Beaufort SC and Savannah GA

Friday morning the decision was made to hold tight in Charleston because we had 25 kt winds blowing us against the dock. By 9:30 the wind had calmed to 15kt, still blowing us against the dock, but the tide had changed and it was in the opposite direction of the wind and the decision was made by the captain to GO. After careful maneuvering and backing out of the harbor through a 50 ft. opening we were off to Beaufort SC. When we arrived at Downtown Marina the wind was blowing and the tide was running hard. We approached the dock at about a 25 degree angle and Stephanie threw the dock hand a line which he tied off to the bow. I swung the stern into the dock and another line was secured. The bow line was left long so we needed to bring in the bow. After 3 men (and no boys) pulling on the bow line and Stephanie running the 24 hp bow thruster, the wind and tide would not let it budge. We decided to just leave it there and pull it in when the tide turned in a couple of hours. We discovered after messing with the bow that one of our helpers was Todd Lanning from Life's 2 Short, with Brenda his wife whose blog we have been following for some time, but had never met them. http://btlifes2short.blogspot.com/ "It is said that we only have so many days on this earth.......but the ones you spend at sea don't count against you" Todd and Brenda quit their jobs, sold everything and started cruising for the next few years, then will return to work some day. We met them for dinner at 7:00 and exchanged stories and had a great time with them. We ended up leaving the restaurant at 11:00. When the bill came I checked to make sure they didn't charge us hourly rent on the table. We promised to stay in touch from time to time and meet up again somewhere on the water. I hope it works out because we really enjoyed them. Today, Saturday we left at slack tide 7:00 AM and headed for Savannah. (Thunderbolt Marina) When we arrived at the Savannah shipping channel there were 5 ships all jockeying through the channel (another traffic jam) and as you can see from the picture we squeezed through between ships. We arrived at Thunderbolt and had an uneventful docking, as the dock hand said, "a soft touch". Tomorrow we will finish the last leg of this trip and arrive at our home dock early afternoon. The trip was fabulous and we will have many great memories. It is going to seem so weird after living and loving every minute of life aboard September Song. She is such a great ship and it has been wonderful sharing adventures and life with the love of my life, my partner and my best friend, Admiral Stephanie. Keep checking back and I will keep you posted on the casting off of the lines for our next adventure aboard September Song.

September Song (can't wait for the next adventure) out
Bob


Two ships passing in opposite directions in the shipping channel to Savannah

Tight, but they made it

Ships in the channel as we cross on the ICW