Hello everyone.

We left Beaufort Monday morning to head for Charleston. (Beaufort, SC pronounced Byewfort not to be confused with Beaufort, NC pronounced Bowfort) We left in time to catch the 10 AM opening of the swing bridge which opens every hour and twenty minutes past every hour.

Things were going along great-looking like we would be in by 6 oclock in the evening when suddenly we felt a bump and our boat then dug into the sand. We had grounded our boat due to incorrect charts which told us we had 23 feet of water beneath us when we really only had 4.5! A few really nice people came by to try to help but the tide was going out really quickly. We soon realized the only thing we could do was wait. 4 hours later our boat was free and we were able to float off the sand strip and back into the centre of the waterway. At this point we had to decide if we wanted to camp out in the swampy waterway on our boat or go out into the open ocean and get into Charleston late. (It is not recommended to be in the waterway at night due to bad markers etc.) We didn't want to deal with the mosquitos and flys so we headed into the ocean. Around 11 oclock at night we entered into the Charleston channel. 10 minutes into we got a call on the radio from 3 different captains piloting massive tankers in. On top of standing on and off since 7:30 AM now Walid was trying to drive the boat and avoid being run over by a tanker!!! By 12 we were in and happily anchored.

The next day was our two year anniversary! (July 7th) As a gift to each other we headed to the Charleston place hotel for a few nights. We had a great anniversary and a great time in Charleston.

We are now back on the boat and are planning to head to Georgetown, SC tomorrow and from there on to Myrtle Beach.

We hope you have had a great week and we are looking forward to seeing everyone once we are back.

Intracoastal waterway

Bird nest on a marker