After experiencing our first little rain in Savannah we ran into a real rain storm on the way into South Carolina. The forecast was for a chance of scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday and one popped up just as we were crossing Port Royal Sound, a rather expansive body of water that you wouldn't want to be in with thunder and lightning, but we were. A sail boat that was ahead of us unfortunately turned back just before the storm started. I would have felt better with his tall mast out there to attract the lightning. I had just talked to a couple in the marina in Savannah the night before. They have had their catamaran in the marina for repairs for nearly a year after it was struck by lightning. It was such a direct hit that the gauges in the dashboard were blown completely out. Ironically, the name of the marina is Thunderbolt. As we were weathering the storm I was trying to remember how to calculate how close lightning is by counting the seconds before you hear thunder. I couldn't remember if it was 1 second equals 1 mile or 5 seconds equals 1 mile. I now know its 5 seconds equals 1 mile and I'm glad I didn't know it then because there were several strikes where the thunder was only a second behind. Interestingly though, there was no real wind with the storm, which would have made it much worse. And we survived.
The sun came out for awhile after the storm, but then it started looking dark and stormy again, so I decided another night in a marina would be a good thing and we pulled into Dataw Island Marina, which is just a few miles by land from Beaufort, SC. It never actually stormed again and we had a very nice dinner at the Sweet Grass restaurant at the marina.
On Saturday as we were cruising up to Charleston, SC I realized that today (Sunday) was Easter and Denise wanted to go to church, so we made another marina stop. This was the City Marina in Charleston, which offered a free shuttle, so Denise was able to go to Easter church at St John's the Baptist Cathedral in downtown Charleston. After church we departed and took a short detour up the Cooper River to see the aircraft carrier the Yorktown, which is now a maritime musem.
Ok, I didn't really take this picure, but the water damaged camera is not working again, so I borrowed this from the internet.
Another borrowed picture.
Since Denise joined me in Jacksonville, we've spent 4 of 5 nights in marinas. I'm not complaining though, it is nice to get air conditioning and its been pretty warm and muggy, even at night. Denise is being a good sport and has now had good practice at getting fenders in place and lines ready to toss to dock hands.
Tonight though, we needed to work on our anchoring skills again before we forget the routine and we are anchored in a marsh just off the ICW and across from the town of McClellanville, SC.
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