No Room at the Inn

Well, we three felt a little unwelcome this late July. We made a very long 125 mile overnight passage from Amelia Island Florida into downtown lovely Beaufort South Carolina. Not a bad run but the overnights are long. You never really sleep and this part of the coast is laden with big container ships always in our way.

It was to be a useful stop. An old dock mate and friend friend from Georgia who now lives in town accepted our new solar panel delivery and was kind enough to deliver them to the Lady’s Island Marina for us. A marina we were scheduled to spend a few days in. However the aforementioned marina kindly tried to squeeze 44 foot of boat into a 35 foot slip. Not happening. No way, no how. I’ve seen this scenario before and it wasn’t about to happen again. Damnit, I even asked for a very accessible slip. We did an about face and we spent the night a few miles out of downtown in a much roomier marina.

So now what? We are nowhere near downtown with all the good eats. What the hell, we hadn’t really slept in 2 days so what’s one more. Let’s leave at first light and get north. Another 70 plus miles up the coast was hospitable and historic Charleston.

 Yeahhhh…Charleston!

Cobblestone streets, cool architecture, and great seafood. 

After leaving the long channel we hit open water with 20 knots on the nose.

 Ooof. Going to be a very long day. 

We turned left…I mean to port, and headed up the Carolina coast in heavy chop. We bounced to and fro, up and down, but, mostly side to side. Eventually the winds blew mostly from the south and we ended up with a nice hot and humid tailwind. At least we were tired.

Ok, stop complaining. 

Overall it was an uneventful passage. Late in the day I got to check off a rather large bucket list item. On several occasions and on many different boats, I have sailed out of Charleston harbor. Today was different. I’ve been looking forward to sailing into Charleston. Not only did that happen, but we did it in our own floating castle.

Oh happy day.