Left Beaufort mooring field at 0730 and headed north. We have a reservation at St. Johns Yacht Harbor for Friday night so plan to anchor somewhere a few hours from the marina. Have some errands to run and nice to get to marina early to mid morning. St. Johns Yacht Harbor has a courtesy car.

All the boats that were in the mooring field with us last night passed us today at some point... some in the morning and the last one as we pulled off to the anchorage we selected for the night. Church Creek, Wadmalaw Island, We have seen boats anchored here passing each spring and fall but have never stopped here. There is one boat on a mooring and another anchored ahead of us. Current is really ripping through the anchorage.

Forecast is for some bad weather to pass over tonight with SE and then SW winds...gusts to 25 knots with rain. We should have fairly good protection anchored here.

We arrived to Church Creek at approximately 1345... anchored securely for the night 1400. N32°42.529', W080°10.966'. We traveled today for 6 hours and 30 minutes covering 42.0 nautical miles averaging 6.5 knots.

Slept in this morning till 0800... plans are to go to Beaufort, SC today and it's not that far so no need to get up before sunrise.

Was a nice day on the water... not too windy and sun out 90% of the time... was actually nice and cool... only down side were the bugs... so think they were collecting on the window screens... had to clean them off a couple of times as they were actually making hard to see through the screens.

A few boats passed us... mostly smaller recreational boats out fishing or just enjoying the day.

Currents were against us most of the day... occasionally we did get a boost in speed but for the most part we were running between 5-6 knots.

We arrived to Beaufort at approximately 1600... we were going to anchor but decided last minute to take a mooring ball... hailed the Beaufort City Marina and we had a ball assignment and happen to be directly adjacent to it's location... 5 minutes in to the ball... 5 minutes to get secured and we set for the night at 1615. N32°25.724', W080°40.809'. We traveled today for 7 hours and 30 minutes covering 45.1 nautical miles averaging 6.1 knots.

We pulled anchor and were back underway this morning at sunrise... 0730. Had a quiet and DARK evening on the hook. Very dark and the stars were out and filling the sky... it was beautiful!

Had twio sailboats in the achorage area with us overnight and they both left just before we did... we passed one of them but never did catch the other sailboat. We had the same Mainship "WildFlower" pass us and again wake us.... some boaters just do not get the idea of being courteous.

It was a short day planned only going to Isle of Hope Marina. Two years ago, we won a gift certificate for a free nights stay at the last MTOA Rendezvous we attended in Fort Pierce, FL. Have tried to use it several times and have never been able to get a slip... "Marina Full" every time we called. I think leaving early this year gave us the edge and we were able to get a slip.

Along with the free night we won a gift certificate for dinner at the Driftaway Cafe... so we will use the marina loaner car and have dinner there tonight.

We arrived to Isle of Hope Marina and were securely docked at 1045... N31°58.836', W081°03.350'. We traveled today for 3 hours and 15 minutes covering 21.2 nautical miles averaging 6.5 knots.

After we checked in at the marina office we took a short walk around the area... huge live oak trees with Spanish moss form a canopy over the road... it's just beautiful! Susan and Lily in the photo ahead of me.