I think Bud needs a break. More bridges today, and more channels and more groundings. There's been nothing serious, but Bud has bumped the bottom 5 or 6 times in the last couple of days. Bud has made 35 to 50 nautical miles every day for the last 10 days. He and Rick Samson did just under 60 nautical miles today. They have 2 more days to push to make it to Charleston. They are on track to get there Friday, but they can take an extra day if they need it.

The engine continues to run OK. Bud isn't finding any more leaking oil and the engine doesn't seem to be using oil. He ran it at 2600 rpm today and it ran fairly smoothly.

Today the bridges didn't work out as well as yesterday. They waited for at least two. While trying to wait in opposing wind and current for one bridge, Bud tried to make a circle keeping to one side of the channel. He kept a bit too much to one side and went aground but was able to back right off again. They missed the last bridge of the day, today, and had to wait 50 minutes. That put them into the marina right at dusk. There was shoaling reported at the entrance so he called ahead to make sure our 5' 10" draft would make it. The marina gave them directions and they never had less than 11 feet of water under them. At least that worked out.