A US submarine....not a great picture i'll grant you, at the time it looked in focus? Maybe they used some kind of jamming device....

So. Today's the day, engines are good, we are out of here!

We wake up to thick fog.

A couple of hours later than planned, we are out of here! Plan of action is to get out into the channel, get the sails up, have a thrash around and make sure we're happy with everything, head back to Cumberland Island in time for a cup of tea and before the rain starts. No problem.

We make a quick detour to do a 'drive by' for Richard's cousin so that we can prove we're actually in the water. They stand on the shore waving....we wave back. Then we head out up the channel, sails up, all is well.

After a couple of hours we turn around and head back in, we can see the weather coming so we're well ahead. We get to the breakwater and a US Navy Patrol Boat comes hurtling towards us at speed. Richard gives them a cheery wave but the guy on the bow with the machine gun points it directly at him and does not seem friendly, how odd? They hail us, ask us to "stand down"?? Wasn't aware we'd stood up yet? All is explained; there's a big ass submarine heading out up the channel and it's accompanying entourage and we need to do an about face and get out of the channel "at least one nautical mile sir". Yes sir!

We do as we're told, don't mess with the Navy, and head back out. About an hour later this bloody sub is still coming up the channel, we try to sneak in further down the channel behind it but the boat with the machine gun heads us off at the pass! And now it's raining. We hadn't put the dodger up because we thought we'd be at anchor by now, so now we are soaked to the skin.
We finally head back for what was a very cold and soggy night. Severely hacked off we skip the cup of tea and go straight to bed.

N.B. When engaging the US Navy, we have found that 'cheery waving' does not illicit a positive response.