Arrived safey yes, but it was a miracle.

What a day!! and What a night! One of these days I will do like my daughter who once in a while writes lists of the ten most something or other and write a list of the ten lessons learned so far. But I am afraid I may be needing a longer list.
Yesterday alone would have added at least five items. It wasn't that we did not look at the weather forecast, because we did. The skippers and Tom when he arrived, spent two days poring over weather charts to decide if we could go offshore.
It is true that we were all sick of the ICW - it had been extremely shallow - and that may have colored our interpretation of the weather forecast because we grossly underestimated the conditions.
We left Isle of Palms marina at 5:50 am. We had to make the Ben Sawyer Bridge which was four miles away and closes at 7 and only re-opens at 9. And we did. As we left the harbor and cleared the breakers the waves were 4 to 6 feet, not too bad but once we left Charleston and turned into our course, we were heading straight into them and the ride was miserable. First mistake, we should have turned back right there, but the weather forecast called for a wind shift in the morning from West to North, which would have meant following seas and thus an easier ride.
So we took the pounding thinking: "Ok, we can do this, it's just a couple of hours". After the couple of hours the wind had not shifted and we continued being punished but by then we were too far ahead to think of turning back and started to consider the inlets ahead for us to come in.
The next feasible one, was Port Royal in Beaufort. We would not arrive to the entrance until 5, we still would have to do another 12 miles up the channel and then turn into the ICW to find a marina. It would be pitch dark so not good.
The next possibility was a few miles down on the other end of Hilton Head where it would just mean a sharp right turn after the channel and a shorter ride, but still arriving at night and still having to find a marina in the dark.
But as we were discussing and pondering all of these options, the wind calmed down to around 6 knots and the seas subsided. The sun came out, everything looked good so faced with two not optimal options - which we should have taken- we decided to pursue our original plan and go on to Fernandina beach.
Bad, bad, bad decision. The winds which should have shifted in the morning to the North finally did so at 4 or 5. The forecast was 5 to 10 knot winds until midnight when they would go up to 15 to 20.
By 8 pm they were 15 to 20 and up to 22. On our back it's true, and following seas. But following us with a vengeance! Really big rollers that threw you off your seat if you were not careful - and Mike can attest to that.
At about two a.m . we were fighting to stay awake. There hadn't been a lot of traffic so we could relax. Then a big container boat hailed us out of our stupor to tell us it was bearing down on us. Tom managed to extract his course and speed and we scrambled to get out of his way as fast as we could. The ship did not make it easy because instead of pursuing its course, it stopped, so we could not figure out too well where he was bearing. Any change from the course we had been heading in changed the angle from which the waves hit us and if the waves were bad when they followed, the minute you turned a little bit into them they were nasty.
That woke us up and prepared us for what we knew would be the worst: turning into the inlet, at night, with 8 to 10 foot seas at a 90 degree angle, that would most likely throw you into the breakers if you were not lucky.
As we approached shore Juan expected the waves to subside, no such luck. And it was as scary as we imagined. I could not even look back at Sweet Tides. It was bouncing from side to side like crazy and I knew I was looking in a mirror. I was half expecting we would be pushed sideways all the way into the water and even wondered whether I should close the hatch to contain the water that would go in! (yeah right!)
The option of waiting outside for an hour until sunrise was too painful to consider, but would have been perhaps more rational.
We got to the red marker at the entrance of the canal and turned. As we feared the wave action was scary and we bounced and bobbed like crazy while searching for the next marker. Finally when we were between the breakers the water calmed down and we made it through!
I was really scared! and so was Juan who kept saying whenever a wave hit us: "I can't control it, I can't control it!". Luckily he did or I would not have been writing this.
Tom and Mike were going through the same, right behind us while Idette had been blissfully asleep for the last two hours, having endured a long shift and a 360 degree turn that made her face the waves and throw Mike off his seat! That is why she still looks radiant today!
We tied to a dock and slept until now. The weather is still nasty so ICW again tomorrow. Oh how I miss your shallow waters!!!
Photos will follow.