27 July - We woke this morning to check the weather and it was forecasting no wind all day long outside the harbour and for a long way south.  Neither of us relished the prospect of motoring for at least 24 hours so we decided to stay put.  We had a lazy morning around the boat and did some laundry then, after lunch we decided to do a bit of exploring.  Charleston really is just a small hamlet set up to cater for fishing and hod nothing much to offer itself.  We therefore headed over to Bastendorf Beach which was a beautiful stretch of sand about 2km walk away.  For the first time, we kicked off our shoes and walked along the beach with the sand almost too hot to walk on barefoot - this is what we set off for!! Come the later afternoon we headed back and did a bit of cleaning up of the boat before an early night.

Sunset on the beach 

28 July - With the tide not fair for the bar until 11:00 today we could have another lie in and woke around 9an to another beautiful sunny day.  The wind also looked like it was due to fill in so, having exhausted the entertainments of Charleston we decided to head off.  The bar was flat calm on the way out and after about a mile offshore the wind started to fill in.  By 11:30 the motor was off and with a fresh breeze of 8 - 12 knots we were soon flying along at6+ knots in glorious sunshine - We finally started travelling in the way in which we wanted to become accustomed.  The wind, and great sailing in sunny weather continued into the afternoon and through the evening.  Having changed course we were now dead down wind and had poled out our genoa again giving steady, reliable sailing for the night.  With a clear evening we had our first clear evening and strained our eyes to see the fabled 'green flash' against the horizon as the sun set.  When we saw it thankfully, unlike pirates fo the carribean, our world didn't turn upside down. The night was perfectly clear and, with no moon, we experienced our first truly starry night with a brilliantly bright milky way and so many stars the usual constellation were more difficult to pick out.  This was coupled with some amazing sailing as the wind blew steadily from the same direction of 20 knots for most of the night, keeping us at over 5 knots for the whole journey.