My Uncle Joe was gracious enough to pick Becky up at the airport and bring her to the marina. Later that evening, Uncle Joe and Aunt Jan had us over for a great dinner and a nice visit.

From here, I had to decide how to proceed with the trip north. The tides were such that travelling the "inside" route through the Georgia ICW was going to be tricky at best. The tidal range in Georgia is about 9 feet and there are lots of places that are prone to shoaling. Since the low tide was going to be around mid-day the next few days, it was going to restrict our ability to make good time.

I had been following the weather forcast for a trip off shore and felt that leaving right away that night was the best course of action. They were calling for S/E winds at 5 to 10 knots and seas of 2 feet. I sounded like a good opportunity to get off shore and bypass most of Georgia. (someday, I'll learn......)

Uncle Joe and Aunt Jan brought us back to the boat and we got underway just after twilight, about 9:00 PM. As we entered the ship channel, I noticed that the winds were a lot stronger than forcast and the outgoing tide was causing some pretty big swells against the wind.

By the time were were a few miles off shore we had already buried the bow several times and I could see BIG breakers in the shallows on both sides of the approach channel. I considered turning around and heading back inside but decided that things would probably improve after we got to deeper water and pointed the boat north.

The winds continued to gust well over 25 knots and we were still getting tossed around pretty good. I kept watching the occasional larger wave break over the foredeck and Norma just kept shedding the water over the side. When we were finally able to raise the sail and point N/E at the end of the approach channel it did lessen the pounding somewhat but it was still pretty rough. By this time it was just after 11:00 PM. That was a long two hours!

We motor-sailed though the night at about 6.5 to 7 knot. Every so often we would take a big wave against the starboard beam that would really rattle the rigging but Norma handled it just fine. Eventually, the big waves became less frequent and, when the sun came up, things appeared less sinister.

We followed two large container ships into the inlet at Tybee Roads and into the Savannah River. Here we got back into the ICW and entered South Carolina. We arrived at our marina in Beaufort at about 4:00 PM. It was a pretty intense 19-hour sail but we had put the Georgia ICW behind us.

I really didn't plan to make Becky's first overnight off shore sail quite so exciting but she handled it well and, surprisingly, didn't jump ship and buy a bus ticket home when we reached Beaufort.