Nightmare in Beaufort, SC!!

Ohhhh what a night. I hinted it might be uncomfortable – well it was a NIGHTMARE!! I went to bed around 9pm, then around 10:30pm I was awakened by a strong wind gust. I went topsides to check boat positions – I have never seen such a picture. All the boats were in motion. Some moving forward, some back, some upstream, and some down stream and constantly moving. I had no point of reference. I checked my anchor and I was fully forward of it!! The anchor rode was streaming to the rear of the boat. The wind was gusting to 30 – 40 knots and then it started to rain. The closest boat was at first a couple of hundred feet away and then suddenly just 25 feet away. He was swinging in a very large circle coming close to several boats. At one point he hailed me and I asked how much chain he had out – he said 2 anchors!! Ohhh boy he was definitely going to lay differently than the other boats. Then I heard him running his windlass and motor and changing all kinds of anchoring parameters – this was not good. I was going to have to stay in the cockpit and fend him off till the wind settled – ohh did I say “this was NOT forecast!!!”

Well others yelled at him and he was able to pull both anchors up. He tried once to re-anchor then moved to the fuel dock of the marina. I was thinking of that too just to get out of the way but I needed more than this to pull an anchor and move in the dead of night with so much wind.

Unbelievably it was like someone turned a switch. He tied to the dock and the wind laid down to an acceptable level. I went to bed 20 minutes once seeing no other boats were close to me and VOWing never to anchor in Beaufort, SC again!!

Boy this was just the final coating to a rather anxious day anyway. All that shallow water to negotiate – it was bad.

Today started out pretty nice except we could no leave Beaufort until 9am. The Ladies Island Swing bridge is on a restricted schedule in the morning. Once through we had an adverse current – under 5 kts – until we reached the Coosaw River then we FLEW – Current and strong current had us going 7+ and at times 8 kts!!.. It was great but only for about 10 miles then we had to fight the current again. The Ashpoo cut was horrible. Going through low tide we had 6+ feet is spots where it should have been 10. Then all along to the North Edisto River we had shallow water of 8 feet or so. Then again low tide was 1:30pm today so we had 4 hours either side to navigate these terrible waters. Just the luck of the draw!!

We are anchored just 26 miles from Charleston tonight so we should be in before noon tomorrow and NOT have to fight any lousy shallow water.

Damn we need a break. Looking forward to a few lay days.

Every day for the last several the NOAA forecast for tomorrow is 5 – 10 kts then it blows 15 – 20 with higher gusts!! As a taxpayer – I need a refund!!!