Saturday, November 15, 2008

Saturday, November 15, 2008

We departed Charleston headed on our southern journey on Friday morning. The weather was windy, cool, and very cloudy all day. We had a 30 minute wait at the Wappoo Creek Bridge.
We have had several phone calls from friends and were glad to hear from each of them. We heard that two other of our friends are heading south on their sailboats. One is in Wrightville Beach and the others are leaving December1.
We did not have a very exciting day as the weather was bad and the waters were very shallow in many places. But, we did not run aground. Thank goodness!
We pulled into our Edisto River anchorage around 3:45 and were glad to be there for the night. It was a great place to anchor; however, we were the only boat there for the night.
The bad weather never got any better. We had heavy winds continually and during the night, it rained and sounded very stormy. I got up about 3:00 a.m. because I could not sleep with the water splashing against the boat and the howling winds. I drifted in and out of sleep on the couch until the winds subsided.
This morning, we left going south again and the weather started out being ugly, but as the trip continued, by 11:00 the sun was shining bright and we were in our short sleeves. We saw many more boats on the water today also heading south. We had to lower the dinghy into the water before we departed to empty all the rain water. Nelson also added more air to the tubes on the dinghy. I thought Nelson would fall into the water as he was trying to jump from the sailboat into the dinghy and back again. We did not want to disconnect the towing bars so it was a good distance for him to reach. He made it though. Winds were on our nose most of the trip. We did motor sail for maybe an hour.
We came into Beaufort around 3:00 and they still had no slip for us at the marina so we decided to anchor close by where others were anchored. Nelson had just gotten the anchor to hold when the winds jumped up to 30 knots and the rains started to blown in.
It looked like all the boats who were anchored were sailing again but they were also anchored and the winds were just blowing us everywhere. We did not run into anyone nor have them run into us. It only lasted for a few minutes. We still hope we can get a slip at the marina before night sets in. If not, the weather is supposed to clear soon. I guess it will be tomorrow before we get into town to visit. We have decided to stay here in Beaufort for another day since we haven’t been here before. We are still enjoying our adventures even with the nasty weather. We have talked with two different boats here in Beaufort since we anchored that we had met at other places since we started our trip. Most boaters are very friendly.
Take care. We will keep you posted on our sailing adventures.
Love,
Nelson and Ondra