We take a chance. I look at the weather on broadcast TV, and it seems like we can sail until mid afternoon before the heavy wind and rain sock us in, although we expect some bands of showers to hit through the day. Our anchorage here in Port Royal is not ideal, especially with its exposure to the Southeast. We weigh anchor by 8 am and set sail, with help from Mr. Pushy, down the river to the often treacherous Port Royal Sound. The winds are still light, and we push on to the Calibogue Sound. Despite a nice ocean roll, it's reasonably calm and quickly abaft. The clouds seem to be closing in on us as we make it through the many cuts and cross the Savannah River...the whole time with a huge barge and tug at our stern which never got up the speed to pass us. We lose it as it goes up to Savannah and we head toward Thunderbolt. We had made reservations at the Isle of Hope Marina because it has a free loaner car (2 hours!) and we need to take care of a couple necessities...propane and prescriptions. We're not sure we'll make it before Ida hits. Some gusts...some sprinkles. We arrive at the marina in heavy clouds and wait for the dockmaster to shift a couple boats around. The place is packed, and with parallel docks with huge boats such that one couldn't comfortably dock past the ends. At first we though he intended us to thread through the boats to somehow squeeze into a deep spot on the quay. Phew! He's moving the boat at the end for us to take its place. No wonder a lot of the boats have multiple fenders out on their open sides! We tie up, put up the rest of our rain enclosure, and the sky lets loose! Sheets of rain and 40 knot gusts. We are SO glad to not be trying to navigate, but less dock, in these conditions. We timed this one just right.
Long day as it turned out. We'll get the car tomorrow. Papa John's delivery tonight.