Well. We're here and glad of it. This morning at about 1030 the cold front that we were expecting last night came through with a vengeance - immediate shift in wind direction and increase in velocity, drop in temperature, darkening of skies, and torrential downpour! Barb was ashore doing the laundry and I was aboard Nelleke working on projects. She hadn't taken any rain gear with her, so as the good little husband that I am I immediately ran up with an umbrella so she could bring the laundry back without getting it wet all over. Of course that meant that the wind died down immediately. Oh well. The thought was there anyway.

I have reinstalled the inverter in the power system with some heavier wire at least as far as the inverter and to the breaker and fuse panels and now the shore charger is beasting in the power to the battery bank. Last night I discovered that the batteries were bubbling and had an immediate panic attack and began to disconnect the batteries etc., only to find out that the ones that were bubbling were still holding a charge this morning. Then I noticed that of our eight batteries the lower end or the ones that I was using for my 12V source were lower in charge. I had always assumed that the upper 12V would equalize with the lower 12V but I guess we were drawing too much off the lower cells. What this must have resulted in would be a situation where the upper cells were continuing to charge even after they had reached their maximum but while the charging system still thought that the bank needed charging since the lower 12 were still below capacity. Hence the upper would be bubbling merrily away while the lower were struggling to reach charge with a constant draw pulling off them. Live and learn.

Whoa there, Nellie! We just had a whole buncha excitement here on the dock. A very large private motor yacht was coming in to the dock and I was on deck admiring the skill of her professional skipper as he manoeuvred her against wind and current to gently touch alongside and her crew/guests as they passed the lines to the dock staff and put fenders over. Then it happened. One of the guests acting as crew aft had passed the line to the dock attendant who looped it over the dock cleat and then she (the crew) made her end fast to the boat. Then she was trying to put a fender down and when she found that there wasn't enough space between the hull and the dock she called to the skipper to move the boat away from the dock a few feet, which he did. Unfortunately since the dock line had been made fast, and equally unfortunately since the cleat on the dock wasn't all that strong it popped loose and the elasticity in the line threw the cleat at the crewmember and she took a major blow to the head. Yep, there was a lot of excitement. No one was sure if she was still alive. The paramedics were called. And eventually the boat was docked alongside with the lines wrapped around the concrete pilings and the lady was taken away on a stretcher to hospital. As the gurney passed by Nelleke I could see that the cleat missed her eyes, but only just, and that although her eyes were closed, I could see that she was conscious and in control of her motor functions. Here's fingers crossed that she'll be all right.

The promised high winds are here with a vengeance. I am definitely glad to be holed up here in Beaufort. On the further plus side, there is no rain so far other than the quick squall this morning. The dock here has been very busy with eight more boats arriving to sit out the weather.

Mary Lou and Jay from Screech as well as Barb and I went out on the town this evening for drinks and a nice light dinner. En route we were able to get a little more information on West Fraser, the artist whose painting I found in the woods on Cumberland Island. It turns out he is quite well known and an established artist with his own gallery in Charleston. If we can, we will have to look it up when we pass through there in a couple of days.