PHOTO ABOVE: View from the helm looking southwest just as the sun came up. It was a very nice and relaxing night sail with seas 1-3' and mild NW wind.

We made the 85 nm trip from Charleston to Beaufort in 12 hours. As we left at 1:45 am a pod of dolphins escorted us through a busy Charleston harbor. As we prepared to enter the main channel to the Atlantic we heard a loud horn and when we were turned around to see what where the blast came from we saw the very large container ship steaming towards the same channel at a high rate of speed. I always give big ships like this plenty of room. I spun Far Niente 180 degrees and headed away from the channel and we watched the ship speed out to sea. It actually worked out quite well as we could follow their course out a dark channel which at times had very confusing navigation marks. About 6 miles out we turned to the southwest and started our very comfortable sail down the Carolina coast.

Winds were 8-12 kts on the starboard quarter and we rolled out the full genny and motor-sailed most of the way to the entrance for the channel into Port Royal Sound. A 120 degree turn into the channel put the wind and seas on the nose so we furled the sail back in and motored up the Beaufort range, past the Marine Corps Paris Island, and into the Beaufort River. Our timing was near perfect as we had slack tide for about an hour and then the beginning of the flood for the final 1:45 as we pulled into Beaufort City Marina.

Our friends on Dalliance (IP 31) Kris and Shannon popped through the 2:00 pm bridge at Lady's Island and docked behind us. They had spent 2 days heading to Beaufort via the ICW. They joined us for a home cooked, land based dinner at Doris and Richard's home. They are now off to Florida via ICW and plan on visiting family and friends in NY before starting down the ICW towards south Florida. We hope to reconnect with them sometime this winter, preferably in the Florida Keys.