Then there are the challenging days !
23 November 2016 | St. Mary's GA
Unfortunately, weather predictions are never perfect. The same can be said for ocean passages. While the passage to Charleston was near perfect, our voyage from Charleston to St. Mary's, GA was anything but perfect. Cold, more wind than expected, wrong direction and a rolling sea made the day and night a bit uncomfortable. This of course after forecast from Chris Parker, and checking all of the wind prediction sites.... all indicating calm seas, very little wind, We bundled warm, but with the wind behind us or off the beam it was always cold in the cockpit. The higher winds, at times near or above 20 knts from the east and northeast created rolling seas with at times 5-6 ft waves. Lucky for us it was one day and a night as we were both tired and exhausted as we entered the inlet channel at St. Mary's about 10 am this morning. The rest of the short run up the St. Mary's river was quiet and very calm, a welcome relief.
The sight rounding the bends into St. Mary's was really amazing, There are at least 50-60 boats anchored here for the Cruisers Thanksgiving. These events are really popular but we had no idea how many boats would show up. It was fun going to happy hour and an oyster roast tonight, meeting new people and re-acquainting with old friends. The ICW rally, sponsored by Sail Magazine, lead by Wally Moran was here with 21 boats, as well as friends from Oriental who are just "cruising around". Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and St. Mary's has gone all out. The little town is all lit up with lights, and the local yacht club and town provide ham and turkey, while all the cruisers brings side dishes. It will really be a thanksgiving celebration with more than a hundred boating friends!