On this trip, there were often two or three sailboats within sight of me, heading south on generally the same course.

Before my trip, I dried out the bilge. Imagine my surprise a couple of hours into the trip when I heard water coming out the stern from the bilge pump. It takes several gallons to trigger that. The holding tank was full. I filled the starboard water tank before I left. The boat was heeled over and bouncing. So which tank leaked?

I pumped out the bilge. The water and boat did not smell and the water looked pretty clean. Which leads me to suspect the starboard water tank, specifically the top area somewhere. No wonder it seems like it holds less water than the port tank. Something to look into.

Last night I had a dolphin run with me for a few air hops. They are powerful and graceful as they swim underwater and then make their arc over the water as they come up for air. My first hint that there might be a dolphin along side the boat was a misplaced wave slap. Waves slap the hull or break on your windward side, but they don’t make a slapping noise away from the boat on the leeward side. It was dark, with the moon setting behind a cloud (it was night, after all), so it was hard to spot right away what was going on. But when I did finally get a glimpse of the dolphin, it was very cool. And pretty brief.

We arrived early at the channel to Charleston. It was pitch black out ... really, really dark. Normally you can see a little something, but not this night. There were several freighters and pleasure craft in the area, which made things tense after two nights with little sleep. AIS helped clarify where I needed to go to avoid the big boys. We followed them into the channel. The channel is long, so daylight came as we made our way down the channel which actually starts in the ocean.

Our first choice for a marina was full. Our second choice meant going down a section of the ICW and under a bridge with a 56’ clearance. I need to get a better number for my “air draft”. Maybe it is 52’, not 56’. My 56’ number included a margin of safety and some estimates. It is very hard to look up and guess how much clearance there is between the top of your mast and the bridge 56’ above you.

It was pizza night on Pete and Sue’s boat. A welcome treat after our 38 hour trip.

Tonight I sleep - more than 30 minutes at a time! Next stop - Florida. But first some rest, sightseeing, and some maintenance.