Friday, February 12, 2016

Ouch! That Hurt

We knew it was too good to last...

Of course the weather couldn't possibly hold out for 2 consecutive days on this trip for us to get up to Beaufort.  We pulled out of Charleston this morning at 6:45 trying to beat the weather.  Forecast was for seas 2 to 3 feet all day up to Surf City, NC.  Well they were 2 to 3 feet alright, but they were that big as we left Charleston Harbor and they did nothing but get bigger all day.

By about 9:00 this morning we rounded the Cape Romain Sea Buoy.  We set our waypoint for the Cape Fear River as the seas were building and we knew there was no chance of getting to Beaufort, NC today.  After all of 30 minutes, our off shore day was over.  The seas went from solid 3 footers to 6 to 8 foot seas in a matter of minutes.  It didn't take us long to realize we were not going to make Cape Fear and immediately turned to try and get in to Winyah Bay at Georgetown, SC.

Fortunately for us, we were only about 6 miles from entrance to the Georgetown inlet.  Trust me when I say it was all we could do to make it to the inlet.  We could barely see a thing with the windshield wipers going and the water and spray coming over the bow.  We got in and were glad we only had a short time in the slop.  Gail was very happy to finally see land and get in past the breakers.  (Trust be told; so was I)

We then made the long slog up the ICW from Georgetown, SC to Southport, NC.  We cover 182 miles today and about 1 million gallons of green water washed over the bow.  We got in around 4:00pm and were glad to be tied up.  Forecast for tonight is a low of 18F and high tomorrow of 30F.  Boy isn't this fun.

We have 150 more miles to go tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed that we make it.

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