Day after Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a day for to be thankful we made it to a marina!! We left Beaufort on a balmy and sunny morning. Beaufort lies by the sea. The water is clear, it's full of pelicans and seagulls and dolphins and it smells fishy - in the good sense of the word. To leave it and go back to the ICW you go out to the very end of the inlet where the seas beckon. However we decided this was the song of the sirens since the forecast was for gale force winds in the afternoon, so we covered our ears, and eyes and nose and turned back into the ICW. In this area the waterway goes right by the ocean between dunes on one side and rows of houses on the other. The water is shallow and full of sand bars which shift with the currents. So one hour after we'd left Sweet Tides ran aground. Luckily after a few minutes it managed to pry itself loose. Two hours later again, this time they had to open their sail to get out. Then a couple more hours later - to make Sweet Tides feel better - we touched bottom, luckily just touched. But with all the delaying and going slowly because it was shallow we made it to Surf City half an hour before the bridge opens.
A friend of Idette's had suggested we stay at a marina before the bridge, we tried to get in but it was really, really shallow. Also we could see no sailboats, so this probably meant it was not getting any better inside.
As we idled waiting for the bridge to open, something happened to our propeller, Juan had no control of the boat and for a terrifying moment we feared we would be left drifting under the bridge.
While we were idling there, I had gone down and started to make cranberry sauce for our dinner, and while Juan was trying to put the boat in gear he smelled something burning he thought - and decided the transmission was gone and I had not even burned it the cranberry sauce!!
Luckily whatever was loose fell into place and we managed to make it through.
Six miles down there was another marina, I had called earlier but nobody had answered, Idette tried later and managed to talk to the dockmaster who told us we could come in.
As we were getting in we recognized it. It was the same marina we had stayed in on Thanksgiving in 2001!
We docked side to side and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner: turkey breast, the now famous cranberry sauce, stuffing, brussel sprouts and a wonderful crumb cake that Idette baked. A feast!!
Photos will follow when we get a better connection. Right now it's my blackberry.
The weather has definitely turned for the worse: wind from the North, dark clouds and colder. Fortunately no rain yet.