We had a very productive day with our borrowed car. We got all our laundry done, shipped all our Christmas gifts out, and stocked up on food at the supermarket. We are now Piggly Wiggly shoppers - we even have our own Pig card! Bill even managed to find a Best Buy nearby where we were able to buy a good set of headphones for the computer so he can do the online Captains class he is taking without disturbing me. When we got back to the dock we found out the people on the other boat on the dock were coming back that night. When they got there they invited us over for drinks. Apparently that is how it is done when you are cruising. We ended up spending two hours talking to them. They are from the town in Rhode Island where we spent a couple of days at the beginning of our cruising life and they also have a house in the Bahamas that they take the boat to every winter. Rough life!

Spending the night on a dock is different than spending it at anchor. The boat moves differently. The real difference though is when it is time to leave. At anchor you just pull the anchor up and motor in the direction that you want to go. When you leave from a dock it is more complicated. When we left the dock on Friday morning the wind was pushing us hard against it. We could not get off the dock! We eventually tied back up and waited for the people on the boat next to us to wake up. When they did they were able to help us. It didn’t hurt that the wind was not as strong by that point.

It only took us an hour to get to the Beaufort, SC harbor. We anchored again and went in to check out the town. It was cute, and had some nice restaurants. The highlight of the town turned out to be the St. Helena Episcopal Church. The woman in the Visitors Center told us to go see it. They are celebrating their 300th year. There was a woman there that gave us a lot of the history. It was pretty fascinating. They also had a cemetery where Confederate soldiers were buried. There were even two British soldiers from the Revolutionary War buried there, see the picture above. We only needed one day to see Beaufort.

This morning we headed out with the goal of getting to Georgia before the day was over. Luckily we did! The tide was against us most of the day including when we were crossing the Savannah River with a huge ship coming at us. Luckily we were able to get out of the channel before he got too close.

Now we are at anchor on St. Augustine Creek. We were listening to the VHF radio and someone called the next bridge we have to go through for an opening. They thought the last opening was at 4:30pm and they probably weren’t going to make it. The bridge tender informed them that it was a weekend and there were no restrictions. She told the bridge tender “Oh we forgot it was a weekend! That’s what you get for living on a boat!” Bill and I had a good laugh. We totally understand that statement.