Before departing this morning took a few minutes to patch-up the mast and VHF antennas. A couple of pieces of fiberglass rod across the breaks and some heat shrink tape took care of the two antennas... I bolted the mast solid in the upright position. This should take care of them for the rest of the trip.

We departed at 0800 with NE winds already sustained at 20 knots plus... by 0900 the winds were sustained 30 knots and gusts to 40 knots... then came the best part... RAIN... and MORE RAIN... and MORE RAIN... it never stopped... that pretty much covers what the day was like... IT SUCKED!

We had planned to make Beaufort, SC today but called it day at 1630 in Hilton Head Island, SC... Stopping at Skull Creek Marina just before Port Royal Sound. Our location for the night N32°14.697', W080°44.871'. We traveled today for 8.5 hours covering 53 nautical miles averaging 6.2 knots.

The short day yesterday allowed me to catch up on a lot of work that had been accumulating... worked all afternoon and later in the evening not going to bed until about 0100.

The wind continued to blow 20 knots plus all night and when the alarm went off at 0600 it was still howling outside... I did not hit the snooze button... I hit the "OFF" button and rolled over... slept in a little longer this morning.

However, with me working Susan had gone to bed around 2100 and when the alarm went off she was up and ready to go... So, she had everything ready to go when I awoke an hour later at 0700... all I had to do was get up, get dressed and start the engines. We were underway at 0730 heading out Jekyll Creek toward Brunswick.

We did have a few sounds to cross to day and it still very windy... 20 knots sustained out of the NW with gusts to 35 knots... and it was overcast and just not a very nice day at all. Surprisingly, there were some boats moving north and south... all larger yachts or trawlers... anyway, the sounds were fine... it was the approaches to the sounds that were nasty... they all were fairly long and running NW, so the wind was blowing right straight down them kicking up 3-5 waves kicking up a lot of spray that was pounding the pilothouse windows.

In the waves I found out that my mast had rusted out at the bottom... a couple off the 5 footers in a row and we heard a loud bang from the pilothouse roof... the mast had lowered itself with the rusted out portion giving way... not good... when it fell it also took out both our VHF antennas with it... breaking the 8 ft. extensions where they hit the edge of the pilothouse roof... I'll try to make some make-shift repairs to allow us to use the mast and antennas on the rest of the trip.

We arrived to Kilkenny Creek Marina at approximately 1815... our destination for the night located at approximately N31°47.314', W081°12.155'. We traveled today for 10.25 hours covering 62.5 nautical miles averaging 6.1 knots.

Woke this morning to 46 degrees outside... went to bed with the AC on and it switched to heat in the middle of the night... Susan had to wear her winter jacket to walk Beecha this morning... LOL

It was interesting getting away from the dock this morning as there was a very strong current that wanted to push SAILS immediately away from the dock as soon as any line was removed… but we made it away safely at approximately 0730 and soon were heading out Lanceford Creek toward the ICW.

The winds had howled all night long and were still steadily blowing over 20 knots out of the northwest. This would make the inlets rough as we crossed them... particularly St. Andrew Sound which is full exposed to the Atlantic.

Crossing St. Mary’s Inlet was first one we had to cross… it is fairly protected from the NW winds and it was choppy… 3-4 waves… no sweat! Soon after crossing the winds started to pickup… 25 knots sustained with gusts to 35 knots…even the ICW was rough on the NW stretches… approaching St. Andrew Sound on the Cumberland River we were seeing 3-4 waves… we opted to not cross the sound and take an alternate back router turning to port in to Floyd Creek just north of ICW marker 40. This is marked as an alternate route on the charts… it adds about an 30-45 minutes to route… but much much calmer… need to have a good tide level as there are a few skinny places that are less than 5 feet at MLW. The back route returns you to the ICW just south of Jekyll Creek… ICW markers 25 and 27.

Just before this turn we had a small 25 – 30 foot boat arrive at our stern… I assumed he would hail us to pass… NOPE… he stayed 300 feet behind us… I believe using us to break the waves and smooth his ride… he followed us into Floyd Creek and the rest of the day until we stopped and he continued north.

It was a nasty windy day and I really needed some computer time to catch up on some of the cabinet design and web work that had come in over that last few days… so we opted to stop early at Jekyll Island. We arrived to our favorite free dock and were secure at approximately 1300 at N31°02.545’, W081°25.390’. We had traveled for 5.5 hours covering 34.65 nautical miles averaging 6.3 knots.