We departed Charleston, SC before sunrise at 0630 hours and were bound for Beaufort. SC. We had a good boost of current with us for the first few hours but soon lost it... that was the way most of the day went... 4.5 to 9.3 knots... it seemed to be equally split slow and fast today. It was not as windy as yesterday and it was sunny all day... NO RAIN... :)

There was not a lot of boat traffic... a few sailboats and one steel trawler with Sydney, Australia as the hailing port... one sailboat we had passed yesterday leaving Georgetown, SC... its hailing port was Cape Coral, FL and we passed it again today just after leaving Charleston, SC... I feel really bad for these people on the sailboats... totally exposed to the weather... and it was pretty COLD this morning... low 40's... :)

We were cruising with an ebb tide... so most of the areas we went through were at or near dead low tide... very skinny waters in a few places... the cut that goes between the Ashepoo River and the Coosaw River was really thin... 5-7 feet all the way through it and we lost the depth sounder reading as we exited the cut and entered the Coosaw River... did not feel us dragging but we were inches from the bottom... all mud bottoms... :)

When we turned up the Coosaw River is when we had the worst current against us... we actually slowed to below 5 knots for a little while... but we were close to the tide switching from ebb to flood so it slowed and we eventually were doing almost 6 knots. Once we exited the Coosaw and entered the Beaufort river we had the current kick in our favor again and we held 7.5 to 8 knots all the way to Beaufort.

We arrived to Beaufort, SC at approximately 1430 hours and had hoped to dock at the small city dock just south of the Beaufort Downtown Marina... but, it was full... 3 sailboats filling the 140 foot floating dock... no FREE dock tonight...:( So, we moved a little further south and dropped the anchor at approximate coordinates... N32°25.801', W080°40.571'... safe and sound at 1445 hours.

We traveled today for 8 hours and 15 minutes covering 61.3 nautical miles and averaging 6.45 knots.

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 1068.71 nautical miles
Hours: 168 hours 11 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.35 knots
Days not moving: 12

Eager to get a good day of travel we set the alarm clock for 0600 hours... alarm clock goes off as set at 0600 and you can hear the rain pouring down outside... shut the alarm off and went back to sleep... no need to get up and try to get underway with this down pour of rain... of course once you're awake and anxious to get going... going back to sleep did was not really an option... so we got up and started the day... the rain stopped at about 0630 hours and we were able to walk Beecha... put the bikes back on the boat and we cast off the liens and departed the docks at 0730 hours... destination Charleston, SC.

It had stopped raining but the skies were gray and the wind was blowing... forecast was for 15-20 knot winds with gusts to 25 knots and it was everything that was forecast. We had intermittent rain most of the morning but nothing very heavy... winds were the biggest thing... the 25 knot gusts were over 30 knots most of the time and winds increased to a steady 25 knots all day long. The sun did come out mid afternoon and was a beautiful day excluding the wind. The ICW through this area is well protected from the wind and we did not have any issues with waves.

We did have quite a time with low water... several stretches where we had to slow to idle with less than 6 feet of water in the channel... it was low tide but I think the high winds were making it extremely low... all the docks along the waterway were high and dry with the boats sitting on the bottom.

We got to Charleston Harbor about 1530 hours and the wind and current opposing each other it was very choppy... 2-4 foot waves... but as we crossed they decreased to almost nothing once we got in the lee of Charleston waterfront. We passed the Charleston City Marina and there were a few mega yachts docked but nothing Elliott's Cut... we had a flood current so we were zooming through the cut... I had slowed down to 1600 rpm and we were still moving at 8 knots... love the boost from the current. We exited the Cut and turned to starboard out of the ICW and headed down the Stono River towards St. John's Yacht Harbor... at approximately 1700 hours we were securely docked.

We traveled today for 9 hours and 30 minutes covering 61.3 nautical miles and averaging 6.45 knots.

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 1007.41 nautical miles
Hours: 160 hours 56 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.26 knots
Days not moving: 12

The new coupling arrived via UPS at 1500 hours and by 1800 hours was installed and tested... working great... no vibration... so we will be back underway tomorrow morning.... :)

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 946.11 nautical miles
Hours: 151 hours 26 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.25 knots
Days not moving: 12