Leave Charleston for Beaufort, N Carolina
Shelena
Phil Scourfield
Sun 26 Jun 2016 19:22
24th June, 2016
We spent rather longer in Charleston than we had expected. First, we liked it there. The Municipal Marina was friendly and excelled in service. In particular, they provided a free van service to town, supermarket or chandlery. They also take you to restaurants in the evening and collect too. On site they bring fuel to your boat. Four times a week they have Happy Hour. With Southern charm this means free drinks and nibbles. None of this half price stuff!
But Charleston will long be remembered as the place that we watched the EU Referendum result unfold. Being 5 hours behind the UK was excellent. It meant Happy Hour until 1930 local time which translates to twelve thirty UK time and perfect timing to tune in to David Dimbleby. What a fascinating outcome. Glad I decided to buy plenty of dollars before the result! The result being what it is I have no doubt Britain will respond brilliantly to the new found independence. Nothing like tension and change to spark innovative excellence from we Brits. In my view the faceless undemocratic EU institutions have had this coming for years. The chance the EU had to initiate meaningful reform was not grasped.
Onwards to Beaufort just over 220Nm passage. We have had much thought on whether to make several overnight passages such as this or whether to go on a longer passage to get north more quickly in search of cooler days. We had two 72 feet Armed Forces yachts tie up next to us and ended chatting to servicemen and women. Indeed, we spent an enjoyable dinner with downtown at a bar called Prohibition. They were making for Hampton which is on our list too. At about 400Nm it is a good passage. No sooner had I plotted the passage and decided that is what we would do, when the weather intervened. A low depression is forming north and with it winds from the north which with a generally northerly current make for wind against tide which would means a choppy passage. No thanks. Not our idea of fun. So it was Beaufort next. As it happened on our passage to Beaufort we ran into a shore storm with winds at 46 Kts/Hr. The weather was determined to get us, but it did not last long.