Rainy, foggy morning & I had to sidestep the puddles on the floor to make coffee. The rain came dripping down the mast again so I had towels all over the floor (we've gotta get that mast sealed) to keep it dry and a bucket under the mast that the drippings missed. It was a rainy blah day out but at least it wasn't freezing - temps got into the 50s so even with the rain it wasn't so bad.

We had plenty of time to get to the Ben Sawyer Swing Bridge and fell in line (3rd of 4) for the opening so I radioed ahead of our intention to cross at noon, but the lead boat slowed and by the time we got up there the bridge still hadn't opened. At 5 after, I radioed to see what the problem was. The Bridge tender said you guys didn't get up here in time to open the bridge, you missed the opening, and next opening is in an hour. Two of the other boats pleaded their case but to no avail so we all circled for an hour until 1:00pm. She'd said something about us not being up by the green sign, we didn't see a green sign anywhere unless she meant the green channel buoy of which we were all beyond that one, so I made sure that I circled fairly close to the bridge and then at 12:55pm radioed our intentions to cross at her 1:00pm opening. This was the first bridge tender that said nothing to us - move up, hustle up or ANY thing to us - until after I'd radioed to see what the problem was THEN she told us we missed the crossing time knowing we were all there in a holding pattern waiting for her to open the bridge. Nice, real nice of her. Not one boat thanked her that passed the opening but I think we all had the same thoughts as we passed through the bridge.

Charleston Harbor is a good-sized harbor - easy to get lost if you don't follow the buoys and we got into the City Marina around 3:30pm and tied to the Mega Dock. 3 of the 4 bridge boats (including us) are tied up here on the Mega Dock Mike & Judy (Sea Sharp) and Carol & Russ (Ziveli). I wasn't sure if Bilbo went on but one of the others said they thought that Bilbo was here too. I can't believe the size of some of these yachts - they're bigger than our house! They have "Mega Yachts" on the Mega Dock Yikes - I can't imagine the amount of money to purchase let alone use some of these floating palaces that are in the 100s of feet long! I'm glad I don't have to worry about the upkeep LOL. This City Dock is amazing - floating laundry and shower docks and unfortunately 50-amp power with no adapters available so we don't have power tonight. If they can find a splitter we're going to share it with Sea Sharp & we'll both have power - they're one of the Bridge people that came through the Bridge with us. I was going to go over and give them our boat card & chat with Carol but the border patrol was going over them (they're a Canadian boat and it reminded me of when we came back from Canada) I hope the border patrol weren't as hard on them as they were on us when we returned from Canada - Mike and Judy seem like very nice people.

We got a wonderfully hot shower then caught the courtesy van to the CVS and got our scripts filled. While there, Wayne discovered that he didn't have the backpack (it was left in the van) but when the van came back to pick us up it was still there in the back seat (whew - our keys were in it).

Made steak and salad for dinner and tomorrow we'll do the laundry and visit the town during daylight hours. I hope I can get some pictures of Charleston; the weather isn't conducive to carrying my camera around.

Pic is of Judy on Sea Sharp (one of the Bridge people)