Customs arrived shortly thereafter and that went without a hitch. Huge thanks to Julie who came out and was there on the dock to greet me!

Julie and I spent three long days first emptying Sparrow’s contents into a minivan, then cleaning up the mold and putting away the sails and rigging. A fourth day allowed me to remove the watermaker and pour some epoxy. Then I got to hit the road and drive across the US with a van load of smelly laundry and assorted pieces of boat stuff. I arrived back in Thousand Oaks on the 17th with a messed up back thanks to the driver’s seat.

Sparrow suffered more mainsail car and track damage the last few thousand miles despite staying reefed down. The upper carriage failed a third time, and horrifyingly tore up the mast track. I will need to figure out how to source some sections of this unusual track, and procure a new carriage system and headboard.

Slowly easing back into land life, somewhat discombobulated. So great to see the kids and some friends.

Working on an epilog, I will be posting much more on my reflections of the journey, including more photos and even videos of the Southern Ocean now that I have bandwidth.

Now if I could get some help figuring out where to put all the boat stuff…

7 thoughts on “Charleston

  1. Welcome back to earth. Must feel like returning from being on the space station. Epic adventure. Don’t forget those bragging rights at the bar if you can find an open one.

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  2. Hi Whitall,

    We met briefly once at the last PSSA meeting before the pandemic. It’s been really fun to watch your track and read your blog posts.
    I have access to a machine shop and might be able to help make you some weird track parts, if you have drawings or example pieces. Let me know if you get really stuck, and I’m sure I’ll meet you agian in person whenever we have face-to-face meetings again.

    -James

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