Beaufort, NC to Beaufort, SC

     It's been 9 days since leaving Beaufort, NC and we've arrived safe and sound and mostly without incident; poor little GPS, you will be missed. We are sitting at a precarious little anchorage at Lady Island. Meeting the Dockmaster last night, we are relatively certain, this may be a favored spot along the coast. What's not to like? The marina has an impromptu Happy Hour, provided a few people show up. Transient rates are $1 per foot per day, and the locals bar, ...well it's a locals bar.

     Getting here from Beaufort, NC was a breeze; and last Monday morning coming in from a 200 nautical mile run off the coast between Beaufort, NC and Charleston, SC, breeze is an understaement. Arriving in Charleston, SC last monday we waited out some unseasonably cold weather and met up with a friend of ours single handing from Charleston to Savanah. Offering to buddy boat with him, we left Friday for a ride down the ditch.

     The nice thing about buddy boating is the pictures we normally cannot get of our boat, while on our boat. Another nice thing is rafting and sharing some wine, cheese, and sea stories. The bad... well, there's the ditch in this case. Though not completely abhorid, the ditch really slows progress especially when going aground. No, we didn't go aground, but it was a bit dicey (shallow) in parts between Church's Creek and Beaufort. Oh, and did I mention; the GPS decided to leap overboard? Without a proper PFD, he / it was never recoverd, lost at sea (in the ditch).

    As for our preference, I believe when we have decent weather, Stacie and I very much perfer to do 30 to 48 hour coastal runs, advancing our position by 150 to 200, or more nautical miles, rather than the 25, 50, or 60 miles per day in the ditch. Besides, it is less likely that we'll drift on our typically poorly set anchor and wake up to a 3am alarm sounding. That said, we will likely bid our friend a fond farwell sometime this week, and head out from Port Royal inlet or Savana River Tybe inlet. Not sure which just yet, so stay tuned for an update later this week. For now, the dolphins are back, so I'm signing off for now.