During the night the winds and rain had subsided. The forecast was for NE winds 20-25 knots switching to E winds at 20-25 knots... looking outside the winds did not appear to be blowing at all... this would be a nice change... :)

We departed from the docks at 0745 and headed out toward Port Royal Sound... 30 minutes underway the winds started picking up... blowing 15-20 knots and the they were almost out of the north rather than NE which would of been blowing directly down the sound.

An hour out and we were fully out into Port Royal Sound... and the waves were nothing compared to what we had anticipated after 3 days of NE winds over 25 knots... 2 footers and a long period between peaks... almost a swell compared to the steep short waves we had had the last couple of days... Hallelujah!

The satellite radar showed the area as clear of rain but we were getting this very heavy misty rain... looked like fog... it accumulated on the windows to the point it might as well have been raining.

We did see some boat traffic today... in fact one of them that was heading north hailed us as they passed to switch up to channel 17... he said Hello neighbor!.... Huh? it was one of the boats that was docked together us in Stamford last summer... 48' SeaRay named "Inspiration"... he was really surprised to run into us in the middle of nowhere South Carolina... we chatted for bit and he was soon out of sight moving much faster than us... small world!

We had current against us just about the entire day... slowing us down to 4.5 knots at times... did not see any boost until we hit the Stono River about an hour before we stopped... then we jumped up to almost 9 knots... nice way to end the day.

We pulled in to St. John's Yacht Harbor just before Charleston at approximately 1845. Traveling to day for 11 hours covering 70.7 nautical miles averaging 6.4 knots. Our approximate location for the night is N32°45.303', W080°00.667'.

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.